Today, I am taking a moment to pause; August 14, forty years ago, I soloed a C-150 after a week of preparation. It was the beginning of a forty-year career in aviation for which I have no regrets.
It was summertime in Fort Valley Georgia, only 10 miles from where I live today. My roommate was a crop duster. I was a 20-year old optician. My roommate kept throwing his $1,000 weekly pay checks on the kitchen table, knowing I would see them. I was earning less than a fifth of that amount. Obviously, if he could be a crop duster, I could, too. Never mind I had never flown a day in my life, except for a single one-way trip in an airliner to Cleveland, Ohio.
I would like to recant in detail how I got from a C-150 to where I am today. However, that would be more like a book than a blog. In short, I was able to earn my Commercial license 90 days after soloing, just in time to follow the season to Florida. I never got that seat in Florida, but I did land one in Georgia the following summer of 1974 flying a Hutcherson 235 Pawnee.
I flew three seasons in two consecutive years for three operators before opening a flying service near where I took those first flying lessons. I named the flying service, AgAir Crop Service. After owning several different ag-planes over the next 10 years, I ended up selling the flying service to my competitor, then flew for him the next 15 years.
Those 27 years of ag-flying shaped my life in many ways. I surely learned the meaning of hard work, going broke and figuring out how to get back on my feet again. Little did I realize those years were helping to lay the groundwork for AgAir Update.
In 1985, when I sold my flying service and became a pilot, I had time to look at other ways to supplement my pilot’s income. This eventually led me to turning a four-page newsletter into today’s AgAir Update that reaches all points on the globe in three languages. I had no vision for AgAir Update. I couldn’t type and I had never taken a writing or journalism course. However, I knew how to emulate those who could and that is exactly what I did until I learned the ropes.
Here it is 2013. Who could have dreamed I would still be at this game of ag-aviation. By all accounts, there was more than one instance while flying ag I should have killed myself. Like I’ve been known to say, “God looks after fools, drunks and Bill Lavender.” He did well and I am eternally grateful.
Much of the good fortune of these forty years is the direct result of my wife of 38 years, Sandy. Without her, God only knows what would have become of me. However, my good fortune extends even beyond her. Both my son, Graham, and my daughter, Casey, work with Sandy and me at AgAir Update. It is a blessing that only a few enjoy.
What is to follow in the next 40 years? In all likelihood, I won’t be around to see all of it. However, Graham has made great strides in helping Sandy and me with managing AgAir Update. I imagine Casey will become an important part of the picture, as well. My plan is to never quit this career, just not be at it quite as hard. Besides, quitting would entail giving up many lifelong friends in this business and lead me into a life of boredom.
Thanks to the Internet, you will have the opportunity to read this blog on my celebratory day, August 14. My family is planning a quiet get-together tonight here at home. We’ll look at old photos and have a toast to the past and another to the future.
Until then, Keep Turning...
Bill Lavender/AgAir Update
