Commute to n from work today, I'm digging this gig more n more everyday!


Done flyin, Redfish on the spit

Living the dream, Skaly... Living the dream...

Skalywag,

Enjoy this season. You are being careful and doing a good job. Next season you will push it around a little quicker and carry bigger loads. This is normal and expected. It is fairly common for the first incident or accident to happen the second season.

Like you said, the farmers will watch you at first. They can count loads as well as anyone. If you make a mistake or if they complain, fix it. Farmers have long memories. I'm sure the boss has told you the same.

Jim

Thanks for the comments guys. Things are winding down around here a bit, been sprayin sesame n cotton.

Killin cotton, sprayed both sides, but days apart. Goin back over first half with last round of defoliant today


Began defoliating fields over here this afternoon n gonna pick up where I left off in the morning...windmills n wires yeehaw

Yup shitty photo but I get the same glare sliding between these bitches, no bitchin here this is fun

That is an airframe mounted camera doing the photos in the wind turbines right

Flying on the road...
names have been changed to protect the innocent

 Ya know, I can' t honestly say for sure, but I guess I'd be willing to bet that no matter what kinda flying you do, if you're on the road, you're likely gonna team up with the most diverse bunch of folks you ever imagined...

 Take our eclectic group here in Iowa for example...

Coming from the great state of Arizona, there's Dan and I... Now You really could get away with just calling us Oscar and Felix, because the odd couple didn't have a thing on us... But when it comes down to road trippin, Dan and I gel really well... Back home they call Dan 'the Colonel' or 'Frank' after Lieutenant colonel Frank Burns  ... He's just that over organized and rigid... If there is a smudge on his airplane it had better be an FAA and Department of Ag approved smudge... Me, organized? maybe when I grow up ? 

 Sliding over a bit, we have the Kansas boys. The only other Thrushs in the group, I would say these guys are alright, but alas... They have to show up and pollute the pad with their noisy old -10 Garrets...the good thing about the Kansas boys is they damn sure know how to prepare. These boys bring a whole entourage of help and equipment, I mean theres more to moving them up here than Barnum and Bailey... but nothing phases their work ethic. Sometimes you' think they were the hosts! And it's not uncommon for them to actually do Mx on the hosts a/c. Like 'Frank' they tend to run a little 'stiff' for crop dusters, but there are plenty of 'looser' folks in the crowd to balance this out.

 Continuing on we have the Oklahoma air force .... I don't know why we call them that ? They are from Texas. I guess it's because when these boys show up to the party they do it in a grand fashion. Generally they bring four or five Airtractors ranging from a 400 on up to a 602, and when they arrive in unison, it's in a perfect formation wing tip to wing tip. Hell they look like a gaggle of yellow belly geese! Being Texan, they sound about the same when they talk... But I digress... They are a swell bunch, and a couple of them are just youngsters, so they liven the place up nicely.

 A bit farther east gets us Buck and who ever his hired pilot is that year, from Arkansas. Buck is a jewel of an old timer, at 70+ he has undoubtedly forgotten more about flying than a late bloomer like me will ever know. Another one of those guys that can get in anything with wings, regardless of their orientation, and make it sing, from Hiller to AT802. Buck turns an AT802 without ever using flaps tighter than most can turn a Thrush. And for those that aren't Ag familiar, I just can't begin to describe how impossible that is...
 But dammit man, I have come to the conclusion that good ole Buck has a problem with his hands... That man has always got to have a cigarette, a beer or his Peter in his hand. I mean always! I mean how do you fly like that? And no, just to be clear, the beer is always after we park, but it damn sure ain't much after. But by God that ole boy will hit the pad, jump out on to the leading edge of the wing to bark out orders, with a cigarette in one  hand... Unzip, and just start wizzin away with the other... Right off the wing,  in front of Gawd and everybody! Just  like a proud peacock... And never miss a beat on the orders! How can you not love an old coot with that much confidence. If I tried that I think my Peter would just shrivel up and hide!
 
 Bucks hired guns are usually first year pilots, fresh up from Arkansas. It never ceases to amaze me how well he has them trained up before they get here!... Well there was that one guy... But even he polished up with amazing timing.

 This year Monte came back up from Louisiana. I think thats somewhere in france or spain or something, but cant really understand him when he tries to tell me... Actually, I  just now got pretty good at understanding Buck's dialect, maybe I'll get around to understanding coonass or cajun or whatever they call it next year.... Monte's flying one of the hosts 602's, yesterday after he went out to get stated, Buck jumped up and says;

 Hay y'all, 
 B'gawd I'm pretty shore I ken understand watt that fella  speakin a farin language is tryin ta say...

 Wholly Shizzz... I don't know what was funnier, the fact that good ole Buck really thought Monte was talking in some foreign tongue, or the fact that most of the time none of us westerners can understand a word Buck's sayin either!

 God bless road work!
 

LMAO!!!!!

Haha! Awesome read for first thing in the morning Rob! Thanks!

Glad you liked it, but it's really the gosh honest truth. this whole road work deal is just one continuing comedy or errors!
And I myself am by no means immune from it…. Take today for example… this morning we got rained out, blowed about, and just basicly shut down… now most of the crew does the good ole American thing and heads right to the local watering hole…

Rob? oh no… they no sooner said 'done for the day' and I dug out the ultra light rod that resides in my travel bag and hiked down to the pond on the edge of town…

Now the first thing I learned is that when you get shut down for Wx… well it probably aint gonna make grand Wx for hiking across parts unknown, arriving at the pond soaking wet, and wore out, I am reasonably assured to wake up with a cold… the next thing I learned is that the worlds a much smaller place at 150 mph… the little hike outta town proved to be quite a journey … I mean I hiked my @$$ off… no really … I had no @$$ left by the end of this day. I did manage to score on a dozen or so smallish striper ( I didn't even know Iowa had striper?) And ya... we do have a pick up at our disposal, but brother Dan's keepin the lazy boy warm back at the house, and I hate to leave him without a ride.... besides, I'm on a diet, or health kick.. or somethin like that.... I guess that means I gotta have no @$$
About half beat down and dog tired I started my trek back to the house Dan and I rent during this deal… ( ya, we do, do some things right ) and I pass a Dollar General store… a quick trip in and the day pack is now loaded with a hibachi, mesquite, and matches. A slight detour and I find the town grocer has T-bones, fixins for twice bakeds, sweet corn that would make all of Olathe blush, (that's the CO. home of sweet corn for those that didn't know) and margarita fixins that would make brother Gary proud

Tonight I sit, fat dumb and happy… with a whole new @$$ and in comes the text… we wanna start early tomorrow !

Lifes good!

Take care, Rob

Sounds like a West Texas Rio Grande fishing trip. Strangest bunch of of oddball friends you can stand to be around.

Cotten harvest is in full swing

I see you are using the aural backup method of knowing you're not too high on your swath run. Are you using Trigger or defoliating?

Contact, we're defoliating right now. In that pic I was sprayin fields with wires it's best to go under. I'm still gettin the feel for how much headroom's available, so I get as low as possible without landing at the part where the wires sag the lowest

That is good. I bounced on an irrigation dike once under a wire that scared me for a bit. When there is any kind of hump, it is harder to judge where you are.

In the cotton, you can put your wheels down onto the crop and hit the few higher plants for the tick, tick, tick, sound. Good practice to find out just where the wheels are. That, in turn, helps when going under wires.

Last of the cotton, really nice morning

Hey guys, check this out. It's a trailor for a doco I was involved with. I did the night shots and take credit for the big melon with the blue lid

Looks like there's some great footage in the doc, 51C170. The interesting looking yellow crop-dusting plane they keep showing, that the trailer ends with: what is it? Is it a specialized cropdusting plane? It looks oddly cool to me.

Clark wrote:Looks like there's some great footage in the doc, 51C170. The interesting looking yellow crop-dusting plane they keep showing, that the trailer ends with: what is it? Is it a specialized cropdusting plane? It looks oddly cool to me.

The yellow ones are Air Tractors. The ones doing the fire bombing are AT802's, the night spraying is in a AT602 and the rice sowing is in a AT502. There are also turbine Dromaders, a Pawnee and a Brave. They are all purpose built for ag work.

Yesterday my brother's pasture was sprayed with a Fall application of 24-D for thistle controll. Not too many round engine Ag Cats around these days.