It is Thursday morning in Louisville, Kentucky. I am in my hotel room writing this editorial after a bustling two trade show days at the NAAA 48th annual convention. Everyone I spoke with about the convention, attendees and exhibitors, were pleased with the show. I know AgAir Update’s booth had a steady stream of visitors, and our cameras had an ongoing audience of smiling faces.
Of those operators I talked with about their season, most had an average year. Some were a little off and a few did better than in previous years. I have found that when an operator has several good, or extraordinarily good seasons back to back, then a normal season seems to be “off”, or slow; the excellent year becomes the norm.
One or two operators told me they had not attended an NAAA convention in several years. For some, as many as 10 years had gone by without attending. They admitted the industry is in a transition, a good one. A new generation of pilots are coming in, along with technology that is hard to keep up with, particularly for those “baby boomer” pilots. The new and younger generation do not seem to struggle with the challenges of evolving technology. However, the ag airplane still requires a talented pilot that even the best technology can’t replace. I hope we do not find ourselves in a techno-overload situation.
If you have heard it once, you’ve heard numerous times before; winter is the time to complete all the squawks on the aircraft and ground support equipment that you have put off during the season. When I had a flying service in the last quarter of the 1900s, there was a distinct time when the season started and ended. Except for some early herbicide and fertilizer 911 work on wheat, most spraying didn’t start in Georgia until the ground temperature was high enough to plant. After a “killing frost”, you could say that year’s season was over. Today, this is hardly true for a growing number of operators, particularly those in the Southern states. This means it is just that much more important to prepare for next year at the very earliest opportunity.
I know you will enjoy the January edition of AgAir Update. Be sure you read about this edition’s feature article about the Cascade Power Upgrade. Just as you can never have too much runway, you never have too much horsepower. The PT6A-42 engine is just the right amount of extra horsepower to make the AT-502 series aircraft a real performer under any conditions.
Sometimes, the obvious eludes you. The turbine Thrush has been around for over 35 years. During those years, lead ballast was used to keep the aircraft within CG limits. Of course, this added extra weight (in most cases about 300 pounds) that was leveraged, affected the way the aircraft flew. Personally, I have always liked the way a Thrush flies. However, I like the way the H80 flies without the ballast a lot better. Guess what? There are now two companies, Cascade Aircraft Conversions and Turbines, Inc, that have designed a new turbine Thrush engine mount and changed the prop that eliminates the ballast. Such a great idea. I have not flown these two conversions, but plan to sometime in 2015. I will be sure to let you know how they fly. Like more horsepower, less weight is usually a good thing in an ag-plane.
You will see Graham and me at many of the state shows this month. Please come by our booth and let’s talk ag-aviation!
Keep turning…
