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 10 June 1969, the 1966-built Grumman G.164A Agcat c/n 427 (ex SE-ENW, N906X) was registered PH-DAP in
the Netherlands with Dutch Air Sprayers (Nederlandse Luchtsproeiers), Siddeburen, as holder and
International Ag-Cat Distributors Inc., Arlington (VA), USA, as owner. Grumman G.164A Ag Cat's SE-ENW and
SE-ENT arrived by car at Groningen-Eelde airfield in the Netherlands in April 1969. They were brought in
flying condition and registered PH-DAP and PH-DAS. AgCat PH-DAP was photographed during the Eelde Airshow on 30
May 1970: the aircraft showed a great dogfight together with and against sistership PH-DAS. On 31 August 1971,
the Dutch registrations of both Ag Cats were cancelled after the defunct of Dutch Air Sprayers. The aircraft
were registered N33508 and N33509 with International Ag-Cat Distributors Inc., Arlington (VA), USA, on 6 June 1972.
Luchtvaart déjà vu
