2013 WNAAA Scholarship Winner: Second Place
The Role Ag Aviation Has Played in Shaping My Life
Author: By Brittany Kerr
Author: By Brittany Kerr
Henry Ford once said, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
I didn’t grow up in a flying family. While I had a great uncle who was an ag pilot in the 1950s, my only experiences with ag aviation were admiring local ag pilots as they artfully flew around my family’s farm and a sixth grade field trip to the local airport for plane rides with our teacher’s husband, a local ag pilot. From that point on, I knew I wanted to fly. Secretly, I dreamed of becoming a pilot but assumed that this goal was out of reach without any personal ties to aviation. Instead, I settled for eagerly awaiting mornings when the buzz of a turbine ag plane flying overhead would signal the beginning of another summer day.
On the last day of junior high, I took my first solo flight in an unconventional manner. At age 14, I was involved in a car accident where I was ejected through the front windshield of the vehicle. This solo endeavor earned me a medevac flight to a local trauma center and left me with the realization that life is too short to be unhappy. From that point forward, I embarked on a personal quest to find a career that I truly loved.
As I neared the end of college, my mind began to fill with panic. Instead of being excited about moving on to Physician Assistants’ school, I was overwhelmed with dread. I couldn’t imagine another two years of school, let alone beginning a career I knew I wouldn’t enjoy. A week before college graduation, much to my parents’ dismay, I declined PA school admission and made plans to move home to the family farm so I could help manage our operation while my grandparents struggled with health issues. As a temporary job, I agreed to work in the office of a local aerial applicator while another employee went on maternity leave. That was in 2010 and today, I’m still here.
From my very first day on the job, I knew I’d found the industry I wanted to spend my career in. I instantly loved every aspect of the environment—the smell of jet fuel in the mornings, the sight of an Air Tractor on the horizon and the sound of a turbine engine on a summer evening. I began looking forward to waking up every morning so I could get to the airport.
To me, ag aviation isn’t just a career, it’s become a way of life. I went from being told that my dreams were out of reach and that agriculture couldn’t be a part of my career to being a private pilot who has the privilege of spending each day helping applicators and producers work to feed the world’s growing population. I went from feeling as if I’d spend every day of my working life in a job that I didn’t enjoy to making plans to devote the rest of my career to furthering our industry.
Most importantly, agricultural aviation has given me a place where I know I truly belong. For so many years, it seemed as if everything was going against me. I struggled to find my purpose and path. Surrounded by my airport family, I have been given the strength and support to face personal and professional challenges head on, using the skills I have developed in this industry to take to the skies with dignity and the reassurance that no matter how distant a goal may seem, it can be achieved.
In life, we all may follow a different heading and face turbulence from time to time. Agricultural aviation has helped me plot a course for the future and I can’t imagine my life any other way. ♦

2014 WNAAA 32nd ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY CONTEST: DEADLINE AUGUST 15, 2014