LOW & SLOW — The Move Westward — Chapter Three Continued…

Mabry I. Anderson An Insider’s History of Agricultural Aviation

Floyd “Speed” Nolta of Willows Flying Service in Willows, California, was perhaps the first ag aviator to seed rice by air in 1927. Stackedbehind his Travel-Air are sacks of rice to be seeded. Photo courtesy ofNolta family.

Excellent Pilots

“Speed” Nolta continued to act as chief pilot for the firm, assisted by many fine pilots, including Ernie Moe, Kenny Palmer, Lee Sherwood, “Dusty” Verain, Ray Varney, B. Lane, and Frank Michaud. After World War II, still another Nolta brother, Vance, who learned to fly after the war, officially became part of Willows Flying Service.

Willows steadily updated its equipment, graduating to 450 horsepower P & W Stearmans as they became available. All dispensing equipment was designed and built in the firm’s own shop. It was not until the advent of “modem” production aircraft that this situation changed.

The firm is now operated by founder Dale Nolta’s son Greg. Greg operates a fleet of Thrushes and Ag Wagons. He is a typical second-generation operator, steeped in tradition, but with an eye to the future. Consistently in the front ranks to improve agricultural aviation, he is presently president of the California Agricultural Aircraft Association and an active member of the National Agricultural Aviation Association.

During a recent interview, a smiling Greg confided, “I expect we’ll operate here for another 54 years or so. I’ve got some young Noltas who can take my place. So one of these days Willows Flying Service will undoubtedly celebrate its 100th anniversary. We expect the next fifty years to be a little bit easier!”

California After World War II

Flying from the Imperial Valley across the Salton Sea and out through the Spanish Pass in the San Bemadino Range, a pilot will enter the fabled San Joaquin Valley where towns like Bakersfield, Delano, Tulare, Fresno, and Modesto lie. This has been ag flying country ever since the first California pioneers blazed their trails across this vast, agricultural mecca.

One of the first and most influential agricultural aviation operations in the Bakersfield area was Atwood Crop Dusters, run by Bud Atwood, who set up his operation before WW II. His fleet consisted of the usual aircraft of the day-notably Travel-Airs, Wacos, and possibly a Bull Stearman or two.

Clockwise from one o’clock: Bull Stearman with ICD rotors from Atwood Dusters spraying fruit trees in California about 1940. This Travel-Air, equipped with a 180 HP Hisso engine, was used by Willows Flying Service to seed rice about 1928. Photo courtesy of Nolta family. First prune orchard spraying by Independent Crop Dusters on Hines orchard near Fresno, California, February 1933. Photo courtesy of George Sanders.

Cotton was a major crop and Atwood was among the first operators to use new liquid insecticides on cotton. Atwood employed many fine pilots, including Jim French, Hank Bourne, and Ray Varney. Varney was a veteran of the Noltas’ operation at Willows.

Atwood also employed Joe Sellers, who became a top pilot and eventually organized Sellers Flying Service at Bakersfield after the war. Sellers greatly expanded ag flying in the Valley. Much of his time was devoted to developing more effective dispensing equipment.

One such development was the Sellers Swathmaster, which became a standard in the industry. A radical departure from the ordinary, the Swathmaster was much wider than normal and was designed to dispense either solids or liquids. Sellers eventually sold the manufacturing rights to Transland Aircraft at Harbor City, and the Swathmaster is still being manufactured in essentially the same form.

Sellers was influential in the formation of many new operations and the Bakersfield area became a haven for the crop dusting fraternity. Among the familiar names connected with the business in this area were Jim French, Noel Wilson, Bill Putnam, Tom Tierney, Arnold Whisman, and Jack Ferdinand.

Ferdinand initially worked for Jim French before setting out on his own in 1949. At that time, he organized J& J Crop Dusters, which still performs out of Bakersfield, Arvin, and Lancaster.

In the lower Imperial Valley, around towns like Brawley and El Centro, the 12-month growing season created a strong demand for agricultural aviation. One of the first operators in this area was Warren Brockman, a veteran pilot who had flown for the legendary Mel Carberry.

Brockman operated out of Brawley, which with El Centro, became a center for ag flying. Some of the early post-World War II pioneers in this vicinity were Wally Pankratz, the Stoker Company, and Ken Johnson’s Flying Service. Hugh Littrell was one of Johnson’s veteran pilots.

Flax was an important crop in the area and Wally Pankratz recalls using a material called Sinox for broadleaf weed control in flax. “Sinox would kill broadleaf weeds in flax,” says Wally, “and it would also turn your hair bright yellow! You could recognize a crop duster from as far away as you could see him! The stuff wouldn’t wash out. You had to wear it off. You could tell when the weed spraying season was over, because the pilots” hair gradually took on its normal color!”

Another Imperial Valley pioneer was Jim Vedder, who organized Visco Flying Service, operating out of El Centro and Imperial. Vedder’s ag flying career began inauspiciously when he talked Russ Parkhill of Wenatchee Air Service in Wenatchee, Washington, into letting him apply lime and sulphur to apple orchards in a J-3 Cub in 1946. On his second day, Vedder made an extremely late pull up and hung the Cub in an apple tree, demolishing both the aircraft and his embryonic career with Wenatchee Air.

Stearman of Visco Flying Service, Imperial, California, doing night flying on cotton. Pilot is Chuck Quigley.

Vedder temporarily gave up ag flying. He bought a surplus B-18 at Jackson, Mississippi, and converted it to carry passengers and cargo. For a year or so, he used the plane to haul freight and Marines out of the San Diego area.

In 1947 he returned to ag flying, working with Bill Wood at El Centro and finally with Dick Hyde of Ag-Air, who operated a fleet of Stearmans. In 1951 he organized his own firm, Visco Flying Service, with a Stearman fleet that steadily grew.

Vedder had a strong impact on ag flying in the Imperial Valley and was among the first to introduce helicopters to the area. This is a facet of his business that has continued into the present.

Night Operations

Visco Flying Service helped introduce night flying operations, especially on cotton. George Willett of Huron, California, apparently performed the first night applications in 1948 or 1949. According to Vedder, his firm got into the act almost by accident.

“What happened,” he explained, “was that during the peak cotton season there was just no way to get caught up. So we found ourselves finishing lots of jobs in the dark, with no lights at all.

“We began thinking seriously then about night work, so I went into the San Joaquin Valley and looked over some equipment and found out how to rig up the lights. I came on back home, rigged up an airplane, and we began spraying some easy fields with no obstructions.

“Then one night my chief pilot, Al Lefleur, and I decided to spray a big field with tall eucalyptus trees at the end. We flipped to see who would fly and I won, so Al had to fly first!

“I sat and watched and the first thing I noticed was that he cut off the lights as he began pulling up over the trees. When he got back, I asked him why and he told me I’d find out!

“I found out all right! We flew low and slow in those days and the lights shining ahead just went about half way up those trees. Without really thinking, I gauged the time to add power for the pulling up in accordance with the point where the lights showed the top of the trees.

“But when I started up, I quickly realized that the lights only showed the bottom half! I managed to get over them. But from then on, we had to completely reorient ourselves about adding power, since the lights didn’t carry to the tree tops.

“This was probably the hardest thing to learn about night work. Nowadays, with much more power and speed across the field, it doesn’t make nearly as much difference.”

Innovative Operator

Vedder’s operation was innovative. As early as 1957, he was using bulk insecticide tanks years before this became common practice.

A great many fine pilots worked for this firm, including Jack Rye, Myron Ballard, Gene Rye, Chuck Quigley, Tommy Mills, Louie Baker, Al Lefleur, and Cliff Shores.

Vedder still operates Visco Flying Service, using both fixedwing aircraft and helicopters. He still has a “boneyard” with several Stearmans and he told me that occasionally one is called into service.

Vedder has been a leader in ag aviation and served as president of the National Agricultural Aviation Association in 1976. He still flies regularly himself. Recently, he had to excuse himself from a dinner of industry veterans at 9:00 p.m. to fly cotton for the rest of the night!