Jerry and I like to take our dog Rosie riding down our farm turnrow and then down a gravel road, riding through more farms ending up in a beautiful dense forest of trees where we circle back. It’s almost a daily ritual and my favorite part of the day.
Recently, Jerry looked at me and said what is that smell? We drove by one of the rice fields and saw where it had recently been harvested. There’s something special about the cool breeze in the air and the smell of freshly cut rice.
Grain trailers are busy on the road, and combines are in the field. Yes, the season is definitely slowing down for our industry, but it’s time to let the farmers reap what they sew. It seems like yesterday we were looking up in the air, and Jerry was taking pictures of our ag pilot friends flying from dawn til dusk.
Many of our customers are still very busy working. However, many are taking a well-deserved break after working hard this season.
We are already scheduling some upcoming conventions and preparing the exhibitor forms. The older I get, the quicker everything comes and goes.
Every year I like to focus on a theme. The past season has been technology. We were very focused on helping make the flow a lot easier in the cockpit. We helped to easily transmit information back and forth electronically through the GPS systems.
Every new technology takes a lot of work. We worked very hard on it and still are. This is definitely something that is growing in demand and taking off. It is also something that is evolving and will continue to evolve. It takes work on both sides, including the GPS developers and our Chem-Man developers. Hopefully, we will have several more GPS companies getting on board by the next season.
The new theme that I have for the upcoming season is going to be safety. I am fortunate enough to give CE classes in several states, and this will be something I focus on. It is also something that we’ll be focusing on with our development with Chem-Man.
I am working with Driftwatch and trying to get them to allow users to put alerts that will show up for anyone using their system. This way, if there is something such as a new met-tower or windmill, highline risk, etc., these could be marked as obstructions, and the issue could be notated. This would make a huge difference in our mapping system, and pilots could be aware of potential hazards.
We are also working with a database of the highline wires in the USA to overlay our maps.
We have an existing obstruction option. However, this is only per operation. We are also thinking of having a shared option for this feature.
I’m looking forward to seeing our friends at the next conventions. This includes volunteers, ag friends and vendors. I wish we could go to all of them, but if we can’t make it, we try to at least support our conventions. That’s very important to me. We are all kind of a little family with a reunion each year.
Y’all stay safe!
