Ten days in Brazil

A couple of weeks ago I visited Brazil where I was a guest speaker at the national Brazilian ag-pilots’ convention in Ribeirao Preto, about 100 miles north of Sao Paulo. Afterwards, I traveled a few hundred miles south to Porto Alegre to visit with my longtime Brazilian friend, consultant and translator, Ernesto Franzen. From Porto Alegre, I traveled about halfway across the country westward towards Uruguay to Cachoeira do Sul to visit with my printer for AgAir Update Latinoamerica and my Brazilian representative, Gina Hickmann. 

I’ve made many trips to South America with at least half of them to Brazil, enough to fill a couple of passport books. Brazil is the only South American country to require a visa, if you don’t count Bolivia where they “issue” you a visa upon arrival for a mere $100. Obtaining a Brazilian visa can be challenging. There are tourist and business versions. Ideally, a five-year business visa is the best option, but in the past, I’ve been issued business visas for as short as 90-days. The last visa, fortunately, was for five years, except my passport expired the first year of the visa. So, I was a bit anxious using a current passport without a visa and an expired passport with a current visa. All turned out fine with some explaining. 

Brazilian ag-aviation is growing in leaps and bounds. The country is nearly as large as the U.S. and has the potential to have as much arable land as any country in the world, with the exceptions of maybe Russia and China. Farming is very modernized and therefore agricultural aviation is an integral part of it. In years past, piston powered aircraft dominated the ag-aviation fleet. That is rapidly changing as more turbine powered aircraft are being delivered to Brazilian operators. 

With this growth comes the need for unity and education. Their national organization, SINDAG (similar to the U.S.‘s NAAA) plays that role. The organization is experiencing some of the problems the U.S. industry had several years ago with safety and drift issues. Like the NAAA, SINDAG is offering courses to educate operators. Although its annual trade show is smaller than NAAA’s, there were over 40 exhibitors and several hundred ag-pilots in attendance. 

As my journey continued to Porto Alegre, I was eager to visit with Ernesto. He flew ag for about 10 years before deciding he preferred a different profession. Today, he is a federal highway police captain. He has about 60 officers under his command, patrolling the federal highways between Porto Alegre and Cachoeira do Sul. After an excellent charrascaria dinner (Brazilian BBQ) and a night’s rest, Ernesto drove me to Cachoeira do Sul. Along the way, I was able to visit with some of his officers at one of the Policia Rodoviaria Federal outposts. Because of the potential of encountering some very tough characters, the federal police are highly trained and have sophisticated equipment. I was impressed.
  
The last phase of my journey brought me to Cachoeira do Sul. To this day, I have difficulties pronouncing the name of the city and won’t even try a phonetic spelling. Gina, my Brazilian rep for at least eight years, lives in the city with her family. She has three sons. One is a dentist, another a lawyer and the third and youngest is in medical school. Her husband, Inho, owns a plumbing supply store. 

Fortunately, a very reputable printing company is based in Cachoeira do Sul, the Jornal do Povo (yes, I spelled Jornal correctly). The Jornal has been printing AgAir Update Latinoamerica for about three years. The last printing was a major change for the printer. I requested a different size and type of paper and format with trimmed edges. You can’t imagine the difficulty in working through the differences in English and Portuguese languages. Even though Gina’s “other” job is a grade school principal and English teacher, it is extremely difficult to translate trade terms like “printing to the bleed”. It simply doesn’t translate. Imagine the visual of newsprint bleeding, when it actually means printing to the edge of the paper without a margin. 

The Jornal did an excellent job. Now AgAir Update Latinoamerica looks very much like its sister publication, AgAir Update. This new format has been received well in Brazil and other Latin countries, like it was in the U.S. last November when I changed the format of AgAir Update’s English version.

I couldn’t travel from central Brazil to its southern tip without a couple of visits to other ag-aviation companies. One of the visits was to a special charrascaria BBQ at Aero Agricolas Santos Dumont that is a school for ag-pilots. In Brazil, it is a requirement to graduate from an accredited ag-flying school before flying ag. Here, I gave a short speech congratulating the five graduates, of which one was from Angola. 

A second visit was to a very progressive flying service, Itagro. This company operates a fleet of Brazilian Ipanema ag-aircraft, but has recently bought a new AT-402B. Its owner, Camargo, is looking forward to operating the turbine powered plane and plans to add more to his operation. 

Itagro is a model flying service by any world standard. The hangar is extremely clean and well organized. The loading and fueling areas are immaculate. There is a control center where the operations manager can view incoming ground traffic as well as loading and fueling operations for the aircraft. Camargo’s office is adjacent, with an apartment suite for him and his wife during the busy season. Watch future editions of AgAir Update for more about this excellent operation. 

After 10 days in Brazil, I was ready to return home. This was not as easy as it may seem. First, there was a four-hour drive from Itagro back to Cachoeira do Sul, then another three-hour drive to Porto Alegre where I caught the first of four different flights home arriving about 30 hours later. I’m glad I don’t travel that far every month, however, I do head back to Uruguay in August. 

Until next time, Blue Sky and Tailwinds...