United States

The scenery is often spectacular when flying close to the ground, but there are many advantages gained by flying at higher altitudes. Communication improves, as does navigation (other than GPS). Convective activity often decreases. Flight visibility (if out of the clouds) and true airspeed both benefit from higher altitudes. But...

The 2020 aerial application season has taken a heavy toll on our industry. At the time of this writing, we have suffered nine fatal accidents, the highest number of fatal accidents since 2016. Several of these fatal accidents could have been prevented had the pilots modified risky behavior that resulted...

Officials with the Bighorn National Forest are moving ahead with plans to apply herbicide to large areas of the forest by plane, helicopter, or drone beginning next year. The plans were met with both support and concern from government organizations, environmental groups, and ranchers who use U.S. Forest Service (USFS)...

Olney’s largest employer is hosting a job fair this weekend for a variety of aircraft-manufacturing jobs. “Air Tractor is preparing for strong growth as the world’s leading manufacturer of agricultural and firefighting aircraft,” the company said in a release. The job fair will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday,...

One of the earliest ag airplanes designed and built by the founder of Air Tractor, Inc. will fly to the 2021 National Agricultural Aviation Association Ag Aviation Expo in Savannah, Georgia, after a lengthy restoration process. The Snow Aeronautical model S-2A, built in 1959, was the 25th airplane produced by...

Editors Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2005 edition of AgAir Update, and was brought back to our attention by our friends in New Zealand as a great refresher. The opinion of this author does not necessarily reflect the opinion of AgAir Update. It should be noted that...

Perfect Flight has debuted a complete pre and post-flight analysis platform that is compatible with a series of brands of agricultural aviation GPS systems. The Perfect Flight systems allow the organization of jobs before the day begins, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the workday. In the post-flight analysis mode, Perfect...

“We need to talk.” Those are cringe-worthy words, yet sometimes you really do need to talk. Not all “talks” are negative, though. For example, Transland called its first-ever Dealer Meeting to share important things happening in the ag aviation industry. “Talks” ranged from a patented weldless boom to the 802...