The 57th annual Ag Aviation Expo kicked off this week in Palm Springs with visitors from around the globe eager to network with more than 1,300 friends and peers, educate themselves at the 26 education sessions and improve their businesses by visiting with more than 140 exhibitors on the trade show floor. Attendees and exhibitors alike are enjoying the beautiful location, weather and welcoming community.

 

The Expo opened on Monday with a terrific Kickoff Breakfast address by Burt Rutan, famed aerospace entrepreneur and spacecraft designer, who has developed 49 types of manned (unclassified) aircraft. Rutan knew our audience well and kicked off his presentation with details about the only ag aircraft he ever developed, the Model 120 Predator. He developed this ag plane in 1984 and unfortunately, only one was built because the customer crashed the prototype. The Predator featured long span/swatch, the wing was optimized for canard down/up wash, which is a wing configuration in which a small forewing or foreplane is placed forward of the main wing of a fixed-wing aircraft, there was a jump seat behind the pilot, the structure was corrosion-resisting and the engine was a Lycoming 0-720 eight-cylinder 400 BHP.

 

Rutan talked about his aircraft Voyager, which was the first non-stop and non-refueled world flight in 1986, and SpaceShipOne, the first non-government manned spaceflight. Both now hang in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. 

 

 

Tuesday’s General Session explored the EPA’s pesticide policymaking process, adjuvants and mentoring new pilots into the industry. Ed Messina, Director of EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) presented about EPA’s enforcement of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in (re)registering pesticides and labeling them for aerial use. He also discussed agency efforts evaluating emerging technologies involved in pesticide applications. He also noted that the OPP is currently evaluating NAAA’s recommendations for AgDRIFT Tier 3 model analysis of aerial applications that take into account more realistic technologies used in the industry today and efforts to update the AgDISP model to enable even more realistic risk assessments of aerial applications. 

 

The second speaker was Terry Kippley, President of the Council of Producers and Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA) who spoke about the importance of the use of adjuvants and how adjuvants enhance a pesticide’s performance and improves the properties of spray mixture. He stated that the 2023 Farm Bill priority for CPDA is to protect pesticide use through increased adjuvant use.

 

The final portion of the General Session was dedicated to a panel conversation around mentoring new pilots in the industry. Moderator Damon Reabe of Dairyland Aviation in Waupun, WI asked the panelists to share their experiences in mentoring pilots in the industry, information about their training syllabus and finding new pilots. Thank you to panelists Bradley Reed of Reed Aviation in Iota, LA, Cameron Hendrickson of Hendrickson Flying Service in Rochelle, IL, Rod Thomas of Thomas Helicopters in Gooding, ID and Rob Aslesen of Airborne Custom Spraying in Halstad, MN.

 

More in-depth coverage of the 2023 Ag Aviation Expo will be featured in next week’s eNewsletter and the Winter 2024 issue of Agricultural Aviation. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from throughout the week below!