Bill Lavender, former ag pilot and publisher of
AgAir Update, is celebrating 50 years in the aerial application industry in early June. In the early 1970s, he was an optician making $150 in weekly earnings. However, a roommate who worked as a crop duster sparked a change. The stark difference in their incomes, with the roommate earning nearly a thousand dollars a week, prompted Bill to pursue a new path.
He quickly earned his pilot’s license and progressed from flying banners and skydivers to active agricultural aviation flying as an operator and pilot in central Georgia. Bill became very active in the Georgia Agricultural Aviation Association (GAAA). Quarterly, each GAAA director took turns writing and sending a small newsletter called
AgAir Update to members around the state. Bill didn’t mind working on the newsletter when his turn came around, and he was good at writing. After realizing that charging ads would offset publication costs, Bill grew
AgAir Update into a southeastern regional publication. In 1988, he obtained the rights from GAAA and converted
AgAir Update from a newsletter into a newspaper. By the early 1990s, the newspaper expanded into the national market.
In the late 1990s, the newspaper achieved international status when Bill offered it to pilots crop dusting in South America, which meant translating the content to both Spanish and Portuguese. He retired from ag spraying in the early 2000s to focus on his publications. Now a glossy magazine, today
AgAir Update is distributed to more than 4,000 subscribers worldwide and continues to be a popular trade publication.
Bill has also been active as an exhibitor and sponsor at the NAAA annual convention and state/regional association conventions. He was one of the first participants in the 1996 Leadership Training Program and served on the NAAA Allied Industry Committee from 1999 to 2003. He was also part of the original six-member steering committee that provided oversight to the Professional Aerial Applicators’ Support System (PAASS) fundraising and development committees.
During his four-decade aviation career, he owned and operated over 15 aircraft, from AgWagons to Turbine Thrush and Barons. Bill taught his son, Graham, to fly at a very early age, continuing the family aviation tradition. Bill amassed over 14,000 flight hours and retired from general aviation flying in 2021.
Bill was inducted into the Georgia Aviation
Hall of Fame in 2023 and the National Agricultural Aviation
Hall of Fame in 2017. The NAAHOF is housed at the Mississippi Ag Museum in Jackson, Miss. Bill has also received the following NAAA awards:
- Richard “Dick” Reade Memorial Award (previously the Related Industry Award) in 1992.
- NAAA Falcon Club Pin in 2002.
Congratulations to one of the biggest champions of the aerial application industry on celebrating 50 years in our great industry.
