No, they are not fans of the fictitious supersoldiers in the movies — Rambo is their family name. But as we'll see, during the operation’s history, they displayed a resilience similar to that of movie warriors.
Originally from the south Brazilian state of Paraná, Anselmo Rambo, the family patriarch, moved to Mato Grosso in 1984, and in 1992 established himself with his three sons - Juliano, Cristiano and William - in the city of Primavera do Leste. Juliano and William Rambo, the oldest and youngest brothers respectively, were the first to get involved with ag aviation, working as loaders for a Primavera do Leste ag operator to pay for their pilot licences. Juliano became a pilot first, while William got his private pilot licence in 2002. In 2005, he attended his ag school at the Aeroclube de Ponta Grossa, Paraná. That same year, William joined his brother Juliano as a pilot, flying for the same operation where they had previously worked as loaders.
One year later, in 2006, Juliano and William quit that ag operation and started a partnership with a large farm near Primavera do Leste, flying exclusively for them with a Cessna Ag Truck and an EMB-201A Ipanema. The following year, they bought a 1994 EMB-202, which became William’s seat, and this was until the arrival of their first turbine. This Ipanema remains in Rambo’s fleet to this day.
By 2012, the Rambo brothers were operating four Ipanemas for the farming operation, flown by Juliano, William and a hired pilot, the fourth Ipanema being kept as a reserve, when tragedy struck: Juliano suffered a severe accident. He barely survived it, and became unable to do any work due to the injuries sustained. Some operator families would quit the industry after such an event, but not the Rambos. Cristiano, the middle brother, took the place of Juliano alongside William, and in 2013 they acquired two Air Tractors AT-502s while selling two of the Ipanemas.
Two years later, in 2015, the Rambo family decided to fly for other customers, so they founded Rambo Aviação Agrícola, with two Air Tractor AT-502s and three Ipanemas EMB-202s.
Based at the Primavera do Leste airport, Rambo Aviação Agrícola had to deal with the reduced market for ag operators due to large farming operations buying their own ag planes. Once homebase to 14 ag operations, the Primavera do Leste Airport only has four active operations today. This is because, starting in 2008, most farms bigger than 12,000 acres have acquired their own ag planes, taking most of the work from ag operators. While many of those closed their doors or moved to other areas, the Rambos decided on a different strategy, spreading out to other regions and sending their ag planes wherever crops were to be sprayed, while keeping their homebase in Primavera do Leste.
Already in 2016, Rambo Aviação Agrícola reached areas in the Araguaia Valley and the Xingú region, ranging from 200 to 500 miles to the east and northeast of Primavera do Leste. And in 2019, Rambo Aviação Agrícola opened a remote base in Confresa, in northeast Mato Grosso, 500 miles away from Primavera do Leste.
Today, Rambo Aviação Agrícola operates throughout the east and south of Mato Grosso state, as well as the northeast and even reaches some farms in the south of neighboring Pará state.
When you look at the evolution of their fleet, you can see that this strategy paid off. Rambo Aviação Agrícola has practically added one ag plane to its fleet yearly. In 2019, Rambo bought its first Air Tractor 502XP. In 2020, when they already had four Air Tractors and three Ipanemas, Rambo Aviação Agrícola bought another operation, Agrisul Aviação Agricola, adding its Air Tractor AT-402B and Ipanema EMB-202 to the joint fleet. In 2020, Rambo Aviação Agrícola also purchased its first Ipanema EMB-203.
Today, Rambo Aviação Agrícola operates 19 ag planes: six Air Tractors AT-502s, four AT-502XPs, one AT-402B and eight Ipanemas - six EMB-202s and two of the newer EMB-203s. William Rambo is very fond of the Air Tractor AT-502XP, saying they’re much more productive as some of the fields Rambo flies are at over 2,000 feet ASL. He also praises the Ipanemas, especially the newer EMB-203 model, for being more adequate for smaller fields and a good entry plane for new pilots. Most of Rambo Aviação Agrícola ag planes have Zanoni spry systems, with a few having Travicar systems. And all have Ag-Nav GPS units, except one with a Travicar unit.
Rambo Aviação Agrícola treats mainly cotton and soybeans, with corn, rice, sunflower and chia. Most applications are made at 1 GPA using Microspin rotary atomizers. Travicar nozzles are used for the few applications that are made at higher rates. Their season starts in October with soybeans, and cotton applications start in January. Corn applications begin in February and continue until May, while cotton treatments are made until July.
In the off-season, Rambo Aviação Agrícola flies firefighting missions for private landowners. They equipped one of their AT-502s with a Turbine Conversions firegrate for this.
Rambo Aviação Agrícola ag planes only return to the company homebase at the Primavera do Leste Airport for maintenance, spending most of their time at remote bases or customers’ airstrips. This requires a support network of 17 large trucks, six pickup trucks and fuel tanks at some of the largest customers’ strips. It helps that family patriarch Anselmo Rambo runs a trucking company. Rambo Aviação Agrícola used to support the Ipanemas with smaller pickup trucks, but it is now replacing those with larger trucks. William says a large truck can carry enough fuel for an Ipanema to fly 50 hours - which happens to be its inspection interval, when both return to the homebase.
With such a large operation, it is no wonder that William Rambo had to quit flying ag and dedicate himself to its administration. Since 2020, he has only flown ag occasionally. However, he has an Extra 300 aerobatic plane and is active in the Brazilian aerobatic competition scene.
“We aimed to become an operation with ten airplanes, but we’re now at nineteen”, said William Rambo as he recounted the company’s history. It is clear that, with the help of his brother Cristiano and father Anselmo, the strategy of spreading out Rambo Aviação Agricola’s operations worked out very well for them.
