Lavender and AgAir Update have close ties with GAAA. In addition to being based in Perry, Ga., ag aviation’s only newspaper originated as GAAA’s quarterly newsletter. As a state association director Lavender helped produce the newsletter and sold advertising for it. He obtained the rights to it in 1988 and converted AgAir Update into an international newspaper dedicated to covering the agricultural aviation industry each month. To this day, all GAAA members receive a free subscription to AgAir Update, which has seen its readership grow to 3,000-plus subscribers around the world. AgAir Update Latinoamerica, a sister paper published in Portuguese and Spanish, reaches an additional 1,500 subscribers in Latin America. 

 

AgAir Update’s voice is informed by Lavender’s 27 years of experience as an ag pilot. That familiarity gives him a unique vantage point that shows in his writing. When Agricultural Aviation profiled Lavender in 2008, he said, “Aerial spraying or working in some part of the industry is all I’ve ever done in my professional career. The industry has been good to me.” 

 

In turn, he has been good to the industry. Lavender is a fixture at ag aviation conventions across the country and supports NAAA in several ways. His special NAAA Convention Show Guide has been a fixture each November and is an important promotional vehicle for NAAA’s Annual Convention & Exposition. More recently, he has graciously donated a monthly spot in AgAir Update to NAAA, which can be used to promote any topic or aspect of the organization that NAAA deems fit.