According to the General Aviation Manufacturing Association (GAMA), Air Tractor, Inc. is the world’s top producer of general aviation turboprop airplanes. In its 2024 Aircraft Shipment and Billing Report, GAMA listed Air Tractor with 210 turboprop aircraft, with plans to produce 215 aircraft in 2025.
The results from the 2023 FAA General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey (GA Survey) have been released. Ag aviators flew a total of 1,108,645 hours in 2023, an increase from the 831,999 hours flown in 2022. There were 60 ag aviation accidents, including 12 fatal accidents, in 2023. The overall ag aviation accident rate in 2023 was 5.41 accidents per 100,000 ag hours flown.
Nebraska Aviation Trades Association (NATA) supporter, and NAAA staff member, Amy May, was honored this week with NATA’s Distinguished Service Award, which is presented by the association’s president each year. Amy was awarded for her contributions to NATA. Amy and her husband, Tom, have been longtime members and supporters of NATA.
Do you have a rising pilot within your ranks? Do you admire certain NAAA members’ outstanding service to the industry or their community? The aerial application industry is filled with exceptional people who go above and beyond the call of duty, often with little fanfare. Make someone’s day or year by nominating them for a 2025 NAAA Award. NAAA’s online submission form is easy and quick to use; nominate someone in just a few clicks.
The FAA has issued a new Airworthiness Directive (AD) for certain models of Piper aircraft which are not equipped with a rudder having a chromoly rudder post. This AD was prompted by reports of two non-fatal accidents (PA-12, PA-14) that were caused by broken rudder posts that structurally failed above the upper hinge in flight. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published the report Structural Failure of Piper Part Number 40622 Rudder Posts Made of 1025 Carbon Steel (NTSB/AIR-22-02, January 2022) investigating these two accidents.
The National Agricultural Aviation Association and National Agricultural Aviation Research and Education Foundation’s boards and committees met last week in Montreal, Canada, holding meetings simultaneously with the annual convention of the Canadian Aerial Applicators Association (CAAA).
NAAA is pleased to announce the 2025 Ag Aviation Expo Kickoff Breakfast speaker, Ray Starling, whose roots run deep in agricultural politics. Starling had his pulse on agricultural issues during President Trump’s first term serving as his principal agriculture advisor at the White House and as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue where he coordinated the execution of the Secretary’s policy agenda for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a $140 billion agency with more than 100,000 employees.
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