DropFlight: App Makes Spray Pattern Testing a Snap
Operation S.A.F.E. season is in full swing across much of the country; it’s time to get your aircraft pattern tested!
NAAREF recommends having your pattern assessed, at minimum, every other year or when major changes are made. This is vitally important to ensuring your aircraft is ready to make effective applications this season and, accordingly, NAAA has included biennial Operation S.A.F.E. participation as a core component of its C-PAASS professional aerial applicator certification.
A new tool—DropFlight—is now available to NAAA members to conduct their own spray pattern testing. DropFlight is an iPhone/iPad app that was recently released which allows extremely fast scanning and analysis of water-sensitive spray cards, all on your mobile devices. This tool, created in-part by an aerial applicator, is targeted specifically for aerial applicators to use in assessing spray pattern uniformity, effective swath width and droplet size across the swath.
DropFlight is being offered exclusively to NAAA members for a one-time cost of $799 for unlimited use of the app. This represents a significant value in time savings alone in comparison to traditional methods of scanning cards for pattern analysis. The DropFlight tool will make it easy (and fast!) to obtain actionable results.
To further reduce friction in getting your spray pattern testing underway, DropFlight is also offering all the needed testing gear. Available as a convenient kit, or by the piece, their card mounting system makes it simple to lay out cards uniformly and in the correct orientation to the wind.
Whether you have never pattern tested your aircraft, or you simply weren't able to test all your desired boom setups or application rates at your last Fly-In, performing your own pattern testing is a sound investment in the quality of your work.
As an added benefit, if you consult with a NAAREF-recognized Operation S.A.F.E. Analyst about your pattern testing data, they can report this to NAAREF as participation in Operation S.A.F.E. NAAA members will receive an official letter of participation and credit toward C-PAASS certification.
