ReubenT, on the farm, we call what you are referring too, as snake oil. There are any number of people out here pushing this sort of stuff, as usual, buyer beware.

I have been spraying chemicals for years, have been moderately careful with the herbicides and more so with the insecticides, yet have been exposed (skin contact, inhaling) more than my share. To this date I have not seen any side effects, including having anything fall off. Like Skinner said, I don't think by the time the plant/seed, makes it to the consumer, there is anything to worry about.

Spray pilots earn every dime they make.

Steve

Thanks for the link lc, that was the coolest. I love old stearman dusters

MAU MAU, I have been trying to grow a third head for a while now... got any tips?

Here's how we do it in my home town.... In fact, I'm just waiting for midnight to roll around so I can get on with it

Hey Rob that night spraying looks pretty freaking awesome on the video.
Cheers

Very nice video and flying Rob!

Excellent video Rob!

Do AG pilots ever accidentally spray the wrong field?

Now that I have been informed that owning a Three Headed kid is a real money maker, I have been downing a few swigs of permethrin every hour. Once I start twitching uncontrollably I will be in breeding mode.

Best...................Rob

Balls of solid rock my friend. Thanks for sharing that finally!

Thanks guys, I REALLY appreciate it. Being fairly 'techno challenged' making a video proved to be a tremendous learning opportunity for me. What I learned is that I really dig watching flying videos (like this mornings installation of 'Maule Brawl').... Making video's on the other hand....ya... not so much

Had no clue how to show night work, so kinda winged that with a field near town, if any of you video guru's can clue me in to how to show the ground perspective of night work I'm all ears. Would be really cool to do that with contactflying handling the technical direction and '55wagon dropping in for a team session.

OM Rob, you comin to Barret again? If so please leave the 'biggies' on so we can have the $100 burger meet in a little more 'remote' fashion

MAU, money and breeding... what more reason do we need for genetic experimentation ? As for the wrong field thing... I'm sure it has occurs, but I'm guessing it is about as frequent as other commercial guys run out of gas... In most cases directly spraying the wrong field is easily avoided. Drift on the other hand, happens far more frequently, and depending on the crop / chemical, can carry tremendous ramifications... but that's a topic for another thread / forum.


Take care, Rob

Rob,

I sprayed for Jerry Behnke his last season before selling out. He was a very quiet German and I sprayed all of Furnace County Nebraska, all new to me, using a platte map. At the end of the season he said I sprayed one wrong field only because he sent me there. I paid a fine for drift once in all those years. Insurance won the case, however. "Avoid Drift" includes .008% 2-4-5-T.

Those old 450 hp Pratt and Whitneys started on the first pull of the prop every time. Just swing the prop and go strap in. Didn't sound like it was really going to run for a bit, but that prop was so heavy four or five cylinders would hit on the first rotation. Much looser engine than the 600 hp radials.

I hear you Rob on the challenge of making the video's. Maule Brawl gave me fits getting it uploaded to Vimeo (still processing.....) and youtube as well as plugging up and crashing my fairly new Mac, and I only did it in 720P, not 1080! Then the final product turns out a bit grainy and hard to see whats going on......oh well.

Really liked your different camera views and the ground shots in your video. Music was sweet to!

Littlecub nice find, Rob excellent job.

Ran it through the Apple TV onto the flat screen... Awesome video Rob.

Gump

Rob wrote:Thanks for the link lc, that was the coolest. I love old stearman dusters

MAU MAU, I have been trying to grow a third head for a while now... got any tips?

Here's how we do it in my home town.... In fact, I'm just waiting for midnight to roll around so I can get on with it

Great soundtrack too!

Rob wrote:
Here's how we do it in my home town.... In fact, I'm just waiting for midnight to roll around so I can get on with it

Nice vid Rob! Man am I glad we don't fly at night

That field you were doing at night at about the 8:00 mark looked like pretty short rows, I bet those are the pits when your flying that fast!! We have a lot of triangle shaped fields around here, takes forever to get a load out when your spending most of your time turning around those damn point rows

I'll have to fly down there and visit this fall and check out your scene. Fly safe!

Aaron

Aaron,

There is the advantage, other than price, of flying slow airplanes. The slower we go, the faster we turn. Rob's night work would be the pits in a Pawnee or Stearman, however. Back to back, turning fast, would not be an advantage there.

Jim

Great video Rob, that night spraying looks challenging to say the least. A lot of that done in Australia but none that I am aware of in NZ. Excellent flying.

Rob,

I was glued to the screen for 10 minutes. That video was awesome! I love this site....

Nice work Rob. Looking good.

My kids only have one head per body...............but with those webbed feet they kick ass on the swim team!

Anybody know of a spray pilot working north of Sidney, MT?

Last week I was driving south on Hwy 16 south of Fairfield and notice a crop duster working a field next to the highway and was on the deck right up to the highway. I had my camera ready and timing was perfect ( I slowed down a little) and I got an awesome picture of the crop duster at my 2 o'clock and about 30-50 yards away before the pilot pulled up. I should have had it on video mode. But.. doesn't matter now. Because I accidentally deleted the picture

I'm hoping there will be another opportunity. I always have my camera ready!

Man that would be awesome Rob! Hopefully youll need some help one day. In the day time... I can barely stay awake in the daytime much less flying at night.. You know I love the video!

As far as deformities with spraying,,
The man that started the business where I am in the 50's is still kicking around here with one head. He says hes not planning on dying anytime soon at 86
I wonder if people realize we typically put out about a soda size quantity of chemical on an entire acre. I think most people think that that everything thats coming out of the plane is 100 perc chemical... Its mostly water.
And yes also the chemicals are much safer than before. I love the guys that complain about it while smoking a cigarette.. thats my favorite.
I could use a couple extra heads tho. Maybe Id quit spraying the wrong fields then.

Parathion, a nerve gas, replaced DDT when it was banned. Like DDT, it was used for most bugs. The 55 gal drum the kid in the video was using was Parathion. The 5 gal cans were crop oil. He was spraying cotton for the Boll Weevil Eradication Project started in the 50s. We had to increase the dosage until better nerve stomach poisons etc. like Furidan replaced it for many bugs. I have put two quarts of Parathion per acre on alfalfa weevil. The old guys who were not careful with it, wear a gas mask, ended up with pleurisy. The various bug specific Pyrethrins have now replaced the more toxic agents. Today you see more Danger, the highest warning, for corrosive fungicides that can cause eye damage.

Most consumers of agricultural products, all of us, generally don't understand "Economic Threshold." We are allowed to spray or treat at the rate that will prevent the most economic loss. The more valuable the crop, stuff people eat, the higher the legal rate of active ingredient per acre. Our regulations, however, are the toughest in the world. Developing countries still use DDT because it is cheap and it makes it possible to feed thousands of hungry people that would otherwise starve.