The Grumman G-164 Ag Cat is a bi-plane aircraft designed for agricultural crop spaying.
The Grumman G-164 Ag Cat was certificated for agricultural work in January 1959, following
development from the prototype that was flown first on 22 May 1957. Production aircraft
were assembled by the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation between 1959 and 1979 under sub-contract
from Grumman. In 1981, Schweizer bought the design and production rights. Until they sold the
manufacturing rights to AgCat Corporation in 1995, the AgCat remained in production with Schweizer.
In December 1968, Dutch Air Sprayers, Siddeburen, was established by the
agricultural pilots Slagman and Post with support of Agragflug, Worms,
Germany. However it was an Eelde based operator most of their aircraft
were hard to see at the airport. One of the first signs of flying activity
was the arrival of Grumman G-164A Ag Cat 5Y-AIZ on 8 February 1969. This Ag Cat
was destined for Farmers Air Work Ltd. in Kenya and was flown by Dutch Air Sprayers.
On 13 February, Ag Cat 5Y-AIZ departed on delivery to its homebase
Nakuru in Kenya. Mid-April 1969, Grumman G.164A Ag Cat's SE-ENW and
SE-ENT arrived by car at Groningen-Eelde. They were brought in
flying condition and registered PH-DAP and PH-DAS.
Dutch Air Sprayers flew all over the world in countries like Sudan, South Africa and Suriname. Next to the PH-DAP &
PH-DAS they operated at least the Ag Cats D-FACU and D-FADA.
For crop-spraying a Hughes 300 was leased from Merava, Germany.
As the Benelux dealer for Champion they operated Champion 7GCBC Citabria
N7566F. For sightseeing and instruction flights Cessna F.172H PH-VVV and
Cessna TU206C PH-EEG were operated. During an auction, four ex.RLS Beech
D-18S (PH-UDH, PH-UDS, PH-UDU
and PH-UES) were bought on behalf of Agrarflug GmbH, Worms, Germany /
International Ag-Cat Distributors Inc., Arlington (VA), USA, for a total
of DFL.120.000. The aircraft were parked in front of the German hangar
at Groningen-Eelde awaiting resale. Next to the Beech D-18S, Piper L-18C
Super Cub N8944 was parked and offered for sale. Dutch
Air Sprayers defunct in 1971.
On 8 February 1969, Grumman G-164A AgCat 5Y-AIZ was seen in front of the
German hangar at Groningen Airport Eelde. That day, the aircraft came in
on its delivery flight to Farmers Airwork Ltd. in Kenya. The aircraft
was flown by Gerard Post, one of the founders of Dutch Air Sprayers. On
13 February, Ag Cat 5Y-AIZ, flown by Gerard Post, resumed the
delivery flight to its new homebase Nakuru in Kenya. The 1966-built
Grumman G-164A Ag Cat c/n 422 was testflown as N901X. In August 1967, in
Germany registration D-FACY was reserved for Agrar-Flug GmbH. On 3 March
1968, the aircraft was registered D-FACY with Agrar-Flug GmbH, Worms. On
10 January 1969, registration D-FACY was cancelled after the Ag Cat was
sold to Farmers Airwork Ltd., Nairobi, and in February 1969 the aircraft
was registered 5Y-AIZ with Farmers Airwork Ltd., Nairobi. On 31 January
1977, the Grumman G-164A was registered ZS-JWV in South-Africa with N.J.
Towill, George.
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