50 years of promoting aerial application

Starting as most associations do as a small group of like-minded operators, the association has grown to its current position with its own offices, professional staff and a solid reputation for delivering for its members.

Whenever there has been a major crisis in air ag, AAAA has been at the forefront, educating bureaucrats who have absolutely no knowledge of what they are seeking to regulate, lobbying politicians for sensible outcomes and working with members to raise standards and promote the industry.

Few sectors could have withstood the changes of the last 50 years without an association as strong as AAAA.

And why is AAAA still so attractive to members – operators, pilots, engineers and trade alike? Because AAAA delivers.

It delivers better regulatory outcomes, it delivers smarter government policy, it delivers programs that have saved members literally millions of dollars every year. It delivers programs and training that, as one pilot put it recently – save lives.

In a sector as small and specialised as aerial application, there are no government agencies interested in helping of their own free will. In many cases, the starting point for some individuals working in some bureaucracies is that the first thing they have to do is to stop what aerial ag does because there must be something wrong with it – it is different – and probably looks too much like fun.

These same bureaucrats ignore the incredible productivity the use of aircraft can bring to agriculture – the massive increases in pasture growth and fertility and consequently wool and beef production, the saving of millions of tonnes of yield through the use of insecticides and fungicides, the savings to the environment by the use of aerial applied herbicides in low and no-till farming systems which minimize soil compaction – these are all positive impacts that make aerial application an integral part of modern farming practice.

Only a few years ago the Australian air ag fleet treated nearly two million acres of stripe rust in six weeks – the ground sprayers would still be going to deliver the same coverage. The impact to farmers’ pockets in lost income would have been dramatic.

Add to that the social and financial benefits of aerial firefighting – mostly carried out by air ag companies who have added that speciality to their capabilities – and the value of air ag to Australia becomes clearer.

Bureaucrats generally cause problems because they simply don’t understand what they seek to regulate – and avoiding that is what AAAA does very well.

The real secret to AAAA’s longevity and success is the rusted-on support of members who see value in what AAAA delivers. From more flexible flight and duty times to simpler dangerous goods requirements; from fairer chemical control-of-use legislation to turbine engines ‘on condition’. For every dollar invested in subscriptions by AAAA members they receive tangible and valuable returns.

If the wider aviation community was to take one message from AAAA’s 50 years of delivering for members, it is that in politics ‘disunity is death’.

Speaking with a strong, unified and consistent voice is critical to Australian aviation – and so is offering solutions. It’s is not enough to whinge about problems, complain to politicians or snipe in the national media – it is incumbent upon industry leaders – including associations – to offer solutions.

After all, who is better placed than industry to know what the answers might be? Even when regulators don’t opt for our preferred position, we still work doggedly to educate them and offer better ways of achieving what they need while protecting what we need. This is seldom easy, but it is essential.

If you are in aviation and you don’t belong to an association that represents your interests, then you are freeloading on the efforts of others. In most cases the entire industry benefits when an association convinces government of better regulation – isn’t it better to be part of the solution than part of the problem? If a week is a long time in politics, then 50 years in aviation, politics and agriculture must be an eternity. AAAA will continue its proud record for as long as our members need us. o Australian Aviation is proud to be the official supporting journal of the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia. The views in this column are those of the AAAA, and not necessarily Australian Aviation’s.