Working in Aerial Application

Aerial application companies are mainly situated in rural and regional Australia, offering opportunities for a rewarding career in aerial application and a community-oriented lifestyle.

Aerial application activities include:

  • spraying of crops

  • applying granular products

  • fertilising crops and pasture (topdressing)

  • sowing seed

  • aerial firefighting

  • forestry applications

  • oil spill dispersal.

The culture of the industry is very mission-focused on doing a good – and safe – job for our clients. For this reason, a healthy personal attitude towards safety, teamwork and a sound personal knowledge of products and application technology is essential.

Aerial application is generally very seasonal, meaning that months of little activity may be followed by periods of intense high-tempo operations.

Aerial application is not a career only for pilots – a range of other occupations that make up the industry, from aircraft engineers to operations managers, loader-mixers, drivers and office teams.

How to become an aerial application pilot?

Aerial application is one of the most demanding types of flying. Flying at very low levels – a few metres above the ground when spraying – and managing complex variables, such as weather, spray distribution, terrain, obstacles and sophisticated aircraft, mean you must be highly trained, vigilant and professional. It’s a very rewarding flying career if you enjoy daily challenges, have good technical flying skills and a commitment to professionalism and safety.

To conduct aerial application work, a pilot must attain the following:

  • hold a commercial pilots licence

  • have an aerial application rating and endorsements. This comprises specialty flight training to gain the required skills and an exam component.

    • Aerial application flight training providers who are members of AAAA are listed at the bottom of this page.

    • For information about the aeroplane or helicopter aerial application exams, visit the CASA website. The AAAA Aerial Application Pilots Manual (hardcopy only) is the primary study material for the exam. It can be purchased from AAAA via our order form.

  • hold a Chemical Distribution licence – the AAAA Spraysafe qualification is accepted by all states and territories as a competency level to award the licence. For more information about obtaining Spraysafe qualification, please refer to the dedicated Spraysafe section on our website.

  • be employed by an aerial application operator (business owner) and complete an initial 110 flying hours under supervision of the operator’s head of flight operations.

To maintain the eligibility to conduct aerial application operations, a pilot must:

  • have flown at least 50 hours of below 500ft AGL aerial application in the previous 12 months
  • pass an aerial application pilot operator proficiency check every 12 months. The operator’s head of flight operations may do this proficiency check.

Ground support – loader-mixer/driver

A great way to work your way into the industry is to work as ground crew for an application company.  It is a traditional and great way to get industry experience while getting your licence. 

A great entry point is working as a loader/mixer. Loader/mixers play a critical role in aerial application and make a significant contribution to operational efficiency and safety. They prepare/mix chemical loads for each job, load and fuel aircraft and are often a key company representative with clients and the public. 

Experience as a loader-mixer will give you a broad knowledge of the basics of the industry: of the chemicals and other products used, of mixing and safety procedures, aircraft set-up, spray quality, drift management, as well as an understanding of typical workflows and systems – job orders, mapping, risk assessments and working with the pilot as part of a team.

Loader-mixers who hold a dangerous goods drivers licence are especially sought after.

Other roles in Aerial Application

Head of Flight Operations – HoFO

Also known as the Chief Pilot, responsible for and must manage the safety and compliance of the flying operations. They are responsible for monitoring and maintaining compliance and reporting to the business operator about the level of compliance with both the legislation and the operator’s exposition. A HoFO must have the knowledge, operational and aviation safety management experience and strength of character to balance the sometimes-conflicting demands of safety and commerce. 

Operations Management

Operations management is responsible for planning ground support services: managing crew rostering, flight duty time limitations, deploying aircraft, and overall logistics.

Aircraft maintenance engineering

With highly specialised aircraft (fixed-wing, rotary wing, piston and/or turbine powered) often operating in rural and remote locations, many aerial application operators employ their own aircraft maintenance engineering team to keep their fleet ready for immediate use.

Aircraft Engineers and Licenced Aircraft Engineers (LAME) are highly sought after across the aviation industry.  Skills learnt at any level of aircraft engineering are immediately transferable to other aircraft maintenance business.

Assistance to start and continue your engineering career is available through government and industry.

Get the skills 

Flight Training Operators must hold a Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 141 or 142 certificate. Flight instructors are only authorised to conduct flight training if the instructor is engaged to conduct the flight training by a Part 141 (or Part 142) Flight Training Operator. Use the online search centre from CASA to identify a nearby flight training school offering aerial application training.  

AAAA members with the relevant P141 certification are listed below. 

Fixed Wing 

Barry Foster 
Woorayl Air Services 
https://www.wooraylairservices.com.au/  
Leongatha, VIC 3953 
Phone: 03 5664 3288 

Harley McKillop 
LAF Aviation 
Blandford, NSW 2337 
Phone: 0427 448 802 

Steve Rossington 
Field Air Group 
Ballarat, VIC 3351 
Phone: 03 5330 9330 

Andrew Mason 
Ramair 
https://www.ramairflyingservices.com.au/  
South Mildura, NSW  3501 
Phone: 03 5776 4343

Rotary 

Bruce Colwell 
Tasmanian Helicopters Pty Ltd 
https://www.tasmanianhelicopters.com.au/  
Latrobe, TAS 7307 
Phone: 03 6426 1623 

Fergus Frater 
Helicom Helicopters 
Banksia Beach, QLD 4507 
Phone: 0400 700 035 
Email: helicom1@icloud.com 

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