The Rural Voice, 1978-06, Page 5Frank Szekely and Hans Fischer work on the Ag Cat biplane which is the biggest weapon in the
Kincardine Airways battle against pests of farm crops. Maintenance of the machinery is a major
expense for crop dusters.
Trouble
1n the
air
Restrictions, bureaucracy have crop
sprayers fuming.
1
There is nothing subtle about Frank Szekely of Kincardine
Airways. Moments after being introduced he asks "So are you in
favour or against the red tape."
It's instantly obvious that as far as he is concerned, Frank
Szekely has one problem: government restrictions and
bureaucracy. He sits in a restaurant for the next hour telling tale
after tale of the troubles of being a crop spraying pilot in Ontario.
He tells it in his loud, excited voice so that not only the
interviewer can hear, but anyone in the restaurant who wants to
listen can too.
Of course Frank Szekely isn't a backward kind of man. While
many in Communist European countries suffered in silence,
Frank who was a member of the Czechoslovakian Air Force
decided to do something about it. In 1965, he says, he flew out of
the country, taking one of the Czech aircraft with him. In 1967 he
came to Canada and in 1968 he got his commercial pilot's
license. In 1969 he was working in the Aylmer area spraying
tobacco and then worked out of tide Simcoe area. But in 1972 he
looked northward and saw a large area without a resident crop
spraying operation. He moved his home base to Kincardine and
since then has served an area roughly from Kincardine to
Goderich and 20 miles inland.
It's been six years of constant battling with authorities since
then, but he's been building an ever larger business. The
battling starts when you buy an aircraft and just keeps going he
says. He tells of buying a used Ag Cat biplane in the United
States at a cost of $55,000. He made the downpayment on Feb.
15 but it was June 16 before he finally got the licence that said he
could legally fly the aircraft.
It meant he lost one month's work with his aircraft and there
are only about four months when a crop sprayer can work in
summer. During the time the machine sat idle he still had to pay
out about $1000 in insurance as well as interest on the cost of the
THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1978. PG. S.