Marcos Vilela and Alan McCracken were chosen to receive the honor that will be delivered at the dinner on the first day of the AvAg Congress 2022

Agronomists Alan McCracken and Marcos Vilela de Magalhães Monteiro will be honored by SINDAG with this year’s Agricultural Aviation Merit Medal. The award ceremony will take place during the Agricultural Aviation Dinner, on July 19th, during the AgAv Congress in Sertãozinho, state of São Paulo. The highest distinction in Brazilian agricultural aviation, the award aims to recognize the achievements of professionals who have contributed significantly to the growth and evolution of the sector.

Launched in 2017, the first winners of the medal were agronomists Eduardo Cordeiro Araújo and José Carlos Christofoletti. The following year, the awardees were the American aeronautical engineer Leland Snow and the agronomist Yasuzo Ozeki (both in memoriam) and, in 2019 (last in-person edition of the AvAg Congress before to the restrictions of the Covid 19 pandemic), the distinction went to the Brazilian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Marialdo Rodrigues Moreira, agricultural entrepreneur Euclides de Carli (both in memoriam) and agronomist and professor Wellington Pereira Alencar de Carvalho – see more by clicking HERE.

AMONG THE PIONEERS OF THE COUNTRY

At 84 years old, Marcos Vilela de Magalhães Monteiro has an intense trajectory of more than six decades contributing to the ag aviation industry. Graduated in Agronomy in 1959, he was one of the 10 pilots trained in the first edition of the Brazilian Agricultural Aviation Course (Cavag), in 1967. Two years later, he completed his doctorate in Agronomy at the Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture (Esalq), from the University of São Paulo (Usp).

In more than 60 years of professional activities, Marcos Vilela has developed or introduced important equipment and technologies for phytosanitary defense in Brazil, especially in agricultural aviation – such as ultra-low volume (UBV), rotary atomizer, electrostatic systems, thermal inversion sensors and others. In addition, as an instructor accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, he has trained more than 4,000 agricultural technicians and agronomists, respectively, in courses for executors (CEAA, acronym in Portuguese) and coordinators in ag aviation operations (CCAA).

Vilela has been in the profession for 63 years, of which more than five decades have been dedicated to agricultural aviation – Photo: Castor Becker Júnior/C5 NewsPress

Having already spoken at the congresses organized by SINDAG, Vilela has shared his knowledge with the sector since the first ag aviation meeting that took place in Brazil, in 1971. In fact, in addition to being a speaker at the event, it was he who chaired the Board of the 1st Annual Meeting of Brazilian Aerial Applicators, which took place in July of that year, at Parque Anhembi, in São Paulo.

The meeting was promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the 3rd Agricultural Technique Fair and was attended by none other than Clóvis Gularte Candiota and Ada Rogato (first man and woman agricultural pilots in the country), Eduardo Araújo (winner of the 1st Medal of Agricultural Aviation Merit), by Lieutenant Colonel Marialdo Moreira (posthumously honored with Medal No. 5) and other pioneers such as Joaquim Eugênio (Joaquim da Broca) and Orlando Bombini.

FROM THE WORLD TO BRAZIL

Born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, to farmers, Alan McCracken currently resides in Daytona Beach, Florida. At the age of 77 (completed on June 16), he has traveled to 134 countries working on his two passions: agriculture and mechanics. He is agronomist and mechanical engineer graduated from the Essex Institute of Agriculture, currently Writtle University College, in Essex, England, and an extension course in Aerial Application at Cranfield College of Aeronautics, today, Cranfield University, in Cranfield (about eighty kilometers from London).

The new nominee for the Brazilian Agricultural Aviation Merit tells who had his passion for the sector aroused while working on experiments in Poland and Romania. McCracken has built a career as one of the world’s leading experts in the application of chemicals, both for crop protection and for fighting mosquitoes. Helping a lot in the improvement of the Brazilian ag aviation industry.

Country where he arrived for the first time in 1973, to introduce techniques of aerial and terrestrial applications in the desiccation of soybeans. Three years later, the potential for greater use of airplanes in this type of operation was the subject of his presentation at the 1st National Symposium of Agricultural Operators, promoted by Embraer in the city of Guaruja, on the coast of São Paulo. From then on, his work increased here: he participated in most of the ag aviation events held since then and came to visit Brazil monthly – up to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic arrived.

Aerial applications adviser in several countries, since 1973 McCracken has contributed to the Brazilian ag aviation – Photo: personal archive