Crop Dusters

One went down in Carolina couple days ago "the pilot had 20 years of experience flying planes and refused medical treatment", and got me thinking.
What a great job for a pilot.

Think about it, for a civi pilot, your not just a bus driver (airlines) carting folks from A to B on auto-pilot, but actually using stick and rudder. The folks who do that job must be from a different era. I'm thinking barnstormers, but it's prolly not that romantic.

I remember living in S. Florida driving the family up to Kissimmee/Orlando area and stopping on the turnpike to watch the cropdusters fly over the orange groves. I saw them do hammer-head stalls to turn and spray another row. Pretty damn cool.

Have to do more research on these folks, but thought I'd share.

Here's the article that started it:
http://www.wral.com/pilot-walks-away-from-crop-duster-crash-in-duplin-county/14795356/

Take-offs and landings.

Watched a crop duster working a field up the hill last summer for a while. He really had it
dialed in to keep it in between the power lines on both sides of the corn fields. Makes you
wonder how an independent Duster service gets by the FAA when having an accident. And just
keeps going. I suppose it all depends upon where you live to.

OG, it's just like taking a woman on a date - it's what's you do in between that counts.

Nah, in between take-offs and landings things are usually easy. And of the two, it's the landings that get your interest.

So, we are talking about women :-)

My wife sometimes accuses me of crop dusting during after-meal walks

Well you gotta pay for that private license somehow Not sure what else you can do without a commercial license to earn money with one.

I cornered one of our A-10C pilots in the club at Lajes Field in the Azores on our way back from the sand box. I knew he had done crop dusting for a bit, as well as bush pilot/tour guide stuff in Alaska. Just a big dumb kid who loves to fly...and why he loves flying the A-10.

He said he worked his butt off to get the necessary classes and licensing to handle the chemicals and when he started actually flying the crop dusters he loved it.

Well, after awhile, like everything, it became a job...albeit a fun one. He was working very long days and said after awhile he'd just be flying along and "zone out" because he was so tired. Kind of like we all might get on a long drive across country when you just start staring at nothing. At one point he even clipped a power line, did some damage to the plane, and landed it back at the airport scared out of his mind. He quit right there.

So, crop dusting looks like it would be a blast, but if this crazy pilot couldn't hack it with all of the different flying styles he does, then just maybe it really isn't as glamorous as it looks.

Are you sure?

Yep, hot confines, carcinogenic chemicals, long hours, nomadic lifestyle all at below 500 agl...sounds like a blast...for someone else.

Cool story. Thanks for posting that.

You dusted the WRONG FIELD. Love that movie.

Too bad for Quaid, but luckily for the producers, his character can't come back for the sequel.



The Jedi Master

You obviously didn't read the leaked plot for the sequel.

Since the Aliens lost the first mothership to that guy they assumed he was the best the humans had.
So they took whatever DNA sample they salvaged from th wreck and replicated him.

Just imagine a whole invasion fleet made of drunkard heroes...