In early June, NAAA joined the University of Tennessee Ag Extension Service in educating leaders of the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, state pesticide enforcement officials, state and national grower groups, and pesticide manufacturing leaders. The tour’s organizer, Kim Brown Pope, the Louisiana Agricultural Aviation Association’s executive director and a University of Tennessee Ag Extension Service specialist, invited NAAA to present an overview of the aerial application industry, its educational programs focusing on environmental professionalism, and its efforts to register pesticides for aerial use using more accurate aerial drift modeling. She also organized a site visit for the government and industry officials at Justin and Ashley Houston’s ag aviation operation, AirWorks, in Halls, Tennessee, with participation by JBI Helicopters’ representatives from JBI’s Lafayette, Louisiana, branch.
NAAA’s participation began with a presentation to the attendees at the Jackson, Tennessee, offices of the University of Tennessee Ag Extension Service. Andrew Moore, NAAA CEO (pictured at right), presented an overview of the size, scope and importance of the aerial application industry and went into detail about NAAA/NAAREF educational programs from PAASS to Operation S.A.F.E. to C-PAASS and how those programs, through substantive education, have markedly reduced accidents and drift incidents. Moore urged state pesticide enforcement officials to incorporate the safety programs into their commercial pesticide applicator licensing programs, particularly now that the new EPA pesticide certification requirements are going into effect, requiring states to have specific aerial application content as part of obtaining/renewing their pesticide licenses.
Dr. Scott Bretthauer spoke about NAAA’s pesticide (re)registration efforts with the EPA.
Dr. Scott Bretthauer, NAAA’s director of policy, education and safety, presented on NAAA’s efforts to (re)register pesticides for aerial use using the more realistic Tier 3 of the AgDRIFT atmospheric drift model that takes into account current-day setups, conditions, drift reduction technologies and techniques used in the aerial application industry today to mitigate drift.
AirWorks’ Justin Houston explained how he can modify the spray boom system on his AT-802 on the fly to reduce his swath width size.
The western Tennessee tour also included transporting the attendees to Justin and Ashley Houston’s ag aviation operation, AirWorks, in Halls, Tennessee. There, Ashley Houston gave a great demonstration of how she takes aerial application orders from their farming customers, checks FieldWatch for beehives and sensitive crops that might be nearby and the EPA’s BLT for endangered species that might be nearby. Justin Houston then explained the equipment of his Air Tractor 802, including his boom/nozzle reduction system to reduce his swath by 50% when treating near a sensitive area, and how his GPS and lightbar operate to perfectly align his swaths.
Representatives from JBI Helicopters’ Lafayette, Louisiana, branch explained how their Bell 206L LongRanger helicopter mitigates drift while making precise aerial applications.
Attendees then went outside, where Curt West, Tom Wolfe and Corey Fransen of JBI Helicopters explained how their Bell 206L LongRanger helicopter operates to mitigate drift yet make precise aerial applications. Fransen then piloted the aircraft atop the JBI Helicopters nurse truck, loaded the aircraft with fluorescent dye and flew across water sensitive cards and string where the Operation S.A.F.E. aircraft application calibration equipment was set up. Fransen was followed by Justin Houston in the AT-802, who demonstrated how the aircraft smoker and 50% boom shutoff system work and also flew across the Operation S.A.F.E. analysis equipment. (Watch the video clip of Justin’s demo below.)
Attendees were then taken back to the hanger where the string readout equipment and scanner were located to read the droplet size and efficacy of the applications that were made to the string and cards and were provided with how the analysis works to guide applicators to calibrate their application equipment to get the sweet spot droplet size and swath to make professional, targeted applications.
The field tour was a tremendous success, with a great audience of pesticide regulators, grower groups and pesticide manufacturers able to observe firsthand the professionalism and technological innovations commonplace in today’s aerial application industry.
From L-R, NAAA's Scott Bretthauer and Andrew Moore, with AirWorks LLC’s Ashley and Justin Houston at their hangar.
