The flyboys of summer

We were driving home to Milton through the Redden Forest after a Saturday evening dinner in Georgetown when we spotted a yellow crop-dusting plane flying over green fields. It landed in the vicinity of the Allen Chorman and Son airfield off E. Redden Forest Road. This is how I came to write an article about those daring flyboys of summer, the Chorman father and son, namely Allen and Jeff.

Jeff returned my call and agreed to an interview soon afterward, and the next morning at 8 a.m. sharp, my phone was ringing. It was Jeff, who I'm sure had been patiently awaiting a decent hour to call me since he usually awakens at 3:30 a.m., an hour familiar to crop dusters.

But to return to the yellow plane I had spotted a few evenings earlier, it struck me that artists and pilots of all stripes have something in common – a love and zest for what they do! As the old homily states, "If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life." This is true, but both callings involve work as well. Hard work combined with love and bravery!

My father, Jim Bounds, who was field manager for Milton's Draper King Cole Company (more specifically Island Farms) some 50 years ago, was friend and colleague to the senior heroes of this group of pilots. Being benignly vainglorious, they speak often of heroes. Jeff says his father is his. Allen claims Joe Hudson and Al Johnson are his. Speaking of fame, Allen was inducted into the Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013, and Jeff will be inducted this year.

Thinking that we would interview Jeff Chorman at the landing strip near Redden Forest on the road to Georgetown, we instead found ourselves driving on the rain-drenched Friday afternoon of July 12 westward to Greenwood to meet him. On the drive, we passed housing developments near Milton and Ellendale that have replaced the green cornfields of the Sussex County of long ago. The newer, bigger Chorman family enterprise is actually just a short distance into Kent County and is called Chorman Aerial Application Services.

Upon greeting Jeff Chorman, I exclaimed, "You're a Wagamon," for he seemed to favor the Wagamons I had known in Milton, and his mother's maiden name is Maryann Wagamon. But when I later saw a photo of him standing next to his father in the fascinating book they gave me, "Flying Over Delmarva," I saw a resemblance there, too.

Jeff is boyishly handsome, married and the father of two teenage daughters, but don't let that fool you, because he is many years wise about the aviation business from years of flying early on under the tutelage of his father, a seasoned crop-duster legend. He also has a college degree in business from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, Fla.

At 18, Jeff received his commercial license for spraying and earned his place in the left-hand seat of a plane. Having hung around Eagle Crest, Joe Hudson's airport, since he was a young boy, Jeff told me he could always find welcoming babysitters there. The company that later became Allen Chorman & Son Inc. was established in 1950. Allen purchased the business from Joe Hudson on Jan. 1, 1987. They also own 2 acres adjacent to the landing strip off E. Redden Forest Road and purchased the 220-acre Greenwood facility in 1987.

I learned a lot about this exciting business that misty afternoon. Noteworthy to me among the many stories was that the Chormans continue to work on their planes in the off-season, maintaining and improving them. Also, each field gets its own prescription for spraying, just like when I go to the pharmacy. Jeff said sweet corn keeps the lights on. They also spray for mosquitoes in the summer as well as phragmites, using specially outfitted helicopters. They even contract with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to do aerial surveys of artificial reefs made by sinking reclaimed vessels offshore. They are certainly multiseasonal as well as being multitaskers, including spraying watermelons in Laurel for your summer pleasure.

According to Jeff, his aerial spraying company is the largest of its kind for this sort of business east of the Mississippi River. To keep all of this humanly doable, Jeff says he never ventures farther for new business than he can go and still sleep in his own bed that night. This dynamo is also running for a seat on the Delaware Electric Cooperative board of directors. The challenge is exciting for him, and he feels that this is a way he can better serve the agricultural community. That's where his heart is. Bill Wells, who has served 48 years on the DEC board, said he supports Jeff as a good person to succeed him.

For drivers leaving the Greenwood campus, a sign warns, "You've now left the safety of air travel; be careful on the road." However, my story didn't end there. I just had to have a talk with the patriarch and founder of this business, Jeff's father Allen. The next day, I interviewed this aerial legend who has famously been photographed by Kevin Fleming in his yellow plane flying over a field of yellow sunflowers.

Allen Chorman is a fascinating raconteur who started his long career driving farm tractors for Joe Hudson when he was 10 years old, and then later bought the business. He had lots of stories about his friend and competitor Al Johnson, whom I have written about in an earlier article. Allen had kind words about Al and remains friends with him.

These driven men, lovers of flying, often hang around airports as youngsters doing any chore to eventually reach their lofty goals. Allen has reached 30,000 hours in the air since then, and has a son to be proud of as Jeff continues his long legacy.