UNITED STATES
TWENTY YEARS AGO
AT-401 Upgrades to Walter by Bill Lavender
Daryl Johnson makes turn over storage barns in Garfield, WA in Cascade Flying Service’s AT-401/Walter.
B 14 | agairupdate.com
GARFIELD, WA — During a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, I had the pleasure of exercising an invitation to not only visit Cascade Flying Service, but to also perform an evaluation flight of his newly converted AT-401 to Walter turbine engine power; the same aircraft on display at NAAA’s Reno 2000. By anyone’s standards, it was an IFR day, not the most pleasant for an evaluation flight. Cold, wet, and windy, with low ceilings amongst the Palouse Hills. If you’ve never seen the Palouse Hills, I highly recommend you take a drive through them. Your respect for the ground tracking abilities of local ag pilots will be increased several notches.
Driving up to Doran Roger’s Cascade Flying Service in Garfield, Washington, located in the eastern part of the state, I was greeted by veteran ag pilot (has been with Cascade Flying Service for 26 years) Daryl Johnson squeaking the mains of the AT-401/Walter on the rain-soaked asphalt runway. This visit turned out to be about more than just another evaluation flight. I discovered, nestled in the hills, a company that does excellent work rebuilding wrecked ag aircraft. A company that can work with fiberglass to design and install an efficient air inlet system for the PT6 turbine engine, and a company that its credibility is certified as ➤
