There are still several opportunities to attend the 2023-2024 PAASS Program this winter. Find a program at www.agaviation.org/calendar/ or contact your state/regional association. The PAASS Program covers the latest in aviation safety, environmental stewardship, and best security practices. Some states offer CEUs for PAASS Program attendance which goes towards renewing your commercial pesticide license. In addition, PAASS attendance is required to be a certified professional aerial application safety steward (C-PAASS) which may qualify one for insurance discounts amongst a number of other benefits. Most important, the program saves lives — ag aviation accident rates and drift incidents have decreased by nearly 26% since PAASS hit the stage.

 

The 2023-2024 PAASS program begins with a review of agricultural aviation accidents from the 2023 season. It also includes a discussion of accident trends seen over the 10-year period from 2013 to 2022. Studying agricultural aviation accident trends allows participants to better understand the causes of accidents, information they can use to prevent similar accidents from occurring at their operations.

 

For the human factors segment, PAASS takes on the subjects of stall spin accidents and overly aggressive flying. Participants will hear from a variety of sources, some with advice on how to safely turn an aircraft and others with a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when an ag pilot turns too aggressively. Fran de Kock of Battlefords Airspray in Canada provides both classroom and in-cockpit instruction on how to turn an agricultural aircraft safely, training to learn how an aircraft feels as it approaches a stall, and why agricultural aviation is not aerobatics. 

 

Segments from an updated version of the Turn Smart video from Air Tractor will display the four left-turning tendencies that impact a fixed-wing aircraft in a turn and how they can lead to a stall in an unsafe turn. A survivor of a stall spin accident will provide a glimpse of how severe the consequences can be when an aircraft is turned aggressively in an effort to get more work done.

 

Also featured in the 2023-2024 PAASS Program will be a review of the wire strike avoidance material covered in the human factors segment from the 2022-2023 program. Wire strike accidents continue to be the leading cause of ag aviation accidents. For this reason, a shortened version of last year’s material will remind PAASS audience members about vision science and why it is often difficult, if not impossible, to see the actual wires during an application.

 

PAASS  goes back to the basics in environmental professionalism – discussing the importance of spray droplet size and boom length. Using larger spray droplets and reducing the length of the boom are both proven techniques for reducing drift. The program uses graphics based on the AGDISP spray drift model to visualize how various droplet sizes move once they are released from the aircraft and how the release point along the length of the boom further impacts their movement.

 

To reinforce the importance of security at ag aviation operations, the program provides details on an incident where a perpetrator attempted to steal an agricultural aircraft. By learning about this incident, operators and pilots can better assess their own security measures to prevent criminals from stealing or damaging equipment and contaminating fuel and agri-chemicals. The victim of the attempted theft has a background in law enforcement which provides a unique and helpful perspective on the incident and security.

 

PAASS provides an update on FieldWatch, which has seen a dramatic increase in usage since its creation. It allows aerial applicators to locate sensitive fields and bees with their geography. An example of how ADS-B helped clear charges from the FAA for an aerial applicator.