‘Air Tractors’ using Hummel airport as base to drop nitrogen

Yellow airplanes called “Air Tractors” have been criss-crossing area skies this week dropping nitrogen granules to fertilize pine trees.

Rice Flying Services of Corning, Ark., is the contractor and a team of subcontractors based in Cullman, Ala., flying two Air Tractors converged on Hummel Field airport in Topping late last week. The target forests were in Middlesex, Lancaster, and King and Queen counties, said Branch Pitts, who pilots one of the Air Tractors. His wife Sydney looks after two boys ages 6 and 10, who came along, since school was on break.

Hummel Field was one of 10 Virginia airports they were working from. They were flying on Sunday, after being grounded due to high winds for two days.

The team brings every thing they need, including a tractor trailer tanker of Jet A fuel for the Air Tractor’s turbo-prop turbine engine.

The urea nitrogen fertilizer is hauled from a barge port in Chesapeake, said truck driver Wayne Thompson of Holly Pond, Ala. Each of the three trucks hauls 24 tons.

They are an energetic group working as a team. No time is wasted once a plane lands. The plane is loaded with 5,800 pounds of nitrogen granules and back on Hummel Airfield’s runway in minutes.

“Dream job”

Auger truck driver Anna DePadlo, 24, originally of southern Illinois moved to Cullman, Ala., for this job, has been a pilot for four years and spraying crops for two years. “I love it… it’s a lifestyle.”

“It’s the closest to being a fighter pilot without cutting your hair and doing pushups. It’s my dream job.”

Her boyfriend, John Lucid, originally from Illinois, fuels the planes from the same truck that also loads the plane. Lucid, 27, has been spraying corn and beans in Illinois for five years. Fertilizing trees is their job when crops are not growing.

Logan Luke, 23, of Fort Worth, Texas, said he’s training to fly an Air Tractor. He practices with a “tail-dragger” air plane. He’s done ground support for helicopters, cargo planes, firefighting planes, and spraying. He and Thompson unload the fertilizer from the trailer to the auger truck.