AgAir Update to Brazil - Part Two

After a good night’s rest in Botucatu, my host, photographer and translator, Bruno Giraldi picked us up at the hotel for the three-hour drive to Orlandia, north of Ribeirao Preto. Here, we visited with Aeroagricola Chapadão, who operate five 375 hp Piper Brave aircraft with the IO-720 engine, three PA-25 Pawnee 235 hp and one 2010 AT502 with 600 hours logged on the past season with Chapadão. 

The company treats primarily sugar cane, literally located in a sea of it. Typically, two applications are made, one an insecticide early in the season and a ripening agent later in the year. The sugar cane is on a five-year rotation plan. The first year the cane is planted and cut each year at harvest and regrows from the original plant for the next season. After the fourth season, the cane is replaced with soybeans and next season the five-year rotation starts over. 

Antonio Carlito da Silva, Rogerio Veludo Riberio, Celio Rodrigues  and Thiago Magalhaes Silva were our host at Chapadaão. Calrito founded the company in 1969. Growing from three Argentine-built Pawnees to its current fleet. A second AT502 is scheduled to arrive in November. The company has a policy of paying for the aircraft before ordering another one. The first and second AT502s are paid for and a third one will be bought when it can be paid for in full before its delivery, eventually replacing the remaining fleet with AT502s.

Part of the crew of 25 employees during the season and about 20 full time, located in Orlandia, Brazil