The Eagle and the Lion

by Gina Hickmann

Grifo Aviação Agrícola Ltda, with its operational headquarters located at São Gabriel Municipal Airport, RS and administrative headquarters at Av. Celestino Cavalheiro in downtown São Gabriel, is a company that was created in 1996 when at that time there was a growing demand for agricultural air services specialized in treating rice. Grifo pilot, José Leonardo Kacsmarck, says he started in agricultural aviation in a partnership with Cmte. Laudelino Bernardi, owner of Aero Agrícola Santos Dumont in a hangar in São Gabriel. With unconditional support from Mr. Bernardi, Leonardo acquired his first aircraft from him, thus starting his own company, Grifo Aviacao Agricola.

José Leonardo Kaczmarck is sixty years old with over forty years dedicated to aviation in Brazil. He is an agricultural pilot with a commercial license, flight and skydiving instructor ratings. He is also an experimental aviation enthusiast where he works on various development projects as a test pilot and demonstrator at air shows. His life and business partner is his wife, Gemma Regina Dariva Kaczmarck, who is a lawyer and historian that graduated from the Federal University of Santa Maria. They have two grown children, Iuri Anderson Kaczmarck, 32 who is an Operational Safety Manager and coordinator of the Grifo and a private pilot. Robinson José Kaczmarck, 29, is a resident doctor in dermatology at the University of Passo Fundo, RS.

The Grifo Aviacao Agricola comes from the mythological animal Griffin, which is a fabulous bird with an eagle’s wing and beak and a lion’s body. The idea was for the couple to come together as partners, so the name Grifo worked well by joining strength and agility, both in the company and family life.

Leonardo took his instructor course in 1979 at a Fairchild PT-19. It was the same airplane he first flew Gemma, then his girlfriend, for the 40th anniversary of the Aeroclube de Cachoeira do Sul. “I arrived at the airport with acrobatic maneuvers. Upon landing, the applause was for the pilot. That was until Gemma took off her helmet, dropped her hair and stole the show! As a result, I spent the rest of the party explaining I was the pilot to veteran commanders and students from the aero club that flew for Varig. They had many stories telling of times they flew this type of plane.

Currently, Grifo Aviação Agrícola is composed of a fleet of four Ipanemas: one Emb-202, one Emb-201-A and two Emb201 with three ag-pilots, Felipe Marques Garcia, Fabiano Dalcul Pujol and Leonardo Kaczmarck. The main activity of the company is application services over rice (60%), soy (35%), wheat (5%) and some forage seeding. The company has a staff of eight employees. Typically, the company treats about 40 to 50 thousand hectares a year.

The company uses Embraer’s standard equipment. The main airstrip is 1,200 meters of clay. Altogether, the company works from an additional 11 satellite airstrips.

Liquid applications on rice are applied at 15 l/ha for herbicides. Fungicides are applied with rotary atomizers at 12 l/ha. Dry applications on rice are typically fertilizers applied at 50-200 kilograms per hectare with a Swathmaster spreader. The company also has equipment that allows a full range of applications for other crops.

Leonardo Kacsmarck in the company of a group of enthusiasts of experimental aviation and aerial acrobatics, all partners in promotingthe annual meeting commemorating the Day of the Aviator (L-R) PilotsFabiano Dacul Pujol, Iuri Anderson Kaczmarck, José Leonardo Kaczmarck,Jader Rocha Dutra, Rodolfo Augusto Machado Gonçalves and Felipe MarquesGarcia.

Leonardo and Gemma on the wing of a PT-19 that Leonardo is recovering. The 1942 Fairchild PT-19 is from World War II.

(C) Gemma Regina Dariva Kaczmarck and (L) José Leonardo Kaczmarck proprietary partners with son (R) Iuri Anderson Kaczmarck Coordinatorand Operational Safety Manager at Grifo Aviação Agrícola.

Leonardo says, “For our region where the areas are small, an Ipanema plane is ideal. The Lycoming engine is very strong, durable and reliable. The airframe of the Ipanema and its components are always available. Any city in Rio Grande do Sul has maintenance facilities when needed. Whereas, a turboprop aircraft is a very large plane for my region. A Cessna is fragile and is an old design airplane with a semi-monocoque, aluminum structure and a Continental engine that is not durable. An Ipanema is a modern design. I can rebuild the fuselage, wing and engine. It is an airplane that can be renovated at any time. I am very satisfied with the Ipanema; a very strong, Brazilian-built ag plane that I can rebuild anytime.”

By providing high quality work, Grifo Aviação Agrícola has survived the ups and downs of the financial cycle, the frequent crises in the government, as well as changes in weather patterns.

“As a businessman,” confesses Leonardo, “for the last five years pessimism has been prevalent for ag-aviation. Our company is located in the southern half of Rio Grande do Sul, considered “ the poor half ” of RS. Today, our scenario is completely different. Our region has realized crop irrigation as a new way for expanding, aiming at an increase in production. This expansion has affected other crops besides rice. Soy, today, is one of the main export products in Brazil. The grain harvest already occupies an impressive area in our region. São Gabriel is attentive to these opportunities and has numerous projects approved and in progress to encourage irrigation and water storage. The benefits of this will be in the very short time, as our region already has a large water storage capacity, which will minimize the effects of droughts and guarantee future harvests.

(L-R) Fabiano Dalcul Pujol, agricultural pilot; Ana Cláudia Santiago Blini, Administrative Assistant; Felipe Marques Garcia, agriculturalpilot; Renato Soares da Silva, General Services; Gabriel Moreira Dariva,Agricultural technician; Iuri Anderson Kaczmarck, Operational SafetyCoordinator and Manager; Gemma Regina Dariva Kaczmarck and José LeonardoKaczmarck, owners.

Long-term financing and low interest rates have made these projects for our region a reality. Our region went from planting 50,000 hectares of soy to 100,000 hectares in just the last five years. If we had not suffered a terrible drought this year, we would experience the greatest profitability in our history. Despite this crisis, Grifo Aviação Agrícola had positive growth this year, which leaves Gemma and me optimistic for next year.”