3 minute read
Working Serial #1 Ag-Cat Being Restored
by Tim (Toby) McPherson
Tall Towers Aviation, Inc, Page, ND
If you haven’t heard, ag-aviation will celebrate 100 years of ag-flying in 2021. That was the first year an airplane was used to protect a crop. In 1921, catalpa trees in Ohio were treated, which were used for telegraph poles. The application was arsenic dust for controlling Sphinx Moth caterpillars that stripped the catalpa trees’ leaves, killing the trees. This became known as “Crop Dusting”. Shortly after, pilots started dusting cotton.
John Wakefield, a fellow North Dakota operator, and I found Serial #1, 1958 G-164 model Ag-Cat (N10200) earlier this spring. The logbooks and historical info were all there, verifying it is the actual Serial #1 Ag-Cat. In the past few years, it has been working in Kansas. The NAA museum in Jackson, Mississippi has protype #1. We have the actual working Serial #1.
John and I are in the process of a complete restoration to original, including leading edge booms, open cockpit, a small windshield, fabric on the top of the wings and ailerons with an original R-670 Lycoming engine. Our plans are to make the aircraft as detailed to the original as possible. If anybody has pictures or historical information about early Ag-Cats, we would sure like to see and hear about it. The ag-aviation industry has been very helpful and supportive of the project.
We plan to display Serial #1 Ag-Cat at the National Ag Commissioners Conference in Medora, North Dakota on August 31-September 2, 2020. Doug Goehring, North Dakota’s Ag Commissioner, is president of the 50-state Ag Commissioner’s Association. The conference is always at the current president’s home state in the year of presidency. Commissioner Goehring has been helpful and enthusiastic about displaying Serial #1 at their conference. Commissioner Goehring farms and knows the importance of the ag plane to the farmer. His son-in-law is an aerial applicator/ crop duster, too.
Ideally, this could be the kick-off of the industry’s 100th anniversary celebration/ recognition tour this fall. This would give us four months to make this happen. Oh yeah, I forgot to say, we have a farming and spraying season between now and completion of our project!
After the kick-off in Medora, there are a couple of state conventions around the country this fall and if somebody wanted to fly it to a convention, it is possible that could happen. The NAAA convention is in Savannah, Georgia in December this year. Having the aircraft on display there could be a goal for it. Next summer (2021), we would like the aircraft promoted as much as possible; fly-ins, airshows, Oshkosh, etc. and end up at the 2021 NAAA convention in Palm Springs, California.
I am in the process of refurbishing the plane. The farming and spraying seasons will be here shortly. We have much work to do on this airplane, but meeting the fall deadline is very doable. I have rebuilt a number of Ag-Cats during my 43 years in the ag-aviation business.
The purpose of this letter first of all is to tell AgAir Update readers about the project. It is officially an NDAAA project with John and I taking the lead on the rebuild. We have asked for some local (ND) help in preparing the project for painting. Cleaning and sanding parts to ready for paint takes a lot of time. I have most everything rebuilt that needs it and have started painting. The painting process will continue as parts are prepared for paint.
John and I are doing most of the work on the project. Being very proud to be “Crop Dusters”, we wanted to give back and continue promoting the professional image we trust the next generation will maintain for the next 100 years.
