Crop Duster

Wow, this is interesting. I had no idea that flying a crop duster was that dangerous. City boy problems....

Great pic.

Great picture ,sorry to hear about the other flyer.

I have never liked flying ::

I am confused. The dictionary I have says:
crop dusting
def. farting while walking; walking while farting; the art and practice of passing gas in a crowd of people unbeknownst to them
While walking through the mall and coughing to mask the sound, I crop dusted the unsuspecting holiday shoppers.
I crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store.

I am confused. The dictionary I have says:
crop dusting
def. farting while walking; walking while farting; the art and practice of passing gas in a crowd of people unbeknownst to them
While walking through the mall and coughing to mask the sound, I crop dusted the unsuspecting holiday shoppers.
I crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store.

Click to expand...

:rofl:

No response from Bradley redbeard - he must be feeling guilty.

Beautiful sight. Dad used to be licensed to fly a small plane before the Parkinsons and he adamantly refused to fly crop-dusting runs because of the altitude/airspeed dangers. Sad to hear of another young man claimed by it.

Looks like a Grumman Ag Cat. Yes, low and slow doing aerobatics around power lines is dangerous. I'm sorry for the guy that crashed. Beautiful to watch though. I would give anything to become a pilot.

Saw a statistic somewhere saying the career cropduster will crash 7 times in his life. As a CAP search and rescue pilot and ground team leader, we went after many a crop duster who "bounced" his plane on his runs.
Related -- an old crop duster told of one spot in one field near a grove that a buck deer was protecting. Every pass he made near that section, the buck would try to spear him, easily clearing the corn the duster was flying over at tassel height (about 9' -- or nearly 3 meters). He was worried the buck would actually hook his main gear.
When they come to power lines they make a decision, over or under. Some prefer under, because they can cut out the peripheral runs. Others always go over, afraid they'll eventually either tear off their rudder or lose their mains.
I *love* watching them.
At the airport, watching them come in at the end of the day, they are absolutely bushed. They go through a little of what an aerobatic performer goes through -- except for 15 or more hours a day. They spray while there is light to spray. Wreaks hell on their body, physically.
Fascinating breed of men and women.
The technology is amazing! Our search and rescue planes have high-tech cameras that can identify aircraft aluminum and aircraft paint as you fly a search route. Select what you're looking for, the computer will alert you if you fly over it (hey... marijuana growers.. we can even tell what type of marijuana you have in your grove, case you wondered how so many friends get busted). Well, some of these ag planes have high tech cameras that automatically adjust the spray for those areas that have insect damages and those that don't. The profit margins can be tweaked a bit by judicious spraying, rather than a blanket of the same dose over everything in the field.
Times have changed!

I used to do aerial spraying before I got into bush flying in the arctic. Its generally as dangerous as you are daring. Or complacent. Powerlines, fences and wellheads are certainly obstacles, but they're not hidden. We always drove out and checked new fields before we flew and never had an incident. We had Ag Wagons, Ag Cats, Thrushs and a Pawnee.

The Ag Wagon I started on is now in the Calgary Areospace Museum; it was serial #7 and the oldest flying plane of that model.