Mack Rushing of Strick’s Air Care pilots the 1996 Weatherly 620B over wheat in Evans County, Georgia applying herbicide at five gallons per acre. Chris Strickland, owner of Strick’s Air Care, in a Cessna Ag-Husky, is spraying Pix and an insecticide on cotton at 2.5 gallons per acre in Shirley, South Carolina.

Flying ag in Southeast Georgia

by Bill Lavender

STATESBORO, GA — The consolidation factor throughout agricultural aviation worldwide, particularly in the United States, has moved forward, increasing each year. Older operators decide to get out of the business, while others leave due to various hardships.

However, some operators seize the opportunity and strengthen their operation by using the consolidation factor to their advantage. Both small and large operations either become larger, or enhance their current size with better accounts. One such operation exists in South Georgia, Strick’s Air Care, owned and operated by Chris Strickland.

Strick’s Air Care was formed in 1998 using a 1980 Cessna Ag-Husky. It is one of Chris’ favorite ag planes, although now, through a consolidation of various customers from other flying services, Strick’s Air Care also has a 1994 AT-402 with a PT6A-15 and a 1996 Weatherly 620B. Basically content for five years flying the Ag-Husky, opportunity presented itself to Chris with the unfortunate passing of friend, Terry Carper, owner of Southern Ag Aviation. Mrs. Carper accepted an offer from Chris for Southern Ag Aviation’s Weatherly. In doing so, a significant number of Terry’s customers followed the Weatherly to Strick’s Air Care.

Most of Strick’s Air Care customers are in the southeast part of Georgia, near Claxton and Statesboro, with a sizeable number from across the Savannah River into the rural areas of southwest South Carolina.

In 2004, local operator, Jackie Brannen of Southern Aerial Applicators, also a large farmer, decided ag-flying was taking up too much of his time that should be devoted more to his farms. He proposed to Chris the purchase of his operation that included an AT-402 and the lease of a very nice 3,000-foot grass strip northeast of Statesboro, Georgia.

Chris knew that taking on more work, enough to support a turbine-powered ag-plane, was a big step. It wasn’t that long ago when Strick’s Air Care was a simple, one-plane, Cessna Ag-Husky operation with only him handling the flying and other aspects of the business. Now, he was faced with more logistical chores, efficiently keeping three planes in the air. That feat would require hiring two pilots.

First, Chris turned to longtime friend and ag-pilot, Mack Rushing. From 1994 to 1997, Chris and Mack flew for the Eure Brothers, a 50-year old operation in Southeast Georgia. When that company closed, after its founders retired, Chris formed Strick’s Air Care. From past experience flying with Mack, Chris knew he would be a good, capable pilot that knew the area and could easily make the Weatherly a profitable ag-plane.

Second, Chris realized he was now a turbine-powered ag-plane owner with little turbine engine operating experience. Although, Chris had flown this very AT-402 helping Jackie Brannen, here was a piece of equipment that held the potential to cover vast acres, compared to Chris’ Ag-Husky. However, the AT-402 also had the potential to eat up the profits of the company if it was not properly flown and managed. Chris turned to high-time turbine pilot, Dennis Nail, virtually requiring him to be his turbine pilot before he would execute the purchase of Southern Aerial Applicators.

Dennis, although only in his mid-thirties, has surpassed the 10,000-hour mark with the majority of his flight time logged in turbine ag-planes. He has flown for a couple of prominent aerial fertilizing companies throughout the Southeastern United States. Being from the local area, signing-on with Strick’s Air Care and flying the AT-402 over row crops was a natural decision for him.

Southeast Georgia is known for its Vidalia onions. Even though these special, exceptionally sweet onions require aerial applications, they are not the mainstay for Strick’s Air Care. Two-thirds of the applications by Strick’s Air Care are over cotton applying herbicides, insecticides and foliar feeding fertilizers. Other crops treated are peanuts for about 20% of the work, while the remaining 15% is tobacco, watermelons, vegetables, soybeans and Vidalia onions.

Every application, except fungicides, contains an adjuvant called DRP-955. This product stabilizes the droplet size and gives better performance of the application, working as a drift retardant and penetrator. DRP-955 is a product of Davidon, Inc. More information about it can be found at davidononline.com.

Application rates range from two to five gallons per acre, depending on the chemical being applied. Typically, the CP nozzles are set for the lower volumes on insecticides, while using the higher rates for herbicides and fungicides.

All three of the aircraft are outfitted with Ag-Nav GPS units. Also, each aircraft has a Lowrance AirMap 2000 mounted in easy sight of the pilot. This unit has a moving map display of roads, rivers and other landmarks. Chris has figured out how to make this unit work hand-in-hand with his DeLoren Map software, naming each field location with lat-longs, giving the pilot a direct flight to the exact field.

Each aircraft has a cell-set device that links the pilot to a cell phone, allowing him to talk with growers and extending the line of communications with the rest of the fleet. Chris considers the phone link not only improves the much-needed efficiency between aircraft, but also greatly enhances the safety factor.

Moving up from a single plane, single pilot operation to a multi-plane operation with two additional pilots and new customers is not an easy task for anyone. Chris Strickland accepts this challenge and wonders out loud if he’ll be flying his trusty Cessna Ag-Husky as much as in the past. Often, when an operation reaches the size of Strick’s Air Care, the owner can run the business more profitably from behind the desk than in the cockpit. Few die-hard ag-pilots want to acknowledge this, seeing his love for flying become curtailed. However, profitability is the name of the game. In the case of Strick’s Air Care, efficiency will be paramount and that will take a good dose of creative thinking. With Chris’ open mindedness about the effects of consolidation, creative thinking shouldn’t be a problem.