Year at a glance, 2006

by Bill Lavender

Every December AgAir Update publishes a culmination of its last eleven editions. This is an interesting journey and a farewell to the year of ag-aviation in 2006. This year’s articles begins with the January edition with its cover depicted at the top left corner of this December edition’s cover, moving from left to right, top to bottom, progressing through each month of the year.

In December of 2005, Air Tractor unveiled the all-new engine ram air induction inlet for its AT-802 model at the NAAA convention. The January edition of AgAir Update had this good-looking addition to the AT-802 on its front page. In the last twelve months, the Air Tractor engine ram air induction inlet has become standard equipment for new AT-802s and AT-602s.

For aircraft already in the field, Air Tractor offers the engine ram air induction retrofit kit for the offset engine mount of the AT-802 and AT-602. Also, the kit is available for the straight engine mount for the AT-602. Air Tractor is working on developing a kit for the AT-402 and AT-502.

February brought to light how ag pilots are using computer models to enhance their applications. Much of the work for the development of the computer models was performed in the U.S. during the spray drift task force project. Author Andrew Hewitt returned to Australia after living several years in the U.S. to further his research at Queensland University. The article includes an in depth discussion about AGDISP and AgDRIFT technologies.

March’s edition covered the reintroduction of the Pijao aircraft. An Argentine company, Texlond, based out of Buenos Aires, is building the Pijao in Uruguay. The aircraft is an improved version of the Cessna 188 Ag Truck, once manufactured by Cessna Aircraft. A company in Bogotá, Colombia bought the manufacturing rights years ago and finally sold it to Texlond after struggling with production. Although there are no plans for this aircraft to be certified in the U.S., the company hopes to market throughout Latin America.

By April the winter firestorms on the southern plains of Texas and Oklahoma were over. April’s AgAir Update’s AirFire & Forestry covered the highly unusual event. There were photos of AT-802 aircraft with winter snow and ice on their fuselages. Millions of acres were burned, including hundreds of homes. The area was not prepared for such an onslaught. However, the venerable AT-802 proved its worth, along with the SEAT program. Every year, the value of SEAT aircraft becomes more evident.
May’s edition honored long-time ag-aviation pioneer, Jim McMahon. Mr. McMahon was instrumental in the development of the Micronair rotary atomizer. His company, Crop Culture, utilized ag-aircraft throughout Central America spraying bananas over forty years ago. Now, many of these companies in Central America, including Jamaica, are offshoots of Crop Culture.

With June’s cover, a Cessna 188, flown by Dale Bittner of Nebraska, came at the reader emitting dyed spray while participating at an Operation Safe clinic. Operation SAFE (Self-regulating Application and Flight Efficiency) has been an important part of ag-aviation for over 25 years. Because of it, most ag-aircraft can provide accurate applications for a variety of products and application rates.

A visit to Kosola and Associates brought forth a great article about Harold Kosola and his company in the July edition. For over thirty years, Kosola has been the icon for engine mount rebuilds and fabrication. With more than 33,000 engine mounts to his credit, Harold has helped the ag-aviation industry in numerous ways. A significant portion of the development engineering for turbine aircraft came from his efforts. He also may have indirectly saved the lives of many Pawnee pilots with his wing cluster STC.

There are many ways that an ag operation can separate itself from its competition. The best way is to do a better job at a fair price. In the August edition, Carroll Flying Service of Louisiana did this and made sure their customers could recognize their aircraft with the large Christian cross on the empennages. Barry Boyette flies the TPE331-10 Thrush, while his wife, Sandy, takes the photos. The results were fantastic, a good series of flying photos.

September AgAir Update brought the reader another husband and wife team who operate an unusual helicopter operation. Wyoming Helicopters tackled a seeding project during the Oregon winter. Ed and Bobi Nikolaus work together with Ed doing the flying, while Bobi ramrods the ground operations. This is another industry success story where a husband and wife work together.

With twenty-two years of ag-pilot training to his credit, Billy Howell, owner of Ag-Flight, Inc. added a dual cockpit turbine aircraft to the training fleet, an AT-503 with a PT6A-34AG engine. The only other dual cockpit turbine training ag-plane in use today is the DC Turbo Thrush of Flying Tigers Aviation in Louisiana. Now, students and turbine transition pilots can select the turbine aircraft best suited for their needs.

In recent years, author Alan McCracken has arrived at the spray analysis scene. With extensive experience evaluating low volume applications in Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, McCracken worked with a Louisiana operation, Angelino’s Flying Service, to prove low volume applications would work for fungicide applications in soybeans.
Using black light technology, McCracken was able to demonstrate smaller droplets (lower volume) offer superior penetration of the soybean canopy, dispelling the need for high-volume fungicide applications. His techniques have been proven in South America on Asian soybean rust for two consecutive years.

There you have it, a recap of 2006 with AgAir Update. Some operators had a disastrous year from poor growing conditions, while others had a better than normal year. Accidents were about on par for the type of year it was. For more details about any 2006 edition of AgAir Update, visit www.agairupdate.com for the complete cover story. Or, for 2006 and years prior, you can order from the web site, or call 478.987.2250, AAU’s CD Archive Library with its search function.