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September 20, 2023

An aerial spraying crew,
Wetaskiwin Aerial Applicators set up at YVG to spend a day spraying a few thousand farm acres in Vermilion River County.

The self-contained team brought the water, farm chemicals and jet fuel they needed in tanks on tractor-trailers.

Aircraft

Three powerful turbo-prop Air Tractor specialty aircraft were used, with tank capacities up to 1893 litres.

Each is equipped with GPS guidance for precise coverage.

Crew

A 2-person ground crew mixed chemicals as needed and loaded the aircraft.

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They flew all day, with rotating pit stops.

The crew said their objective is to
load and go in 5 minutes.

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Incoming

Load Up

Interesting facts:

• The bar with the red lights seen through the windscreen is the GPS guidance control.
• The transparent plastic cargo tank is located ahead of the cockpit and visible to the pilot below the dashboard. No gauge needed, the pilot just looks down to see how full it is.

Takeoff To Deliver

A local flyer observed that with the wind and temperature conditions present that day, the heavily loaded aircraft required a significant runway length for takeoff.

They needed in excess of 2000 feet of takeoff run to lift off,
and then would fly the remaining runway length in “ground effect “ while building up sufficient air speed to continue safely on their trip to the target field.

YVG’s available runway of approximately 3300 feet served the purpose well.

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County of Vermilion River farmers are fortunate to have the YVG option available when they need it. 

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