Farewell to 2005

by Bill Lavender

Every December AgAir Update publishes a culmination of its last eleven editions. It is an interesting journey. This year’s article begins with the January edition with its cover depicted at the top right corner of this December edition’s cover and moving from left to right, top to bottom, progressing through each month of the year.

January may be a cold month for most of the ag-av world located north of the equator. But for those operators in the Southern Hemisphere, January is often a busy time for aerial spraying. The January edition’s feature story is about JARBA and Smart Drop Technology that was developed in Australia by Peter Jones and is known worldwide. The article was born from a visit AAU made to Jones Air in St. George, New South Wales Australia. The JARBA boom is one of the latest technological advances addressing the issue of drift. While in flight, the boom can be rotated by the pilot. Pretty fancy stuff.

February’s edition of AAU announced the first type certificate issued to an aircraft manufacturer for the exclusive use of alcohol for engine fuel. Neiva, manufacturer of the Brazilian Ipanema ag-plane, now offers this aircraft to its customers, as well as a retrofit for used Ipanemas. Alcohol was a natural selection for an alternative fuel in Brazil. Since the 1970s, when car gas was rationed, Brazil has used alcohol fuels and to this day still offers it for sale at gas stations. Because Brazil is a large producer of sugar cane, a major source for alcohol fuel, it is a much cheaper fuel. Used in an ag-plane, it can cut fuel costs by 70%.

In the March edition, AAU visits Mid-Continent Aircraft Sales in Hayti, Missouri for an evaluation flight of the formidable Thrush 550 powered by a PT6A-60AG engine. The Thrush 550 passes its “tests” with flying colors.
In another virtual journey to Australia, in the April edition AAU takes its readers to visit Aero Professional Services, owned and operated by Hedley Watt. Hedley’s operation is an example of aerial application professionalism, making the effort to color coordinate all his aircraft, while at the same time, experimenting with the latest technology for the industry; a benchmark ag-operator.

Soybeans were planted throughout the South, with more plantings going in every day further north during May. There is a great concern for Asian Soybean Rust. Farmers in Brazil and Argentina suffered severe yield losses where the ag-plane was not used. May’s cover has an Air Tractor outfitted with Micronair Rotary Atomizers treating soybeans in Argentina.
Summer arrives and with it are rain showers that can sneak up on a pilot. June’s cover is a unique and beautiful site caught by Rick Reed’s camera (IL) with Harley Curless (IL) crossing the tarmac over to one of his AT-802s. A rain shower had just passed. If there is any truth to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it has to be Harley’s AT-802, “Yellow Gold”.

AAU’s July cover takes another dip south of the equator, but this time in the Eastern Hemisphere to Tzaneen, South Africa. Helicopter pilot, Eugene Kalafatis, aka Diesel Dog, treats the AAU reader to the trials and tribulations of spraying avocado trees with his Enstrom helicopter. Diesel Dog barely escapes mishap in one of the article’s photos, as he redefines the meaning of “chopper” with his helicopter coming too close to a field of sugar cane stalks!

In the heat of the summer, one of an ag-pilot’s most difficult tasks is making the spray land on the target. Heat works against his efforts with evaporation and inversion problems. However, David Eby (IN) tackles this problem in AAU’s August edition and hopes to increase efficiency and efficacy with the installation of a Spectrum Electrostatic System to his aircraft. Test applications were made over soybeans and corn with Purdue University scientist on hand to make the evaluations.

Not every ag-operation can justify a turbine-powered plane. Some operators move from the piston-powered craft to turbine power by consolidating two or more companies. This is what southeast Georgia operator Chris Strickland has done, featured on the September cover of AAU, allowing him to operate two piston aircraft, a Cessna 188 and a Weatherly for specialized jobs and a turbine AT-402 for larger jobs.

On occasion, everybody likes a short history lesson. It is intriguing to read just how far ag-aviation has progressed since the 1950s. There is no better storyteller than an ag-pilot with a first hand version, like John Freeman’s of Australia in the October edition of AAU. John takes the reader back to the late 1950s when he flew a Tiger Moth in the Sudan. It is amazing the man survived those years to tell his tales.

Bringing the 2005 year of cover stories to an end with the November edition is David Hrupsa’s First State Aerial Applicators working the fields of Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) and North Carolina. It is hard to imagine crops that require spraying are so close to Washington, DC, separated only by the Chesapeake Bay. This does create problems for First State Aerial Applicators and is an ongoing challenge for all operators in that part of the U.S.
There you have it, with the December edition a recap of the last eleven editions of AgAir Update for 2005. In the big picture, it’s been a good year for most everybody, or at least, a respectable year. Our accident and fatality numbers are up some, but so are the hours flown. Soybean rust never showed up, to many a pilot’s disappointment. But, as it is often said in ag-aviation, “There’s always next year.”

(For more details about any 2005 edition of AAU, or years prior, you can order AAU’s CD Library Archive for more recent years. See agairupdate.com or call 478.987.2250).