NAAA delivered important messages advocating airspace safety and business and environmental professionalism to a crowd of 440 in-person and 200 virtual participants at the 2025 Spray Drone Users Conference in Mobile, Alabama, this week.
The over 600-person audience was 75% larger than last year’s conference, indicating a growing population of spray drone users across the country, and it also included a large number of familiar aerial application allied companies participating and exhibiting, such as Bayer CropScience and GarrCo Products, among many others.
NAAA’s presentation to the conference, delivered by CEO Andrew Moore, emphasized the importance of spray drone users to safely operate in the presence of crewed ag aircraft by giving them the right-of-way at all times, equipping with ADS-B Out technology, and monitoring radio frequency 122.925 for the presence of crewed ag aircraft.
Moore also emphasized the requirement to be licensed as a Part 137 operator and as a commercial pesticide applicator and to notify the authorities if they are aware of operations not following this and other such laws to protect the industry’s reputation from bad actors. He also emphasized that spray drone operators participate annually in the Professional Aerial Application Support System (PAASS) curriculum and spray system calibration and pattern-perfecting offered by NAAA/NAAREF, Operation S.A.F.E. Fly-In clinics.
Moreover, he emphasized that spray drone operators belong to and participate as members of NAAA for the crucial services they provide in registering pesticides for aerial use, which includes crewed and uncrewed aircraft, and the critical airspace safety services they offer. Many common national ag retailers, aviation insurance, and pesticide manufacturers attended, participated, and contributed at the conference.
According to the American Spray Drone Coalition, which also presented at the conference, 10.3 million acres are treated by uncrewed aerial application systems annually.
