The incoming President of the National Agricultural Aviation Association, Dana Ness, Ag-Air Inc., Chester, MT, talked with me about membership. He’s pretty excited to be taking on the job of President at the first of the year. When it comes to membership in the organization he says “Membership is my voice in Washington.” That’s very important when there are regulatory …
President of the NAAA Optimistic for Future
The 2012 President of the National Agricultural Aviation Association is Mark Hartz. Mark is a 30 year ag pilot from Arkansas. He has a two plane operation with a partner. Mark is very happy with the convention, attendance and the city of Savannah for being great hosts for the NAAA. When it comes to industry challenges Mark says they are …
Ag Aviators Dealing with Duplicate Regulations
Dealing with EPA’s NPDES and state pesticide general permits. Sounds daunting doesn’t it? Well it is for agricultural aviators. It is government regulation that duplicates already existing regulation and is something that the NAAA has been working on in Washington, DC all year and it looks like will have to continue to do so. To provide NAAA members with an …
The Women of the NAAA
The current President of the Women of the National Agricultural Aviation Association is Katy Diehl. We visited here in Savannah at the NAAA convention. Kathy is from Garden City, KS and is married to an agricultural aviator and is personally a banker. The Women of the National Agricultural Aviation Association (WNAAA) is a companion organization to the NAAA. Members are …
NAAA Annual Membership Meeting
The annual membership meeting was the start of today’s National Agricultural Aviation Association convention. The meeting started out with a comprehensive report from Andrew Moore, Executive Director. You can listen to some of the points he brought up here from the interview we did yesterday. One of the things in his report that caught my ear was a member request …
NAAA Convention Overview
Here’s Andrew Moore (left), Executive Director, National Agricultural Aviation Association and the opening breakfast keynote speaker Story Musgrave. Story’s story was filled with great anecdotes from his career as an astronaut with agricultural roots. He also had a slide show filled with unbelievable photos from space and different periods of his career. I spoke with Andrew after watching today’s Fire …
BASF/NAAA Scholarship Winner Kippy Foltyn
One of the two 2012 BASF/NAAA Scholarships was awarded to Kippy Foltyn of Lansford, ND. Foltyn attended Ag Flight Pilot Training LLC in Bainbridge, Georgia, and plans to continue his education later this year with plans to become an aerial applicator. While visiting with him after this morning’s presentation Kippy says he’s been involved with the ag industry for about …
BASF/NAAA Scholarship Winner Justin Mook
This morning BASF and the National Agricultural Aviation Association announced their 2012 scholarship awards. One of those receiving an award is Justin Mook of Wiggins, CO. Mook is currently enrolled in Enrich’s Helicopters Flight School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he is pursuing his commercial pilot’s license. He already has his private license and hopes to begin his agricultural pilot …
Fire Boss Water Drop at NAAA
When the NAAA convention was held in Savannah, GA two years ago this was a big attraction. It’s a Fire Boss water drop. In between ocean going tankers coming in the Savannah River to dock and unload we got treated again today to a Fire Boss AT-802F Air Tanker demonstration. The pilot performed multiple passes that included filling pontoons with …
BASF/NAAA Announce 2012 Scholarships
During the opening breakfast of the 2012 National Agricultural Aviation Association two budding pilots got a step closer to soaring over the fields of America thanks to a pair of scholarships from BASF and NAAA. Here’s Justin Mook of Wiggins, CO and Kippy Foltyn of Lansford, ND, with their awards presented by BASF’s Dr. Gary Fellows and NAAA’s President, Mark …