AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 73

PASSING THE BATON
The future of Eagle Vistas

LEARNING WHILE THEY EARN, Ty Sabata

(above right) and Kellin Strader (left, in
hat) started as apprenctices at Eagle
Vistas. In return, they get training in ag
flying. Strader is shown with CFI Logan
Naperala (far left).

Randy Berry, a third-generation pilot with more than 29,000 hours, has been
a CFI and ag pilot since 1974. "He does not want the legacy of this business to
disappear with him," said Beverly Berry.
The Berrys are bringing up two young pilots in the ag flying business. Kellin Strader, a transplant to Florida from Connecticut, is an apprentice at Eagle
Vistas. He's a student pilot and will continue to work at the flight school while
going on to receive ag training.
Twenty-four-year-old Strader sees a need for outreach to high school students, to teach them about other aviation fields beyond the airlines, charter, and
cargo flying, and he hopes to do that while working at Eagle Vistas. "I want to
go into the high schools," he said. "I want that outreach, that education. I want
that to translate to new pilots and new interest, at the very least."
Ty Sabata, 25, was working in a big box store in Arcadia, Florida, when Beverly
Berry came in one afternoon to purchase 20 gallons of paint. She and her husband had opened a fixed-base operation at the Arcadia Airport (they've since
relocated to Inverness). When Sabata mentioned he'd always wanted to learn to
fly, Beverly smiled and said, "How bad do you want it?" That was in 2015.
Sabata worked as an apprentice for six months while still putting in hours at
the big box store, before joining Eagle Vistas as a full-time employee. He now
has private pilot and A&P certificates, and said he will continue with commercial,
flight instructor, and ag training. "I want to go as far as I can," he said.
-JWT

be-not to mention extensive ground school in which pilots learn
about FAR 137, chemicals and pesticides, personal protection, and
more. "The pilot is responsible for whatever he puts out," Randy
Berry said. "He'd better know what's in that airplane. He'd better
know what the requirements are."
Why not do all the training in the Ag Cat? That would hike
costs, considering that the big Pratt & Whitney burns 28 gallons
of fuel per hour. And, while turbine aircraft are heavily utilized
in agricultural flying because they can carry larger loads and can
cover territory faster-as much as 2,000 acres in a day-Randy
Berry believes it's folly to start a new ag pilot out in a turbine
aircraft, even if that pilot has previous turbine experience flying commercially.

"It's not the difficulty or complexity of the turbine engine," he
said. "Ag aviation is a completely different situation, because we are
flying at a much lower speed. Don't think that ag aircraft are jet airplanes flying very slow close to the ground. Think of them as tractors
flying faster, high above the ground. It's a whole different concept."
FARMERS IN THE RANKS

Since launching Eagle Vistas in 2007, the Berrys have trained pilots
who want to start their own business; those who want to work for
a commercial spraying operation; and, more recently, farmers who
want to fly their own aircraft to treat their acres.
"Even the midsize farms are buying little Pawnees so they
can have early detection of whatever problem, and have a rapid
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020

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