This might be old-hat for you crop dusters, but I sure enjoyed it.

that's for young men with big balls

My Dad was in his mid 40's when he got started spraying little pea patches surrounded by tall trees in Virginia in a J-3 Cub and hung it up when he was about 70 after owning a 600 hp Thrush. He had a few engine problems but never wrecked.

My AP/AI flies a turbine Thrush all summer long at the tender age of 80.

Turbine engines are really good in that they will continue to run as long as fuel is being dumped in. I had seven engine failures in pistons while spraying.

Crop dusting plane shot while flying over Lawrence County

http://m.ky3.com/crop-dusting-plane-sho ... 2_30087940

contactflying wrote:When we got Automatic Flagman instead of a guy on the ground, we were able to race track. It drove me crazy, however, always trying to find a far away flag. Some of us are just hardheaded.

Noticed several of your post
1. In 1964-65 time frame me and Louie Mace developed and built the first Automatic Flagman -at Blue Mt. Aviation and crop dusting corp of Walla Walla ,Washington . My boss Dale Tillay came out and said "you guys built that in my shop-with my junk parts -"

2. I lived in Las Cruces ,NM 1983-1990 and still have a house there in Mesilla park while I was stationed at White Sands . Flew in and out of Starman Farms airstrip with oversized Stearman . Went to Fabens many times to see Doc Willy aircraft salvage.

Bill,

I started a business, Mesilla Valley Aviation, in 90 or 91 with both tractors and one Pawnee. The tractors broke me. My two couldn't compete with Helena'a twenty. Made a little money with the Pawnee but not enough to keep the wolf away. Later I went down to Fabens and worked out of Charlie Bush's used spray plane parts business three days a week flying a Callair I bought for $12,500. I did fine on the vegetables until I crashed the Callair. Went to work for Billy Howell but came back one season to work for one of my students who took over my Fabens business.

My wife taught special education at Lynn Middle School about four years. We had both taught at Tohatchi many years and I had just sprayed during summer vacations. I was also in the 717th Med Det (Hel Amb) at Santa Fe flying Hueys.

I was a jack of all trades, none of which made me a great deal of money.

Went to work for Billy Howell

Billy Howell as in Bainbridge GA? My dad sold his last plane to him for the flight school. The plane departed MO but the check never arrived in the mail so dad eventually drove down in person and was paid in a most unusual way. This was about twenty five years ago. The deal was lined up by the guy that dad sold his business to in MO that had gone to school in Bainbridge.

180Marty wrote:The plane departed MO but the check never arrived in the mail so dad eventually drove down in person and was paid in a most unusual way.

LOL. I figure you would have already told the story if you intended to, so I'm just going to have a field day imagining that that could mean! (The current version involves a dozen ninjas, a nativity scene, a confused time traveling Mongol, Joanie from Happy Days and several expulsions.)

With Billy Howell, what you imagine can in no way be as interesting as the true stories. He was a character.

I helped a guy with his one Pawnee business in Aurora, MO and he ended up in Ontario, Oregon. I flew that Pawnee from Ontario to Bainbridge without gps, compass, asi, tack, or starter. Angles on section lines and a sectional worked well on that route. Of course, that is the way I teach before I let a student use all the electronic goodies. Even the wiz wheel wca is not as accurate as true course angles on section lines. A pencil and a sectional is all that is needed. And plastic jugs of auto gas in the hopper.

Bill,

I talked with Kevin about the Thrush that took several rounds near the oil cooler and in the tail. The police know who it was. The plane was from near Tulsa. Kevin's Air Tractor was in maintenance.

Jim

Anyone spraying this season??

Thanks skalywag for the cool pics. I will try to figure out how to post Leadville pics in my Bonaza thread. What fun Leadville was this weekend. Really enjoyed Colorado. Definitely half fuel is what I would stick with.

I've been doing some part time work with a few local mosquito abatement districts this summer.

It's similar to crop spraying but worse We're basically spraying very small irrigated pasture areas, rice fields, duck clubs and wildlife areas for mosquito larvae down low, and some grid spraying for adult mosquitoes from 200-300' AGL. Lots of small, irregularly shaped areas.
Flying Ag trucks and a Pawnee Brave for the larvaciding in the mornings and usually a Piper Aztec for adults in the evenings.

Before this I'd only done Ag with helicopters, so it has been pretty fun flying the entry level Ag-planes and figuring out how to do a decent ag-turn.

Any tips from the pros are welcome!! I've been pretty conservative so far, getting a good feel for the different airplanes. The only problem is the irregular shapes of the spray areas don't lead to much repetition so it's hard to learn from each turn and apply it to the next. Once in a while I get to spray a nice rectangular field (rice) and get some good repetative turn practice....conservative when heavy and a little more aggressive as the load gets lighter.

Fun flying for sure! Tomorrow morning I have about 100 acres of duck clubs to spray in the Pawnee...I love the sound of that big 8 cylinder Lycoming firing up first thing in the morning!!

Wow, this thread came back from the dead!

Sounds like fun Bart, y'all putting out malathion?

Been getting tons of rain and stayin super busy around here. Lots of cotton work. Yesterday, ferried a Flap Tractor to the shop n picked up the real airplane (Thrush) [emoji12] some pretty country enroute. Inversions burning off, time to fly!






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I love the sound of that big 8 cylinder Lycoming firing up first thing in the morning!!

My Dad used to have a Thrush with a 1340 and would get a guy with a 400 Brave to help sometimes. Both of those were music to the ears!!!!

Skalywag wrote:Yesterday, ferried a Flap Tractor to the shop n picked up the real airplane (Thrush) [emoji12]

I like the way your thinking;-)

Bart,

I figured Rob would jump on your query because he has a lot more GPS experience.

Wind management for the turns is the same in airplane as helicopter. Work from the downwind border crosswind to the upwind border. Turn downwind first to set up the P return to target for back to back. Stop race track at about 15 MPH crosswind to quit making the dangerous downwind turn every other turn. Finish using back to back.

Small irregular plots are a pain unless you can tie more than one together in a race track. If not, back to back will let you varry the run length as needed. Be liberal getting the money handle on and slow getting it off. Malathion is an old cheap product and you don't want the customer swatting mosquitoes.

Malathion makes a gas in the heat of day. Be sure to get some upwind of target with spreader sticker so it will adhere to vegetation well. It will drift into the irregular upwind border midday. It is cheap and neighbor friendly. Everyone likes to have their mosquitoes killed. Be sure to contact bee keepers.

Let us know if you have specific questions. Keep the sticky side down.

Jim

Thread drift.....
has anyone ever sprayed paraquat?
It's an herbicide, the feds used to spray it on Mexican pot fields back in the 70's & 80's.
A "paraquat cough" was a running joke between doper-smokers back in the day --
there was even a disc jockey on one of the L.A. radio stations who used to go by the name Paraquat Kelly.

From wiki:
""Paraquat pot"[edit]
During the late 1970s, a controversial program sponsored by the US government sprayed paraquat on cannabis fields in Mexico.[32] Mexico began efforts to eradicate marijuana and poppy fields in 1975. The United States government helped by sending helicopters and tech assistance. Helicopters were used to spray herbicides paraquat and 2,4-D on the fields and contaminated pot began to show up in US market.[33] Since much of this cannabis was subsequently smoked by Americans, the US government's "Paraquat Pot" program stirred much debate. Perhaps in an attempt to deter people from using cannabis, representatives of the program warned that spraying rendered the crop unsafe to smoke. However, a 1995 study found that "no lung or other injury in cannabis users has ever been attributed to paraquat contamination".[34] Also a United States Environmental Protection Agency manual states: "... toxic effects caused by this mechanism have been either very rare or nonexistent. Most paraquat that contaminates cannabis is pyrolyzed during smoking to dipyridyl, which is a product of combustion of the leaf material itself (including cannabis) and presents little toxic hazard."[35]
In a study by Imperial Chemical Industries, rats who inhaled paraquat showed development of squamous metaplasia in their respiratory tracts after a couple of weeks. This study was included in a report given to the State Department by the Mitre Corporation. The U.S. Public Health Service stated that "this study should not be used to calculate the safe inhalation dose of paraquat in humans."[36]"

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