Rob wrote:

Nosedragger wrote: The new planes with ac and aileron and elevator servos look like a pretty comfortable way to spend a summer day.

… Meh… not so much…
or at least not always

gbflyer wrote:Yes, gotta love the ditch-weed in the salad. What is too tough and stringy to be choked - down can be stockpiled on the edge of the plate for later use as dental floss.

Rob wrote:

Nosedragger wrote: The new planes with ac and aileron and elevator servos look like a pretty comfortable way to spend a summer day.

… Meh… not so much…
or at least not always

You see… 4 o'clock (4PM) yesterday afternoon I strapped into one precisely like that…

And when I did, not one grower, not one advisor cared in the least what the desert afternoon air was like.
No one cared that the thermals that were still touching off in the afternoon sky were enough to boil the air like some nasty concoction fit only for a witchs cauldron. Calling the unsettled spring air tumultuos would be an understatement. People from central Nevada know the air I'm talking about... It's the air that spells Miller time... because no one in their right mind would be flying ...

They also didn't seem bothered that it would be 4 hours of wooping before the sky settled enough to get along with. But it doesn't get much better then, because all at once the sky goes flat. Then there's not a breath of wind, and not a hint of vertical movement. You can't keep out of your vorticies regardless of which side you fly it from, The turns kick your ass, and you can't keep the oil off the windscreen. Not sure what's worse now… the fact that you are having a hard time seeing through the slime on the windshield, or the fact that you are now in a full blown inversion and have to put the nix on any more herbicide work for the evening… Someone's not going to be happy...

But hey… by then I'm in my groove and pushing hard…. because there's hay to make…. literally … In so much of a groove that it's not until an hour ago, (4 AM now) when I finally climb out of the cockpit that it really hits me… I am spent!

The balls of my feet hurt from jabbing the rudders, My knees are jello from the same…
My lower back is throbbing from a few thousand high G turns. High G because we were loaded up...
My arms are pumped from fighting various vorticies throughout the night...
My neck , and that space between my shoulder blades are burning from carrying that bowling ball around on my head all night...
My ears are sore from 12 hours of foamy ear plugs, and my ear drums are ringing from the iPod being set high enough to over power the shriek of the Pratt. Although truth be told, the prop alone would set my tinitus off, the music just soothes it…
My voice is coarse from barking out mixes to my loader, or profanities at my flying partner...
My eyes are burning, some days it's from the spent Jet A, others it's from straining to see the bad juju stuff that tries to grab a wing in the darkness… some nights it's from trying to find the stakes that mark where partial jobs start and end... and on some days it's just from trying to get through the special instructions of a rec in a dark cockpit… tonight I had one that said "please spray the 18 acres of Kale south of the Arugula and north of the Fennel" !!! Really??? first off who eats this shit? and second off, I sure would like to get that advisor in the airplane and see if he can show me the difference between Kale and Arugula while navigating the moonless night at 8' AGL and a buck fifty on the speedo… Oh and don't forget to either pull up or not cut the wire at the end of the field with the tail as you go under…
I stink… I stink, because when the sky went flat my windshield got covered in Malation, Lorsban, Dimethoate, and who knows how many other smelly toxins… and from the windscreen, they slide down the side of the cockpit… right to the vent for that wonderful air conditioner...
I am drenched in sweat (smelly sweat)
Did I mention I'm spent?

So after all that I sit here at the breakfast table eating a wilted Ceaser salad that my sweetie made last night, and pouring myself into a tall glass of Crown XR…

Someone who didn't know me better might actually think I'm bitter…
Someone who does know me better knows I could have just as easily poured myself into the cub after all that for a sunrise river flight…

It's either in your blood, or it's not…

Take care, Rob

UngaWunga wrote:old but good...

rw2 wrote:

UngaWunga wrote:old but good...

That's one of my favorite aviation videos. I watch it every couple months.

Sidewinder wrote:I wonder how his life and heath turned out when he got older (if he got much older). Or if he had any kids born with 3 eyes, 6 legs and webbed feet. Chronic exposure to the nasty chemicals of those days, is bound to come back and haunt you.

A1Skinner wrote:I'd love to get started spraying myself. But the big farmers around here just dont use planes. Unless its a really wet year they are just too inefficient. Last summer I did 2700 acres in 26 hrs with the high clearance. This summer will be even better as we'll have a bigger tank and wider booms on this years sprayer. And we can get pretty much anyone to run a high clearance sprayer. With gps and auto flow rates and auto on/off booms its pretty easy...