Since we have a farmers/ranchers thread and a Truckers thread, I guess it wouldn't be too off the wall to have a crop dusters thread. Not backcountry flying, but it's country

This is my first season spraying and I enjoy hearing all the older and/or more experienced sprayers stories etc. whether you've got stories, words of wisdom, pictures, or just plain ol bullshit to share I'd love to see/hear it

Here's some pics that some may have already seen but it's all I got to share so far. I owe 55Wagon a huge thanks for getting me into this gig, it's really hard to break-in spraying these days. I started out in and am currently flying an old Thrush S2R with the Garret Turbine conversion, 400 gallon hopper and extended wings.

Where's that corn? Wish mine was that big so I can quit worrying about if it's going to come up. Planted it Friday and it's been raining and cold ever since. Looks like you're doing good to get started in that machine.

Thanks Marty, that's milo (sorghum), not a whole lotta corn down here. If it doesn't rain pretty quick the grain yields gonna suffer. Most of what we spray is sunflowers, milo, n cotton. Hope y'all's season goes well. Has it been raining up there?

Here's some sunflowers from the other day when I was ridin backseat with Jason.

Skalyway,

Excellent idea. Someone mentioned corn so I will start with a corn story. I knocked the counterbalance part (top part that goes over the vertical stabilizer on a Pawnee) of the rudder over 90 degrees when I caught a wire with the cable that runs from the cabin to the top of the rudder. In continuous corn (irrigated) you will spray for root worm, two broods of corn borer, fungus, and sometimes spider mites. All this time the corn keeps growing. Places where you can easily get under wires become places where you can't.

E-mail me and in a return mail I will attach "Safe Maneuvering Flight Techniques," which has an ag syllabus in the back.

Keep the sticky side down,

Jim

Green bug in can get so thick you have to wipe the wing down after each load.

Has it been raining up there?

Yep, just kinda started now that it's planting time. We've had and inch or two in NW Iowa but my aunt said on the west side of Minneapolis--over 5 inches the last few days. So that means MN should be getting nervous too.

So was that milo about where the plane is based in south TX? I remember my dad spraying a field of soybeans that were about that height. It was too windy but the farmer insisted he spray. Dad said it isn't going to work but did it. The weeds on the upwind side of the row died but not on the downwind side. The farmer did complain but paid. That was with a 1972 Thrush with a round engine.

Oddly enough there is a few thousand acres of corn in my valley this year... We never see corn... When I heard it was BT I kinda cringed, but figured there wasn't enough to put much of a dent in my spring/summer work. Now going back for a third app on the same corn, it's kind growing on me .

Don't let your wheels get down in it, Rob. It will suck you down. Never let that one happen but have seen it.

Down in southern Iowa where the wild sunflowers grew taller than the corn, dad used to say he could feel a few hit the tires when he was spraying 24D.

Marty, yeah the milo is down here where we are based in the part of south TX everyone calls "the valley," lots of milo n cotton. The sunflowers is a kinda new thing, gonna be a great sunflower harvest. They also grow alot of sugar cane, citrus, melons n other vegetables, but we don't really do anything for them.

Right now I'm starting out spraying for Boweevils on cotton, they don't treat for em in Mexico so we still got em down here. This is a pic one of the ground observers snapped of me working this morning.

Do the small cockpits have air conditioning, and do you have to rotate the chemicals used due to some insect species becoming tolerant?

Air conditioning? In a Pawnee? Yes, the kids in jets have air conditioning.

That's one of my favorite shots Rob!

Hoping the corn goes good up north Marty! No rain and ill be in a jam after this sunflower run.
Look forward to flying up north.

Air conditioning.... The only way you can tell its working down here is to turn it off for a minute. Just enough to keep you alive..

Luke's reakin havoc on the boll weevils.

do you have to rotate the chemicals used due to some insect species becoming tolerant?

Up here in Iowa, that's where genetically modified(GMO) comes in---especially for corn. They insert genes to kill rootworms and corn bores. As the insects adapt, they seem to come up with a new gene. Mainly fungicide on corn and soybeans and a few different insecticides for soybean aphids is what goes on around here with airplanes. Last year I had my very best beans ever and didn't do fungicide or insecticide---go figure.

Luke, looks like your having too much fun

Mau Mau, the A/C in my plane works great when it's 90f or lower. Above that it keeps u from passing out like 55 said.

Tom, yup having a blast and learning like crazy. Like drinkin from a fire hose no doubt!

These were my first boweevil fields on left of the creek, snapped a shot yesterday in between loads. It was a perfect morning out today, didnt get any pics though, had to spray in a class C airspace.

I poisoned myself twice enough to get high and dangerous. First was in a 450 Stearman. Parathion ate through the fiberglass wrapping on the structural cross tubing in the hopper. From that cross tube, it spread throughout the aircraft tubing. The open cockpit is a venturi that sucks the poison right by your face. I had a full load of 200 gallons and was too cheap to dump. I couldn't find the ground with my numb feet when I swung down off the bottom wing.

The second incident turned into an accident. I had spent a whole day in 114 degree heat trying various used spray pumps until I got one to work. My loader, also tired, asked me to use the five gallons in the right tank to calibrate. I did so but failed to change back to my normal working right tank. Going into my second swath on an onion plot, the engine quit.

Unusually unperturbed, l halted my left turn into the onion plot,which was too far, and made a hard right turn to line up with near cotton rows. I was calm and tranquil throughout.

What really happened, according to the border patrol agent sitting in his green Bronco on the Rio Grande levee, was that I put a wing down into the cotton and cartwheeled my Callair.

When the agent got me back to the Fabens airport, Charlie Bush said my eyes were completely dialated. We were spraying pyrethrons and had not considered the residual effects of Parathion. The FAA didn't come, but the EPA charged me $1600 to suit up in white hasmat suits and masks to dig up the ten gallons of auto gas that had spilled out of the left, my normal working tank.

I had had numerous forced landings, mind going a hundred miles an hour. Never so calm and peaceful.

I just did a little crop dusting myself. My wife's now hollering at me from down the hall.

Also, contact, that's some scary shit man. Any long term residuals to worry about?