Innovate to aviate

Sustainable fuels, more economical powerplants, more accurate application equipment and, of course, ever safer operations while still kicking economic goals and reducing costs are all aiming points. But sometimes it is a simple change to procedures and thinking that can yield immediate benefits.

The companies now participating in the AAAA Aerial Improvement Management System – AIMS – program, are all seeing the benefits of changing their thinking about how they do business and how they run their company. From improved knowledge of what is really going on to utilising staff knowledge to improve systems, opening up your mind to the opportunities for innovation is a significant step forward towards sustainability and adaptation.

The aerial application sector has been fortunate to benefit from a number of significant revolutions over the last five decades – from purpose-built aircraft (rather than adapted ex-military types), to turbines (to take advantage of reliability, performance and productivity opportunities), to GPS (to improve accuracy, remove human markers from fields and to boost productivity).

But at the heart of all innovations lies a drive to solve a problem. The Bickley Boom, developed for the Australian rice industry to practically eliminate drift of chemical by using huge droplets and the movement of water in the rice paddy to distribute the chemical is a good example. With one innovation, the industry is more accurate, more productive and more sustainable – both economically and environmentally.

More recently, the introduction of harness-mounted airbags is a new safety feature that adds another level of protection to the pilot in a hazard-rich environment. In terms of a risk matrix, it is another invention that addresses the consequence side of risk, along with the modern application of aircraft crash cages and the universal use of helmets.

Innovations such as taking the largest application aircraft – the Air Tractor AT-802 – and putting it on massive floats so as to allow rapid pick-up of water from lakes and rivers during firebombing operations – is one example of a very ‘big’ innovation that came from problem-solving – notably ‘how do we decrease turnaround times on firebombing ops to put more retardant onto a fire?’.

In its own way, AAAA has been innovating with programs

By correctly framing the question or setting the challenge, we can then engage in the problem solving.

that fix problems and provide alternative pathways to the industry since its founding in 1958. The ongoing meetings and professional development opportunities through our Professional Pilot Program (PPP), the introduction of the Spraysafe program in 1985, the standard operations manual for industry members and more recently AIMS, are all examples of solving problems that no amount of heavy-handed regulation could achieve.

Perhaps the greatest contribution AAAA has made to safety is through its introduction, in partnership with QBE Aviation Insurance and BAE Systems in Tamworth, of human factor training for application pilots in 1998. Before that time, the annual number of fatal accidents in aerial application was running on average between six and eight pilots every year. In a sector of just over 300 pilots, that was a very heavy toll, even if the operations are conductedin a hazard-rich environment. The excellent two-day training course on human factors put together by the specialists at BAE and AAAA clearly led to a revolution in safety, with the annual fatality rate now down to a long-term average of two to three pilots per year. While that is still unacceptable to AAAA and its members, the long-term commitment to training is carried on by AAAA to this day with courses covering everything from wire-risk management, to human factors to single pilot CRM and chemical drift management.

One lesson we should draw is that by correctly framing the question or setting the challenge, we can then engage in the problem solving – the innovation.

As part of its long-standing tradition of encouraging fresh approaches to problem solving, AAAA is very proud to announce a partnership with Air Tractor to recognise ongoing innovation in the aerial application sector. Air Tractor has committed to a significant five-year sponsorship program with AAAA to assist with our efforts in safety and professional development. As a part of that partnership, AAAA and Air Tractor are launching a vehicle to recognise innovation in aerial application in Australia.

The Leland Snow Innovation Award will be presented for the first time at this year’s AAAA Convention – being held in Hobart on June 26-27 2014. Leland Snow was the founder of Air Tractor and designed many types of role-specific application aircraft – not just Air Tractors. He was at the centre of innovation in the industry for decades. While Leland sadly died in 2011, AAAA is partnering with Air Tractor to ensure his commitment to innovation can help inspire others.

Regardless of what sector you work in, there are problems to be solved – we simply have to ask the right questions.