INTERNATIONAL
FROM THE COCKPIT
Bill Lavender bill@agairupdate.com
40 years of AgAir Update AgAir Update has been bringing ag aviation news to ag pilots for a long time, at least 40 years. I have been involved with the publication for most of those years. It has been challenging to find the origin. The publication is probably older. I simply don’t have any records older than 40 years. I know, from memory, that June Ayres, wife of Fred Ayres, at one time edited AgAir Update for the Georgia Agricultural Association and I believe was followed by the Dixons, at the time operators in south Georgia.
I consider one of my best accomplishments during my 49 years of flying.
At some point in the very early 1980s, I became involved in the one-page-two sided “newsletter.” I was serving on the board of the GAAA and had been an operator since 1976. I didn’t know anything about publishing. I couldn’t type. I was a “crop duster”! Well, it was voluntary work, and none of the other board members knew any more than I did about publishing. A very close friend came from a newspaper family to my good fortune. He convinced me to turn the 8.5”x11” newsletter into a newspaper. The most significant problem for me was finding all the content for the minimum press run of eight pages, from two small to eight large pages. I will never forget my newspaper friend saying, “We’ll fill it with pictures.” Of course, he was motivated to help me with this project because his company would be printing it. Now, at over 100 pages, the challenge is still the same!
A 6 | agairupdate.com
Print and mailing costs increased when I changed from a newsletter to a newspaper. I needed to find a source of revenue to pay these bills. The GAAA and I had made a deal that if I made sure all GAAA members received a free subscription, I could own the publication and any revenue and bills it incurred. Those were scary times. Luckily, I wasn’t dependent on AgAir Update for an income since I was still flying ag. After changing to newsprint, one of the first things I did was expand the subscription base to Florida and Alabama, the other two states in the tri-state SouthEastern Aerocultural Fair (SEAF). At the time, subscriptions were free. I had recruited a few advertisers, namely Southeastern Aircraft Sales & Service, Thrush, Air Tractor, AirSouth Insurance, and a few others, which are still advertisers in AgAir Update after nearly 40 years. I expanded the readership to include the southern states from Texas eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. By 1990, with success in the South and demand from the rest of the U.S. and parts of the world, I took the publication worldwide with a paid subscription. It wasn’t long before Latin-speaking countries took an interest in AgAir Update. This was when the journey into Central and South America began in the early 1990s. Bringing the entire worldwide ag aviation community together through AgAir Update, I consider one of my best accomplishments during my 49 years of flying.
