Bien Dia from Ecuador!

A couple of months ago, Grant Lane (often times a travel partner) asked me if I would like to accompany him and his Latin American sales rep, Pat Kornegay, to Ecuador. My answer should have been obvious to him, as of all the tens of times I had traveled to Latin America, from Spain to Cuba to throughout Central and South America, I had yet to visit Ecuador. Yes, when? 

Lane Aviation has a large customer who is based in Guayaquil. He needed to visit with this customer, as well as other operators. This is a perfect arrangement for me to meet AgAir Update readers as well as gather more operator articles. Another customer of Grant’s, Rob Price, arranged for him to meet Tita Costa Alvear, who has arranged for two or three more operator meetings during our travel. 

Setting up travel in Latin America is very different from other parts of the world. It is part of the culture to not be very specific. We Americans, at least me, want to know where we are going before we leave. When we departed the U.S., the only visit for sure was with a large ag-operator, AIFA. Tita had been sent emails requesting her help, but no response. We had three days set aside to visit, but only one operator assured, which would only take half a day. 

Today is Tuesday, our second work day in Ecuador. For trips like this, I like to travel to my destination arriving a day early to get my bearings and basically rest for the intense days to follow. We departed the U.S. on Saturday, taking 14 hours of travel to arrive at GYE, seven hours in the air and seven hours of layovers, etc. 

Yesterday, we had a great visit with AIFA. This large ag-operation has over 200 employees with both a flying operation (about 15 a/c) and sell chemicals to the banana plantations. During our visit, at AIFA, bumped into Juan Philips of TAD and Terry Humphrey of Thrush Aircraft Company. Small world, with none of us knowing the other would be in Ecuador, much less that day! Juan and Terry were there to provide training to AIFA pilots in the company’s dual cockpit Thrush. AIFA is in the process of opening an ag-school. There is a five to eight student demand because of a shortage of Ecuadorian pilots. Traditionally, only Ecuadorian pilots fly ag. 

Later in the morning, Grant, Pat and I departed from AIFA’s maintenance facility at GYE in the company Seneca for a short 20-minute flight north to Estrella. This airstrip is in the middle of large banana plantations with three competing operators on it. AIFA treats 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) from Estrella. This is only about a one-third of all the bananas the company sprays from five different airstrips. 

Time to wolf down some breakfast, then off to meet Tita and whoever the operators are she has lined up for us today.


Follow photos of the trip on AgAir Update's Facebook page.

Until next time, Blue Sky and Tailwinds...