AgAir Update – Ag Aviation's Best Read Publications

Our busy seasons 0
- Editorials
- February 1, 2019
Our busy seasons If you have not noticed by now, then you must have not “flipped” through the pages of this month’s edition of AgAir Update! Believe me when I say, “We didn’t plan it this way.” There is an overwhelming number of Canadian-related articles in this February edition. However, it could have not worked
Sliders — a revolution?0
- Editorials
- October 1, 2018
After more than forty years in the ag-aviation business, it never ceases to amaze me when a new idea becomes a reality. Of the many words that can describe ag-aviation, ingenuity would be one of those words. This month’s cover story, Sliders, is a perfect example. Just when you think that everything imaginable has been
Our losses 2
- Editorials
- March 7, 2018
Sometimes you don’t realize how important somebody is to you, until you lose them. It often takes a few days to understand what has happened. Unfortunately, at least four prominent members of the SEAF associations have passed on in the last 14 months. Eddie Andrews was from a multi-generation ag-pilot/operator family. He flew ag and

Fertilizer challenges 0
- Hands On Flying
- February 1, 2019
It’s usually the thing we lead off with when the season starts; truckloads of fertilizer rolling into the airport and being staged at various remote air strips across the country. The thing I like about dry work is it cycles quick. You’re flying a little higher, so the wires and trees are a little easier
Smooth Turns 0
- Hands On Flying
- October 1, 2018
We spend a lot of time talking about turns. Fast turns, slow turns, wide, narrow, low and high. We discuss in depth what a safe turn is and scold anyone who mentions the term “hammerhead”. As ag pilots, we spend an awful lot of time with one wing up and the other down. Mastering good,
Food 0
- Hands On Flying
- July 2, 2018
After I landed, I rolled up to the loader truck and spun the airplane around, watching the wing tip clearance as I did so. I set the brakes, flipped on the hopper light and leaned back to watch the milky substance gurgle into the airplane. A thought occurred to me, “I’m hungry.” A load of

The most insidious danger 0
- In My Opinion
- February 1, 2019
It was around 12:30 PM, September 13, 1971 (not a Friday), when I rolled my Pawnee up in a ball and spent the next four months in the burn unit at Fort Sam Houston Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. I had been a Navy carrier pilot, and was trying to build sufficient time to
A Few Incidental Comments 0
- In My Opinion
- October 1, 2018
It has been suggested to me by another ag pilot friend that I write about some of the safety-related items that we teach. A lot of this will be “old hat” to many of you or maybe more like “preaching to the choir.” I have been asked on several occasions, “How fast are you going
Reminiscing; behind the power curve 0
- In My Opinion
- August 1, 2018
I was fifteen years old and had my driver’s license for three, maybe four months. It was summertime 1955. I was a loader boy for Mr. Jimmy MacPherson (Jimmy Mac) owner of Mac’s Flying Service, a crop dusting service, not an aerial application business. We were located at Huggins Corner on Highway 82 across from