2007 WNAAA Scholarship Recipient Essays

Susan Crawford
Danny Prickett

 

Emerging Technologies in Aerial Application
By Susan Crawford

Bio: Susan Crawford is currently a 3rd year student of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Her emphasis is in Large Animal/Food Animal Medicine. A former pilot in the US Air Force, Susan owns and operates Crawford Aviation Services – an aerial application company – with her husband, Clarke.

Fifteen years ago, would you have thought you would have become so dependent upon your cell phone, your computer? Last year, after I lost my cell phone in the hay baler, I realized how dependent I had become upon it. Every time our internet service goes down, I’m lost without it. Technology has made great changes to all our lives and will continue to do so.

Some things will not change. Human nature will not change. Humans will always be error prone. But technology will help to minimize those errors by reducing fatigue and workload. Technology will continue to make agricultural aviation safer and more efficient in the years to come.

How will emerging technologies improve agricultural aviation? Let’s use our imagination. The following is a fictional account of a-day-in-the-life of an aerial applicator in the not-so-distant future…

Kent finished fueling his airplane in preparation for the first load of the day. The biodiesel fuel his turbine burns is more efficient than the old ‘dinosaur diesel.’ Plus he gets the added satisfaction of knowing his fuel comes from the same agriculture community he serves. None of his fuel dollars will be going to the Middle East. Interesting how terrorism has slowed down now that there is not as much money to fund it.

As Kent climbs into the comfortable, ergonomically designed seat he remembers those blistering summer days of heat rash from that terrible seat in the old AgCat. The fully enclosed cockpit with climate control in his new airplane sure reduces fatigue levels. As does the lightweight helmet with noise-canceling headsets.

Putting on his helmet and powering up the heads-up visual guidance system that displays data on the visor, Kent remembers how he started in ag aviation, as a flagger. Then GPS eliminated flaggers altogether. With his first SatLoc, he thought he really was on the leading edge. Those old style light bars were great, but now a 3-dimensional flight path is portrayed in the helmet mounted heads-up display providing guidance for each swath. GPS position is integrated with a terrain database and real-time terrain/obstacle avoidance radar information. Chemical flow rates are also conveniently provided in the margins of the helmet display, along with airspeed and angle of attack.

Fuel status and engine performance also appear on the heads-up display, but only if they fall outside normal operating parameters. Not long ago, the engine oil strainer bypass warning that flashed on his helmet display gave him time to get back to the barn before any severe damage was done.

Kent fires up the engine and heads off for the first job.

Along the way, he reflects more about the changes in ag aviation. Sure, pilot error still occurs, but with technology reducing both fatigue and workload, errors happen much less.

As Kent finishes his first swath and marks the turn to racetrack the next swath, he considers how solid state technology has even improved wing design. His airplane is equipped with a leading edge slat and trailing edge flap system coupled to an air data computer which makes angle-of-attack dependent adjustments to the wing. Turn radius is decreased along with G-forces. The days he’d drop flaps I the Air Tractor 301 when making heavyweight turns were over. And all the problems with those wing spar cracks…

Okay, that’s enough of the pilot’s dream airplane for now. Let’s look at how technology has improved efficiency of the aerial applicator from another important aspect, that of the office. We now join Kent’s wife, Cassandra.

Cassandra gives the verbal command into her headset to select the satellite voice link to Kent’s cockpit. The headset she is wearing is lightweight with excellent sound quality. She can go anywhere in the office or hanger with it. And she used to think cordless phones were an innovation.

“Zero from foxtrot, this is base”

“Go ahead, honey,” says Kent.

“Mel just called. He heard you fly over the farm and forgot to tell you he didn’t want that back field sprayed, after all.” Some things will never change. “He decided he wants you to put the product on the hayfield on his brother’s place.”

“Honey, I have no idea where his brother’s place is. Which brother are we talking about, anyway?”

“The younger one, but don’t worry, I’m uploading the map with coordinates now.”

The satellite link provides data as well as voice communications capability. The application map is directly downloaded into Kent’s onboard data manager. He enters Mel’s brother’s field as a new waypoint and turns towards it. Meanwhile, the map display shows the field – depicted with the latest aerial FSA survey – and Kent orients himself to potential hazards and sensitive areas. This step makes his actual ‘eyeball’ assessment of the field much more efficient – not to mention savings on fuel and engine costs – than the days when he had to count section lines while referencing a plat map to find a field.

While Kent is spraying, Mel’s little brother’s field, Cassandra check the weather radar for Kent’s next field. Looks like it will get rained out. Cassandra sees that the precipitation is localized to the south end of the county. Watching the storm track, she can see that the northern part of the county will remain dry.

She finds an order from north country that was scheduled for the afternoon and prepares the maps. With the longer range of the new aircraft, Kent can fly from one end of the county to the other.

Meanwhile, Kent has finished Mel’s order and has looked at his satellite-linked weather radar display to see the same showers that Cassandra had been watching. He punches the voice link to home base, “Base, this is zero foxtrot.”

“Go ahead zero fox.”

“Looks like the second job is rained out for now. How about that order up north that I was going to spray this afternoon?”

Cassandra smiles to herself as she hits the command on the data link to send the maps to Kent. “Sure,” she replied. “Here they are now.”

“Wow,” Kent says. “That was quick.”

“We aim to please,” replies Cassandra.

Kent heads up to the north county to spray.

Meanwhile, Cassandra has already data linked to the airplane and downloaded the files of his already completed work. She provides the grower with an application map – marked by the onboard computer as Kent sprayed the field – and environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and wind speed, at the time of application. Plus the invoice. All with a touch of a key.

In addition, the system automatically sends an email or text message when the job is complete. The grower can then log onto a website to check what was sprayed if he would like immediate access to the maps. Of course, there will always be someone who wants a hard copy via snail mail. Thank goodness they stopped making fax machines in 2010.

Cassandra reflects on how much this system has simplified their record keeping. Data required by the various regulatory agencies is easily stored electronically on the back-up drive, as well as the off-site server. Billing is much more efficient. No more chasing the pilots down between loads to ask if they’d gotten a whole field or not.

In addition, the system has proved time and time again quite effective in defense against drift claims. Recently, an organic farm had claimed that $50,000 worth of tomatoes had been made “non-organic” due to drift. (Hard to imagine people were still buying into that organic food scam, but some trends die harder than others.) The ground track, wind and flow rate data that the onboard system automatically recorded proved quite conclusively that the tomatoes to the west of the bean field Kent was spraying could not have been drifted upon with the westerly direction of the wind that day. Insurance rates had dropped accordingly.

Kent finished his job in north county and calls home base.

“Hey, Cassie. Why don’t we go out to lunch before the next load?”

In the old days, Cassandra would have been up to her eyeballs with paperwork. “That would be great,” Cassandra replies. The new technologies had really made things so much more efficient. “Could you imagine what the Headline season of ’07 would have been like if we had all this technology back then?”

“You know, I’ve just been thinking along the same line. We’ve really come a long way. Still, I would like a bigger turbine…”

Some things will definitely never change.

Twenty years ago, I would have not imagined the extent to which I now rely upon technology in my day-to-day life. Yet someone imagined it. And created all the technological tools we use today. At this very moment there are technologies to revolutionize much of the way we conduct our aerial application business. Some of these innovations are already available. Some just may not yet have been packaged and assembled in such a way to make it economically practical. But they will be. All it will take is someone with imagination.

 

Emerging Technologies in Aerial Application
By Danny Prickett

Bio: Son-in-law of Gaylon Stamps

In recent years there have been many technological breakthroughs that have made our lives easier and provided new opportunities for growth. We now have the ability to find our exact latitude and longitude through a Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled cell phone, even if we are sitting in the living room. Regardless of where you stand on the global warming debate, the fact that there is a need for alternative renewable fuels cannot be ignored. We have all seen the devastation and loss that wildfires can produce and it is evident that loss of property and life can be minimized if these fires can be quickly contained or prevented altogether. In this essay, I will outline how aerial application can benefit and prosper through the technological advancements in GPS paired with Geographic Information Systems (GIS, through the development of renewable fuels, and strategic advancements in firefighting.

GPS has been commonplace for many years now. Having used it in my Army days, I can speak firsthand of how wonderful it is to be able to enter a few waypoints into a handheld machine and then get turn-by-turn directions (even though there were no roads) out of the desert and back to the comfort of my tent. GPS navigation has enabled aerial applicators to become more efficient and productive in their operating practices. In addition to efficient navigating, GPS systems can now be partnered with GIS to gather data such as humidity, temperature and soil conditions. This information can be used by applicators to measure application history, yields and keep profit and loss records by field (University of Florida, n.d.). Since 1997, Rutgers University has been using GPS/GIS technology and black light trap distribution to predict when and where destructive pest populations are likely to occur. This information has been archived from 1999 through 2006 and pest advisories have been available on a weekly basis via fax, mail and internet thanks to this technology and the data that is has produced (Rutgers University, n.d.). The ability of applicators to provide this information for their customers is a valuable tool that can increase efficiency and reduce costs by concentrating resources on the areas where they are needed the most.

The next area that I would like to focus on is the need for renewable fuels, particularly ethanol production. In April of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency established the nation’s first comprehensive Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program (epg.gov, 2007). This was an important step toward meeting President Bush’s goal of reducing gasoline use by 20% in 10 years. This will be accomplished primarily through the use of ethanol and biodiesel, which are produced largely by American crops. What does this mean for aerial application with regard to ethanol? We are going to need more corn…a lot more. In 2002 the total United States cropland used for all food and fiber was 434 million acres. In order to produce enough ethanol to meet the energy content provided by a year’s worth of gasoline, we would need 482 million acres of cropland just for corn ethanol (remi.com, n.d.). While this will not be physically possible anytime soon, it illustrates the demand that the production of alternative biofuels will place on aerial application.

According to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, “The Renewable Fuel Standard offers the American people a hat trick – it protects the environment, strengthens our energy security and supports America’s farmers,” (epa.gov, 2007).

An example of how renewable fuels will benefit the farming industry can be found in Missouri. On July 5, 2006 the Missouri Renewable Fuels Standard (MoRFS) was signed into law. This law requires that gasoline sold in Missouri contain 10% agriculturally-derived ethanol. This requirement meant that a 280-million gallon market would be created by the MoRFS. The increased demand for corn meant that farmers could expect a five to fifteen cent per bushel increase for corn (Green Car Congress, 2006). This increased demand naturally means more business for aerial applicators as farmers are motivated to meet the new demand driven by the increased value of the crop.

In March of 2006 in the Texas Panhandle, the Borger wildfire burned 479,549 acres, destroyed 28 structures and killed seven people. The Interstate-40 fire burned 427,696 acres, destroyed 80 vehicles and 80 outlaying buildings and killed five people, including a fire fighter. The fires also resulted in the loss of thousands of head of livestock (noaa.gov, 2006). The economic impact of these fires to the farming and ranching communities was significant in addition to the tragic loss of life.

For over 50 years, aerial applicators have played a vital role in fire fighting in Australia and millions of dollars in assets have been saved by using agricultural aircraft for fire fighting (Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia, n.d.). While it is not at all implied that anything could have prevented or more quickly contained the Borger and Interstate-40 wildfires, the use of agricultural aircraft to contain wildfires is option that makes sense for a number of reasons:

- Highly skilled pilots and appropriate aircraft that are readily available,
- Agricultural aircraft are especially helpful with small fires like lighting strikes, and
- Having skilled pilots and appropriate aircraft readily available can enable quick and decisive action with regard to initial fire containment (Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia, n.d.).

In addition to the tactical fire fighting advantages that the use of agricultural aircraft provide fire managers, their use makes economic sense as well. Readily available, versatile aircraft are more cost-effective for taxpayers rather than spending millions of dollars on a single-role type of aircraft that could be lost as a result of a single accident.

Agricultural Aircraft are specifically designed to perform the type of flying that is needed to disperse fire suppressants or retardants. In contrast, it would require millions of dollars to invest in modern aircraft and delivery systems. It is not likely that individual operators would be willing to absorb that type of expense on the mere possibility of getting a contract or ad hoc agreement every once in awhile.

In conclusion, advanced GPS and GIS technologies, renewable fuel initiatives and fire fighting opportunities are all examples of emerging technologies in aerial application. The GPS/GIS advancement opportunities allow aerial applicators to diversify their businesses by providing informational services to farmers that they can use to target projected problem area in their crops. The farmers can then dispatch the applicator to focus on these areas. The implementation of Renewable Fuel Standards will create more of a market for the services of aerial applicators as farmers seek to plant more crops to support biofuels to meet the new market demand. This increased demand and increased crop values will lead to greater revenues for aerial applicators. Finally, further development of firefighting by agricultural aircraft has tremendous benefits for the communities, taxpayers and applicators themselves. The applicators have a vested interest in protecting the land that they spray from potential fire damage and the ability of aerial applicators to potentially save lives is something that you cannot put a price tag on.