FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Aerial application offers the following unique benefits and advantages:

  • Precision Coverage:  Application by aircraft has consistently been shown to be more thorough and precise than ground application, thus maximizing the application’s effectiveness.  Calibrated machinery controls the size and dispersal of chemical droplets.  The air is than used as a medium to move the control product to the targeted area.  As a result, maximum utilization of the crop protection product is ensured by forcing the droplet dispersal from the top of the plant to the base.    
  • Zero Soil Compaction: As opposed to aerial application, excessive soil compaction from ground rig application can negatively affect crop yields due to decreased water infiltration and storage, decreased root growth, reduction in soil volume and destruction of existing crop: 1.5 to 5 percent on average.
  • Opportune Product Application: Timing is everything when it comes to crop protection.  Ag aircraft can apply both dry and wet chemical, from fertilizer to fungicide, in a greater variety of field and weather conditions than any other application method.  This ensures that the product application takes place at precisely the right time and its results are maximized.  
  • Speed Of Application: The prompt and efficient treatment that aerial application affords growers can help to quickly eradicate a crop threat that might otherwise inflict significant damage if left untreated or treated too late.

While aerial application is typically a few dollars per acre more than ground application, the added benefits (no crop damage, no soil compaction, more precise application) can easily make up that cost difference.

We work hard to ensure our aerial application rates our competitive with the current market.  When it comes to price, a number of factors come into play.  For example, is the application that you are interested in wet or dry?  What specific product or products are you applying?  At what rate per acre are you applying them?

Call or email us today, and we can answer these and any other questions in order to meet your crop protection and budgetary needs.

We are licensed to apply pesticides, nutrients, seed and fertilizer to nearly any crop.  While we mostly spray corn and soybeans in Northern Illinois, we have a great deal of experience aerially treating peas, dry beans, green beans, lima beans, spinach, mint, various leafy greens, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, wheat, cotton, citrus, and forestry…to name a few.

While we are based in Northern Illinois and primarily service that area of the country, we have worked and continue to work all over the country for a variety of clients in various locations including Southern Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas and Florida.

While pesticides application makes up a large portion of our business, we also aerially apply seed, nutrients and fertilizer as well.

And if those aren’t the services that you are looking for, call or email us to discuss your needs.  We only employee the most experienced pilots who all have a variety of flight experience and may be able to help.

Pesticides have been used in agriculture for decades and proven to be a safe and necessary form of crop protection.  The majority of food you eat today has been treated at some point with a pesticide.

Furthermore, not only is pesticide chemistry and its application strictly regulated by federal and state entities, but as responsible and attentive applicators, we have implemented technology and procedures to ensure that we handle and apply the product appropriately.  We pay strict attention to the product label to ensure that every product is applied at a concentration that is sufficient to control the disease or pest in question without allowing a resistance to build, while at the same time, not overusing the product and risking crop, soil and water contamination.

Safety is our foremost concern, and not only the safety of our pilots and ground crew, but that of our customers and our neighbors.

The FAA closely regulates our operations to ensure our pilots and aircraft meet the highest safety standards.  As an aerial applicator, we are also required to obtain and maintain an operating certificate whose requirements are quite extensive.

With regard to our staff, we ensure that all pilots and loaders carry the proper licenses and certifications to operate our equipment as well as handle pesticide products.  In addition to this, we have instituted training and re-training programs for air and ground crew to ensure new and old employees alike meet and continue to meet our high level of safety.  With our pilots in particular, we have instituted a graduated training program, putting junior pilots in less-powerful and lightly loaded aircraft, thus allowing them to get comfortable with the unique challenges and demands of ag flying before putting them behind the controls of more powerful machines.

Finally, Hendrickson Flying Service is also a fully-insured aerial application operation.  Our insurer works closely with us and provides additional oversight of our operation by monitoring our aircraft’s airworthiness, our pilots experience and our loss record.

Today’s aerial application industry has progressed in leaps and bounds since it began in the early 1900’s, and Hendrickson Flying Service prides itself on employing the latest trends in aerial application in order to serve our customers as efficiently and effectively as possible.  Some of the technology we currently use:

  • Flow control equipment to closely regulate application rates
  • Continually maintained and calibrated spray nozzles to regulate application dispersal, coverage and drift
  • GPS technology to guide pilot flight paths and ensure maximum coverage
  • GIS technology to route our fleet and communicate coverage data to our customers efficiently

Hendrickson Flying Service operates both fixed and rotor wing aircraft and each has their benefits.  While helicopters are better suited for application on small or odd-shaped fields, or near field obstructions, the quality of coverage you get from either type of aircraft is virtually the same.  Considering that, the decision to apply with either a helicopter or airplane should be based on safety and flight efficiency, and that’s what guides our flight routing decisions during the spray season.

However, we will always do our best to accommodate aircraft requests or preferences and you can always call or email us with any aircraft or coverage related questions.

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