United States

Eight years ago, NAAA established the Kenny Hirsch & Brandon Carter S-2A Airplane Restoration Memorial Fund after Air Tractor President Jim Hirsch lost his 20-year-old son, Kenny Hirsch, in an accident. Kenny and his best friend Brandon Carter both lost their lives in a four wheeler-motorbike accident. The memorial fund...

What’s Happening with Dicamba Drift? By John Garr and Jerry Green, GarrCo Products Other than the news about the impending huge mergers, the biggest chemical news this summer has been about the large amount of drift from illegal applications of dicamba made on dicamba-tolerant soybeans. One reporter characterized it as...

NZ Agricultural Aviation Activity and Safety Update CHART Around 9,000 fewer agricultural flying hours have been reported for the first half of 2016 compared to 2015 in New Zealand. While some statistics returns are still to be submitted, it’s clear that there has been a significant reduction in activity in...

EPA Guidance on How to Comply with the Revised Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides. EPA in conjunction with the Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative (PERC) is making available a guide to help users of agricultural pesticides comply with the requirements of the 2015 revised federal Worker Protection Standard. You should...

SEMINOLE, TX—To say Don Kubecka was ready to take delivery of his new aircraft - the first AT-602 built by Air Tractor - is probably the understatement of the century. After learning in September of 1994 that Air Tractor was planning to introduce a new 630-gallon turbine ag plane, Kubecka...

Interpersonal Relationships One would assume the job of an agricultural pilot comes with absolute solitude. If you think about it, the plane comes equipped with a single seat (usually). The truth is that flying such aircraft is largely a group effort consisting of contributions from mechanics, entomologists and ground crew...

Editor’s Note: Often times, spectacular images appear in the many news feeds that AgAir Update monitors about agricultural aviation. Such was the case for these images captured by Laura Haywood of Mountain Girl Photography. Laura visually tells the story of Tri-County Ag, located in Wray, Colorado. Greg Allen, one of...

The Kansas Agricultural Aviation Association held its 2016 convention in Wichita, KS. See photos of the event below.

Comment Period for Sulfonylurea Herbicides Extended.   EPA has re-opened the comment period on the proposed interim decision for 22 sulfonylurea herbicides. The comment period will be open until November 14, 2016. To read this Federal Register notice, go to docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0774-0004 at www.regulations.gov. To submit comments, or access the...

NAAA and NAAREF’s premiere agricultural aviation program kicks off its 19th season of PAASS educational programs starting this month and continuing into 2017 at state and regional conventions around the country. NAAREF and its PAASS Program Development Committee strive to bring relevant and current topics important to agricultural aviation to...