![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/DarrinPluhar-2020-headshot-web.jpg\")
Pluhar owns Plu\u2019s Flying Service Inc., an aerial application\nbusiness in Ekalaka, Montana, that operates three aircraft. Since establishing\nthe business in 1996, he has been servicing producers across southeastern\nMontana for more than 20 years. Pluhar hires pilots as needed but does most of\nthe spraying himself. He primarily applies herbicides to winter wheat and\nspring wheat, but he also treats a great deal of pasture and alfalfa, with some\nsafflower, sunflowers and corn. His season starts in April and ends in\nNovember. Besides Montana, Pluhar is licensed as a pesticide applicator in\neight other states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska,\nIowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas, where he has performed boll weevil\neradication applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pluhar has been an active member of the Association of\nMontana Aerial Applicators (AMAA) and NAAA for years. He has served on AMAA\u2019s\nboard since 2000. In 2008-2009, he went through the NAAA\/Syngenta Leadership\nTraining Program, which develop new leaders and advocates for the agricultural\naviation industry. Pluhar served as AMAA\u2019s president in 2010-2011. He joined\nNAAA\u2019s board of directors as AMAA\u2019s state representative in 2013 and has served\non several key committees, including NAAA\u2019s finance, government relations and\nsafety\/federal aviation regulations committees. He served as NAAA\u2019s treasurer\nin 2016 and as its vice president in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides being an aerial applicator, Pluhar is a certified\nflight instructor. He believes safety should always be the aerial application\nindustry\u2019s top priority and is a strong proponent of NAAA\u2019s efforts to improve\nag pilot recurrent training. To that end, he became a PAASS presenter in 2016\nand has served since then as one of about a dozen presenters who deliver the\nProfessional Aerial Applicators\u2019 Support System safety education program, known\nas the PAASS Program for short, at state and regional ag aviation conventions\naround the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serving alongside Pluhar on NAAA\u2019s 2020 officer team are\nVice President Mark Kimmel, owner of Dixie Dusters Inc. in Itta Bena,\nMississippi; Secretary John \u201cJT\u201d Helms, vice president of Old Republic\nAerospace Inc. in Kennesaw, Georgia; and Treasurer Mike Rivenbark, owner of\nMoore\u2019s Aerial Applicators in Clinton, North Carolina. Pluhar is honored to\nserve alongside his fellow officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a privilege to have been chosen by the NAAA board of\ndirectors to represent this great organization as president for 2020,\u201d he said.\n\u201cI am humbled beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) has announced Montana native Darrin Pluhar has been elected its president for 2020. Pluhar owns Plu\u2019s Flying Service Inc., an aerial application business in Ekalaka, Montana, that operates three aircraft. Since establishing the business in 1996, he has been servicing producers across southeastern Montana for more than 20 years. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14600,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions\/14600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}