Hi Contact,

A good friend retired from spraying not too long ago. He made a fortune running Braves in an area where everyone else had gone to turbines.

Flying at night the slight reduction in speed was welcome, and the growers liked it. The acquisition cost was nicer, maintenance and engine costs nicer. Insurance better, in fact outside of liability, you could self insure a brave... not too easy in a turbine.

I think the planes you flew could still be great choices matched up to the right locations!

Take care, Rob

Rob wrote:
The small bodied AT's are kind like a husky, that got together with an Extra 300... They're nice on the controls and flick around really really well... They are a blast to fly in the morning dead flat air. But for that maneuverability you pay a price once the air goes to pot... They will still haul the load just fine, but working them (in other words making it go exactly where and when you want it to) becomes work... and give a run of the mill small AT it's head, and just like that Extra 300, it'll be anyones guess which wing is going to drop or which way it's going to pitch...

Up in the mountains, the 802 seems to always have a "random direction selection".


Great post.


When you have time, talk more about "the mistakes low time ag guys make".

Try to haul too much. Flew my self insured Pawnee through a woven wire fence because I couldn't get over my second season.
Not careful with materials. Cart wheeled my CallAir making a really poor forced landing due to Parathion high.
Allowing farmers to pressure you to get to them. The second season Pawnee.
Changing routine. The CallAir.
Organizational deficiency. Hit a phone multicable with the tire of a Pawnee because I had forgotten that it still was exactly where I had scouted.
Combat din and failure to recognize or accept.
Running out of fuel. Twice.
To name a few.

Come on guys. I can't be the only one. These things were common in my day. But then, airplanes weren't a million dollars each back then.

You've done things in airplanes (I hope) I'll never accomplish! [emoji16][emoji1360]

Couple more of NZ Ag history from Janic Geelens excellent book.
A lot of Beavers used in NZ who had them first, (1951) and then Australia, Aerial Agriculture Australia had at least 60, NZ company Fieldair had 19.

When Beavers became hard to get, Fletchers took over.

Saw one of these in Alexandria a few years back:

contactflying wrote:Try to haul too much. Flew my self insured Pawnee through a woven wire fence because I couldn't get over my second season.
Not careful with materials. Cart wheeled my CallAir making a really poor forced landing due to Parathion high.
Allowing farmers to pressure you to get to them. The second season Pawnee.
Changing routine. The CallAir.
Organizational deficiency. Hit a phone multicable with the tire of a Pawnee because I had forgotten that it still was exactly where I had scouted.
Combat din and failure to recognize or accept.
Running out of fuel. Twice.
To name a few.

Kind of ironic....
someone with this sort of track record advising others how to fly.
Just saying....

Good point Hotrod 180. It amazes me as well.

I thought the Eagle was a nice looking spray plane, BRD. It wasn't popular, however. I think the complication of using the low wing trailing edge tubing for an internal boom had something to do with it. Most of us were afraid to run caustic chemicals like fungicide down the trailing edge of the wing.

Good picture of the Automatic Flagman. I've thrown a lot of those cardboard pieces with folded toilet paper behind them. Much more dependable than the SatLoc computer for an old guy like me. Electric solenoid bumped the cardboard up when you hit the trigger on the stick.

DC-3 in action, last one retired in 1976. The guy who did my Beaver rating had 25000 Ag hours including 13000 on the DC-3 all single pilot.

contactflying wrote:Good point Hotrod 180. It amazes me as well.

I thought the Eagle was a nice looking spray plane, BRD. It wasn't popular, however. I think the complication of using the low wing trailing edge tubing for an internal boom had something to do with it. Most of us were afraid to run caustic chemicals like fungicide down the trailing edge of the wing.

Good picture of the Automatic Flagman. I've thrown a lot of those cardboard pieces with folded toilet paper behind them. Much more dependable than the SatLoc computer for an old guy like me. Electric solenoid bumped the cardboard up when you hit the trigger on the stick.

Did I read that the Eagle had a wood spar?

I think it was to let the glider like wings flex a bit. CallAirs had wood spars.

scott185,

Do you know Bruce Aitken? I used to belong to the Hawera Aero Club and met him there, what an interesting guy with endless stories of ag flying, especially the one where a wire came through his canopy and got him across the forehead, fortunately his helmet took the brunt of it and he survived.

There is also a fellow named Neville (sp?), he would be in his 80s and still flies an Acroduster out of Hawera. He was telling me he used to topdress in a Beaver, then after 5hrs of dual, and having no experience in a multi engine plane, went topdressing single pilot in a DC3. Very friendly guy, I wish I could remember his last name. His son Les was building a Bearhawk Patrol when I moved away a couple years ago.

Cheers

Jeff

Edit, I see now in your clipping it was Neville Worsley! Awesome!

Hi Jeff,
Didn't meet either Neville or Bruce but have heard a few stories. Bruce did a great crazy Cub display apparently. Couple more from the book, steep airstrips which are common in NZ Ag scene. One is the Australian built CA-28 Ceres, which a development of the Wirraway fighter.


cheers, John.

Cessna 180/185. At work and bent!

Those are well done crashes. Not having a low wing to absorb the energy can be hurtful.

Contact, I think in the early days they just used whatever cabin aircraft were suitable for the job and converted them accordingly. Later on there were a lot of Pawnee's, Braves, Agwagons etc used. I have a friend who has converted a 185 back with its original hopper, he is going to use it for training as not a lot of dual controlled aircraft available and the ones that are seem to be owned by the bigger companies who don't want to share. Not a lot of room for the pilot in the 185 because the hopper doesn't allow the seat to go back much. Also, unlike the 180, the 185 is not such a forgiving aircraft in the Ag role. I have been told you need to keep well in front of the aircraft.

More bent birds.

Whats the round thing on top of the crashed 180 (ZK-CBZ) 4 posts back--
a hatch for loading the hopper?

Yes.