2023-09-02 09:58:52
“I did my first flight in my mom’s bellyI want to fly and be a pilot since I can remember, as a girl, when they asked me what I wanted to be, I said without hesitation: dancer of the Teatro Colón and airplane pilot”.
Years passed and at least one of those childhood dreams came true: to be a pilot. But other dreams were also added, such as that of being in the field, the magic of agronomy and teaching future new pilots.
The protagonist of this story, which is reflected in a new chapter of the THEM podcast serieses Virginia Zarantonello, who has a surname with a family tradition in agricultural aviation: his father, Héctor, was a pilot; and also his brother Diego (who unfortunately died in a plane crash).
Virginia started flying in 1997 after an arduous family negotiation, since two years before they had lost Diego. At the age of 17, she flew alone for the first time.although before he remembers postcards engraved on his retina in his father’s lap, already with the commandos in hand.
He studied agronomy in Rosario to to be the agronomist of the company “Zarantonello Servicios Aéreos” and make the prescriptions in the applications. However, in love with the land as she already was and passionate, she allowed herself to be carried away by the career that turned out to be “fantastic”. Today, in addition, they run the Delta Zulu flight school, in which they recruit young people with aspirations of flying through the air.
– You come from a family linked to the countryside, rurality and airplanes. What memories do you have of that childhood?
– It was that of a small town girl: we don’t have the countryside very far from Las Parejas, which, at that time, was a smaller town, is now a city and with other characteristics. But when I was little, the days were typical for siestas, and for me it was normal to be in the hangar, to be with my dad, to fly and to see the planes fly. A happy childhood. The smell of grass, wet earth, the sound of airplanes. That was a common environment for me.
– At what age did you fly for the first time?
– I started flying from my mom’s belly. I don’t remember my first flight, but I do remember an anecdote in which I was 6-7 years old, I was riding my dad’s lap and he gave me the commands to land and I was concentrating on going to the runway and at one point, feeling I was going too fast to make the landing, I pulled the controls back making the plane rise again and my dad asked me: “Where are you going?” “I turn around,” I told her in my language as a child. It remained as an anecdote.
– At what age did you drive for the first time? I know it’s a difficult story because of what happened with your brother…
– That is an issue we still have to deal with today. Takes. Fear is not lost anymore. Not for me, but for others. I enjoy it. It’s a bit selfish. I have always wanted to fly. Since I was a girl, I used to see my father and my brother fly by above the house, when they took a turn in formation. And for me it was great, I wanted to be there with them and be the third plane. It was a dream since I was a girl, I fed it. We were unlucky when my brother’s accident happened, for which we never found an explanation because he was a very focused boy and with all the conditions to be a good driver. But it happened. Despite that, and also in honor of him, I always wanted to fly.
– And how did you do?
– Two years after Diego’s accident I insisted on my father. He taught me a lot, in fact I did my first solo flight with him. But he asked me, if he wanted to continue with this, to show me another one. At first it was very hard. For him that I do the same was difficult. So it was that I took the course with another instructor and got my first license. Later I did continue in our school. They put up with me and understood that I love this, I adore it, it’s a passion and they couldn’t forbid me because I was going to do it anyway.
FROM HEAVEN TO GROUND
– How did agronomy appear in your life?
– I finished high school and started agronomy as an alternative, because at that time there was a demand that each aero-application company was going to need an agronomist, yes or yes, to make the application recipes (of phytosanitary products). I had always liked the countryside, I had found it interesting. It turns out that it ended up being a discovery, because agronomy is a beautiful degree, it has a lot of divine subjects, it opens your mind and I ended up doing it with a lot of satisfaction.
– How was starting work? Did you already do aero-applications?
– I started like many engineers, monitoring batches for a company in a neighboring town. As a driver, the career is long. The time it takes has to do mostly with how many flight hours you can add up. I started first with the private pilot’s license, which is what we all start with. And then I kept putting in hours and getting more licenses. At the same time I started agronomy. I finished my degree and continued to put in hours and train as a pilot.
– Could you add hours in the family planes with which you worked in the fields?
– Aircraft aircraft are not used to add hours because the cost per hour of flight is expensive. You need smaller planes. But in addition to the planes to make applications, we always had the flight school and we had small planes. 100-150 HP engines that are used to add hours.
– What does it mean to you to fly?
– I feel fullness, an immense joy, enjoyment. It is a passion. I do not know how to explain it. I feel it in the soul.
– You are also a flight instructor. What advice for someone who is not sure if they should pursue this?
– The first thing you have to do is find out. Approach a school, a flying club, start chatting, tell them and, if you can, take you for a walk. When they come with that doubt, that they like airplanes but they don’t know if they’re going to bank on it, I tell them that it’s for anyone, and the way to see if they like it is to get on, sit next to the pilot and let them experience how it feels. feel off the ground.
– What do you need to know to be a pilot? What is important?
– Healthy habits, be careful, meticulous, follow the procedural and check-up checklists, be responsible. Contrary to what people usually think, that you have to be half crazy. No. Quite the opposite. You have to be methodical, have habits, generate behaviors that make the flight safe afterwards.
– Do you have a favorite name of an airplane that you have or have had? Or what name would you like to give to someone who is to come?
– We call them by the license plate. “Lima-Victor” all nationals and different license plates. An airplane that I loved very much was the “Luscombe”, but it is the name they give it at the factory. Although this was “November-Víctor-Dad” and we called him “Never-Flew-Worse”, playing with the initials. We fly a lot with that plane. But I love all the planes that pass through here.
– Do you use all those buttons that you have on the console?
– At first they seem like many, then over time you get used to recognizing them. Some are used more and others less, but each one is useful for something.
– What is your job today?
– A bit of everything. With the school I work all year in instruction. That is constant. Later, the field requires programming and seasonal work: fallow, sowing preparation, sowing, monitoring and harvesting. And then the aero-application campaign, which is getting shorter today, used to start with wheat and end with second long-group soybeans. Today the application is very concentrated in a short time, from September to October with the fungicides in wheat. Then in December fungicides in corn. And at the end of January and February applications on soybeans, eventually on some corn and some sorghum.
– What do you like about what you do?
– All. I have the advantage and the blessing that I love what I do. It is a joy every day. It’s rare that I get up with a bad vibe because of what I have to do. If I have to fly it is the perfect day. If I have to go to the field too and every time I have to be with future new drivers too, each student is a story and it’s a lot of fun. You learn a lot from each one. And it’s great. I always enjoy.
– Aero-applicator planes are the eye of the storm whenever there is talk of agrochemicals. What technology stands out today that can certify that an aero-application is safe?
– Things have changed absolutely since I was a girl. Anyway, I don’t know why hover apps are in the eye of the storm. It will be that the plane attracts attention. Every time they talk about agrochemicals they put up a photo of an airplane. I do not understand why! Because it is also a minimum percentage of the applications that are made by plane. Today the products are no longer the same. Luckily, for those of us who have to work with them, they have a green or blue band, comparable to the products we have at home. Later, the flaggers allow you to have precision in the application. But also, today, the main tool that is available is knowledge and information. Because when you go to do a job you have information on humidity, temperature, intensity and direction of the wind. You are going to do the job when you have the conditions for the application to be good, of quality and effective. Then, all the technology that one takes on board the plane to monitor the applications is also important: where did you apply, when and under what conditions.
– How far do they fly from the ground when they apply?
– Two meters from the crop more or less.
– Bajito…
– Yeah. That is the main risk of the activity, you have to be with all the lights because all the obstacles are at the height that you are flying, mountains, houses, cables. The main enemy in aerial applications, especially in this area that is more developed, are the cables, because you don’t see them, they hide on the horizon. That is why we do an evaluation flight first, and then, when we start the passes, we keep in mind the obstacles that we have already identified.
– And just like in a street car you can set the cruising speed, you can set a minimum flight height and below that height something is activated that makes you go up?
– (laughs) No, you have to wear it, pure doll, there is no other.
– Flying airplanes seems to be something more “for men”. How has it been for you as a woman between wings, propellers and turbines?
– I am struck by the number of women I hear while I am flying in the radio frequency, operating. There’s a lot. Although we are still a minority. In the aeronautical environment I was always encouraged to continue. I always had people who gave me a good vibe to take new steps. It was rarer before, less rare now and as time goes by it is more normal to meet a female pilot.
OUT OF THE GROOVE
– What do you do to clear your head after a difficult day at work? Do you have any hobbies?
– Contact with the earth relaxes me a lot. The garden. Put your hands in the earth, the plants. And if I have to mention a sport, I adore swimming. And then, obviously, the family.
– Music, what do you like to listen to?
– I listen to everything. From blues, jazz, rock of all kinds, I have a teenage daughter and with her I listen to “Tan biónica”, “You won’t like it”, we went through Cerati, “Ciro y los Persas”. Interlational? David Gilmour, which I have very high, I like a lot. But also Queen, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen. I listen to everything.
– When do you watch movies or series?
I watch little TV. If I watch a series it’s because it was recommended to me.
– Any place that you have known and that you recommend?
– I love all of Argentina. From end to end. From the north to the south. I was recently in the north, divine landscapes, I came with a retina full of beautiful landscapes.
– And some place that you would like to visit?
– I still need to know a lot about Argentina. And I would like to know Europe.
– Any woman who has been or is your model or admire… –
– As a model and admiration, my mother and my sister. They are very strong women and good advisors, good people. Later, in aviation, Amelia Earhart (N of the R: Born in 1897 and died in 1939, American, pilot and writer, was the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic, and one of the first to promote air travel commercial).
– Where are your dreams as a pilot going?
I think I’m living my dream. I’m doing what I always wanted to do. My dream is this. The actual. Now it remains to enjoy and perfect what I already am.
– Do you have a header phrase or that you say from time to time, that you share…
– There is a saying that says: “Work on something you love to do and you will not work a single day in your life”. It identifies me from what I already told you, because it’s lucky that I have to do something that I love and it doesn’t bother me. I think if we were all lucky enough to find something we love to do we would be the best version of ourselves and what good would we do to the world!
WOMEN IN CAMPAIGN
“ELLAS” is a series of podcasts made by Infofield with country women who inspire by their entrepreneurial history, and which has the accompaniment of “Women in Campaign”, an initiative of New Holland Agriculture that already has a path traveled and ambassadors from different parts of the country.
The Women in Campaign Initiative (MEC) arose when we began to notice that there are many women involved in the field with great capacities and that we all had something in common: the need to share experiences related to the countryside and rural work, our main objective is to make visible the role of rural women in any of their tasks, be it as a client or as a reference for the sector”, said Roxana López, a reference for Marketing New HollandArgentina.
From “Mujeres en Campaña” they developed the concept of “ambassadors” that allows us to know a little more about each one in their field and, in turn, disseminates how they work and how they feel.
The objective of this pairing between ELLAS and Mujeres en Campaña is to reach women of different ages and different geographical areas. “We are proud when a parent tells us that He recommended his daughter to enroll in our platform to train and take one of the courses we offer”, López added.
From the MEC platform, you can access training, forums, workshops, interviews and content of interest, in addition, it has a Fair of Entrepreneurs to publicize the projects led by the followers.
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