Two pilots and 3 aircraft mechanics conduct our aerial surveillance and treatment operations and perform aircraft maintenance.
An Air Tractor 402A is used to larvicide large targets including the dredged material containment areas along the Savannah River, and a number of inland sites. Altosid ® Liquid Larvicide Concentrate is mixed with sand at our facility. We have a storage silo and scale that dispenses sand into a self-propelled mixer. After formulating the material, the Air Tractor is driven into position and a conveyor is rotated to place the chute over the hopper of the aircraft. The mixer is then driven to the conveyor to dump the load onto the conveyor and into the aircraft. The Air Tractor is loaded with the turbine engine running and the propeller feathered in the neutral position. Filling takes approximately two minutes, and the pilot returns for a refill every 45 to 60 minutes. The pilot notifies staff of his return about 10 minutes before landing so that the Altosand mixture is ready for loading as soon as the aircraft taxis into position.
We also operate two MD 500E helicopters and one MD 520N. Both models have identical airframes and external attachment points allowing all helicopter equipment to be mounted on either aircraft. For larviciding, we use Isolair broadcast spreaders that have been modified to disperse the Altosand formulation. The spreaders hold about 400 pounds of material each, and are filled from a specially designed trailer. The trailer has two compartments. The smaller rear compartment is outfitted with 2 screw augers that form a “V” in the rear of the trailer. The aircraft taxies into the “V” for filling. The screw augers bring up the Altosand formulation and release it into flexible 4-inch tubes placed into the Isolair Spreader tanks.
During the past several years, a number of high pressure liquid adulticiding sprayers have been designed and built by our aviation staff. These are used to conduct adult mosquito control with our MD 500E helicopters.
Currently we are using naled in the emulsifiable formulation marketed as Trumpet®, in helicopters for adulticiding missions. All of our aircraft use Ag-Nav GPS systems and have data logging capability. Mission records are downloaded, superimposed over digital maps of the treatment area, and printed to create a permanent record of the operations. These records demonstrate that we do not spray over schools, hospitals and groups gathered for outdoor events.
