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a result of these accidents, NAAA won a hard- fought victory in seeing federal legislation signed into law in 2018 requiring rural towers between 50 and 200 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter be marked and logged into an FAA database acces- sible to aerial applicators. Prior to this legislation being passed, only towers above 200 feet were required to be marked.
To address other aviation safety, security and environmental professionalism issues, NAAA developed its annual PAASS (Professional Aerial Applicators’ Support System) program, an annual training program offered to all U.S. aerial ap- plicators. The PAASS program hit the stage back in 1998 and produces new educational material every year on safety, security and environmental stewardship. In that time, the PAASS program has successfully reduced agricultural aviation acci- dents by almost 25 percent.
3. How has the industry shifted in terms of aircraft?
The ag aviation industry has primarily transi- tioned to turbine engines (81 percent of the total fleet) from piston engines. Turbine powered air- craft are popular because of their greater efficien- cy, reliability and power. It has resulted in larger and faster ag aircraft being developed. This trans- lates to more acres treated, but also a decrease in the number of aircraft in the industry’s fleet and the population of ag pilots. Today there are ap- proximately 2.3 aircraft per agricultural aviation operation or a total of 3,588 aircraft nationwide. According to the 1962 FAA Publication “Aircraft in Agriculture,” there were 5,075 aircraft in the U.S.
The largest ag aircraft the same year were the Snow S-2 and the Ag Cat, each with maximum hopper capacities of about 300 gallons. Today, with turbine equipped aircraft, the average-sized plane is over 500 gallons with 600-, 700- and 800-gallon hopper-equipped aircraft quite com- mon. Air Tractor is currently working on FAA certification of an aircraft with a hopper capacity of 1,200 gallons.
GPS, in addition to diversifying the industry to make variable/precision applications and create aerial images, has also decreased the number of crew members needed to make aerial applica- tions and made it safer occupationally. GPS did away with the human flagger – a field worker that would use flags at the beginning of the applica- tion point in the field for the ag pilot to see to line up each swath.
4. What do you see as the future of agricultural aviation?
The future looks promising for the aerial applica- tion industry. The current U.S. population is 328 million people, which is expected to grow to 438 million by 2050, according to the Pew Research Center. Globally and domestically, that is a lot more mouths to feed, bodies to clothe and biofuel to power a growing population’s needs – all of which our farmers produce and aerial applicators treat, fertilize and seed. Aerial applicators will also continue to diversify. They will photograph and utilize more aerial-digital images to make precision/variable rate applications as agricul- tural sustainability continues to grow.
5. How is the industry attracting new pilots?
There are several ways in which the NAAA is working to attract pilots to the agricultural avia- tion industry. We have a great section on our website, www.agaviation.org, about learning about ag aviation careers. There are also several flight schools that focus solely on ag aviation. We pro- vide programs at our annual convention and state and regional aviation associations that answer questions posed by potential ag pilots about how to get involved in the industry. Our convention, as well as Oshkosh, is also a great place for ag pilots looking for work to network with operators hiring and vice versa. Ag pilots like the good pay and the seasonal work offered by flying in the aerial application industry because it allows them downtime to travel or take different jobs in the winter off-season months.
August 2020 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19