How fast is 200 feet a second?

I hope you enjoy reading in this month’s edition about Thrush Aircraft’s efforts to promote and demo the 510G. I first flew this aircraft in December 2010 and have flown it at least twice since then. The aircraft has come a long way from my first flight when its GE H80 engine had a PT6A-34 style three-blade propeller on it. 

Having flown the Thrush more than all other ag-aircraft combined, I find myself very comfortable flying it. Maybe I should say familiar, instead. In any case, I know every single one of those pilots that were given the opportunity to fly the 510G during the first part of the 2015 Thrush Summer Tour had an eye opening blast. It is well balanced and has plenty of power. Heck, I wouldn’t mind flying it again, just for kicks. 

Have you ever given any thought to the technique of turning on the spray valve? It approaches that of being an art in itself. Your ability can easily be proven with today’s GPS mapping. Some pilots open the valve with the manual spray handle, others with an electric toggle switch that operates the spray pump brake, while others may even depend on their GPS unit. In any case, most aircraft these days are traveling over 200 feet per second. Some estimates are while driving a car it takes two seconds to respond to an input that requires taking your foot off the gas pedal and applying the brakes. In an ag plane, that would be over 400 feet of travel, longer than an American football field including the end zones.

Anyone that can execute the on-off sequence in that short of a time span during one of the most critical phases of flight, entering and exiting the field, is a pretty well-coordinated individual. Actually, it is remarkable by any standard. However, professional ag pilots do it every day and within a couple of feet of the intended on-off line. Interesting…

When you read AgAir Update, undoubtedly you start to realize Brazil could be one of the fastest growing ag-aviation regions in the world. Just to give you some insight; as of December 31, 2014 there were 2007 registered ag-aircraft in Brazil according to the Brazilian Aeronautical Registry and ANAC (the Brazilian FAA). Most of the fleet is based in the state of Mato Grosso with 467 ag-aircraft. This is the central western region of Brazil with huge hectares of cotton and soybeans. Last May, I was there visiting an operation, Serrana, that had 14 ag-aircraft of which 11 were Air Tractors. The second largest state is Rio Grande do Sul with 420 ag-aircraft. This is a major rice growing region. The following states have: Såo Paulo with 287, Goiás with 239, Maharashtra with 141, Bahia with 102, Mato Grosso do Sul with 100 and the remaining ag-aircraft based in various states throughout the country.   

August also brings the first of some exciting upgrades to AgAir Update’s presence on the Internet. The debut of our new, fully interactive online classifieds gives the ag aviation marketplace a well deserved facelift, both in looks and function. The newly debuted classifieds have a wealth of features, from the ability to upload many, many photos, logbooks, spec sheets and video to selling your aircraft or ag aviation item in an auction-style format. Create alerts and compare listings, calculate a loan payment or map the item’s location. Access the new ag-av classifieds at classifieds.agairupdate.com or visit agairupdate.com and click on Classifieds. 

One last note, something for those who are in the midst of the spray season; fire is a terrible thing. Your hands are your best survival tool in an accident. They are not much good if the fingers are burnt off. I’ve seen ag-pilots’ hands in just this condition, lucky to still be alive. If you are not going to wear a Nomex flight suit, at least wear the Nomex gloves. 

There is another benefit to wearing gloves; the sun and its skin damaging ultraviolet rays. When you are young, you think nothing of this. But sun exposure is cumulative and when you are older the effect can be a killer, literally. Like so many, I did not realize this in my younger days. However, today after two blue light treatments to my face and the “barnacles of time” showing up on my hands, I am all too aware of the sun. I don’t leave the house without sunscreen being applied. My advice to you is wear the sunscreen and the gloves, each can go a long way to saving your skin in your old age and your life today. 

Until next month, Keep Turning…

What is the future for ag-aviation?

Although I cannot tell the future for ag-av any better than the next person, I would like to give you some insights that I believe will shape things to come for our industry. 

We live in a world with an expanding population, something like seven billion people. Even more important than the number of people is the fact that with smart phones and satellite TV, people realize they want to eat better than they did 10 or more years ago. Fortunately, agriculture has been able to meet that demand and relatively in an economically affordable way. 

What this means for ag-av is our services will always be in demand. Even more so as the pressure for high yields continue. The tree-hugger environmentalist actually work in our favor when they protect forests and wetlands from cultivation. It means we have to produce more food on less land. The best way to do that is incorporating ag aircraft in the plan for higher yields. 

Already, ag-aviation is ahead of most technologies. Our industry can easily meet the need of more applications. The difference in the future will be the accuracy and accountability of those applications. And, we can do that even before the future arrives. 

Our industry is fortunate to have sophisticated GPS systems. However, the units of today will not be good enough for the future. They will need to be able to handle more data, such as real time weather and different aircraft positions and record and relay that data to various sources. One of these sources could be a drone. 

Drones are feared to one day cause an accident. This, regrettably, will probably eventually happen. However, drones are not going away, they are here to stay. Our job as aerial applicators is to design a way to incorporate them into our business. 

Why can’t we, as ag-operators, supply drone services to our customers? Who better to manage their position and keep them away from ag-planes than those who fly the ag-planes? Maybe the drone can scout weather for us. Have you ever wondered if it was raining on a field 20-30 kilometers away, or which way the wind is blowing on that field? A drone scout could tell you this information before you loaded your aircraft for the application. 

Already, there are agricultural companies being formed to give farmers information about their crops before and after planting using drones. As aerial applicators, we have often called our customer to give him information about a problem in his field that we saw from our cockpit. That information has always been welcomed by the farmer. Now, we have the ability to provide that information in a more timely manner and record it by using a drone. 

Drones and GPS. What else is on the horizon? You never have enough horsepower when flying an ag-plane. Sure, it will fly with the certified horsepower rating, but hasn’t everyone wished for more horsepower on a hot day, flying a loaded aircraft from a short strip? Engine manufacturers are working to produce higher horsepower engines. Not only more horsepower, but the ability to operate on more affordable and available fuels, like ethanol and diesel. 

But, one problem with ag-planes in the past has been to add horsepower and not think about aerodynamics. I have witnessed firsthand with the GE H80 Thrush the effect of improving aerodynamics. Yes, the H80 has more horsepower than the PT6A-34, but that is not the only reason the aircraft flies as well as it does. Balance. Less weight. Propeller; all part of the aerodynamics of the aircraft that greatly improves its performance, even more so than horsepower. 

There are two STCs available today that extend the engine mount and reduce the ballast weight of the Thrush for the PT6A engine. As of today, I have not flown these two STCs, but I will later in the year in the U.S. during very hot weather. All reports so far are the aircraft fly as though they had more horsepower, when really it is aerodynamics. 

In the future, you are going to see aerodynamics play a greater part in our aircraft designs. Look at the new Ipanema 203. It has the same horsepower, but with a larger wing, different propeller and redesigned winglets; it should perform better.   

The last few years have been exciting times in ag-aviation. I began flying ag over 40 years ago. I have seen more changes in the last decade than all those years combined. I expect these changes to continue, making our lives as ag-pilots much safer, more profitable and even more exciting and fun to be an ag-pilot. 

In the future, we as aerial applicators will continue to evolve. We will be able to treat more hectares in less time. We will be able to do this more accurately, more cost effectively and also be able to prove our accuracy. We will use social media more to not only promote our businesses, but to better run them. Those ag-pilots who “hide in the jungle” will be left behind and not survive the future. Those ag-pilots that embrace change and use it to their advantage will be very successful. 

Remember, the people of the world have to eat and they only want to eat more with every passing day. The best way to meet that demand is with high-yield agriculture and ag aircraft are a powerful tool to accomplish that mission. The future is here, welcome it. 

Thank you