Crop duster

[He's wearing a collectable A-9 WWII helmet with original AN6530 goggles (they alone are worth $250), flying a 450hp Stearman and 'hand propping' it! And making a living in a Stearman w/radial engine (no turbine), dusting, ...rag wing and steel tubing,(no quick remove panels and stainless steel for corrosion control),...no turn-over roll bar or wire cutters on the plane! ...no positive pressure cockpitor respirator, (chok'n on poison)...or even a face shield or rubber gloves while mixing chemicals,...just a guy getting covered in overspray with a old umbrella for spotting (no Crophawk orGPS), on an old dusting airport with Stearman parts scattered about …hard to believe this type of flying still exists. Cool!





video:vimeo]https://vimeo.com/69854648[/video]

I wonder if he is still flying after 7years.

it doesn't. Well, not exactly like that, anyway. That video was filmed in the 1970s.

Interesting about the identity of the pilot if the comment section is to be believed...

I took my first airplane ride in a Mooney in 1969. Flew a few trips with my buddy thereafter. He said I was a natural flyer. I loved it. Decided to make it legal in 1978. I was trained by a sage crop duster, who flew a Stearman for dusting, was a CFI for OSU and a MOPAR guy, to boot! Glad I learned from him. Taught me some things about airplanes, weight and balance and angles of attack that are not published. Did my check ride in a Citabria. Never looked back!

Citabria = airbatic

That is very cool - thanks for sharing!

I got to go up in an open cockpit radial engine 1929 Standard once at The Rhinebeck Aerodrome... The payload sits in front. It was so loud, so much force of wind, so harsh, it was barely "fun".. but it was epic.

Flying is def fun...
My dad was a private pilot, flew us around New England, Cape Cod, Canada in the 70's. In the 90's I bought my own vintage plane and got my license. My turn to fly him around.
Flew for 10 years, all over the Northeast, into grass fields in the summer and on some frozen lakes in winter too.. with proper precautions.
A buddy had an amphibious Cessna 206 too, lots of fun on floats.
Cheers,
- Art

I remember that a member here lost his brother who was a crop duster around the California Delta. The law for the allowable height of unlighted/unmarked poles (not sure what the poles were for - maybe meteorological monitoring) was 200 feet and someone built some right up to the limit with no lights or markings. There was low visibility and the member's brother died in the crash. The State changed the law after that, but it was tragically too late.

Wow...this is about real planes? I thought this was about what happens at the office after someone eats Mexican and wanders around cube land later in the afternoon. Who would have thought this was legit.

Years back we took the kids to Disney World. (what a pain in the butt. hot/humid/kids complaining about the long lines/etc)

Last day there I saw a sign for an air museum of sorts. Stopped and there was an AT6 parked near the building. I was out there looking at the engine and a guy who turned out to be the plane's owner walked up. I told him about working on the Wright-Cyclone 1820 radials when in service. We had a great visit.

He finally said "Look, I'm here for hire to take people for rides. The normal rate is $XXX for a basic fly around. For an extra $XXX I'll take you up and we can go have some fun over some land my buddy owns." I think the tab was $400.00. I signed up.

We went for one hell of a ride! Rolls, hammer heads, pretend strafing runs, on and on. The canopy was open and he snap rolled once so hard my headset came off and we're flying upside down while I'm trying to reel the headset back in by its cord. We had a good laugh about that.

When it was time to head back he said "You have the airplane" and let me fly as I wished by myself. He helped me with the basic approach but then put his hands up again and literally let me land it too. He commented a couple times about me having a light touch. I didn't care of he was blowing smoke at me or not, it was a fantastic experience.

Dad was still around then and had a really nice Cherokee Archer. He loved taking it out on an early morning and putting around. After my visit to Florida trips in the Archer were quite dull. All I could think of was how much I wished that Archer was capable of aerobatics. Dad's version of a thrill ride was buzzing something at about 500 feet!

One of the most accomplished days of my life. My first airplane! 43 years have come and gone since then...seems like yesterday.

I spun a Cessna 152 accidently in flight training as a student pilot on a local solo flight, it scare the heck out of me. I finally let go of the controls and duck down behind the instrument and it recovered, THANKS BE TO GOD
My next 1.7 hours was in a Citabria doing "unusual flight recovery" which included spin recovery, inside and outside loops as well as full straight up stalls turning into left and right hand hammer heads I really learned a lot and enjoy the heck out of that ride
Super Decathalon = more better aerobatics
A word of caution to those that don't know about doing aerobatics in a non aerobatic rated airplane, DON'T DO THAT, unless you want to die

You're so lucky! During my education at the academy, I was so scared of piloting. I had only the best marks in all lessons. But I often thought, "Why do I do it if I'll die on my first flight". Who will help me? The second pilot? But if I press something wrong, I'll never see the sky because I'll be in this sky... If we talk about some educational tasks, this source https://writix.co.uk/essay-examples/scholarship can always allow me help. But flights... After my first one, I understood everything was okay, and it may be unreal to die. But before it, I was scared like a child.

I enjoyed reading these stories. This is the Cub I learned to fly in. Used to belong to my Dad. I have better pics somewhere. When we had it it had wheelpants and an aluminum prop. My job was to use never-dull on the prop a couple times a year lol. As I got older the jobs became more technical, well technical for a Cub anyway.

I was told in one of my first flying lessons if I got into trouble with the airplane doing any maneuvers to let go of it as it was designed to fly
I had forgotten that when I was in trouble during that spin, your correct on me getting lucky by letting go and ducking down behind the instrument panel I got lucky, again


Aerobatics flying is fun and GREAT
AKA,

Beside the local dog park is a massive farmers field and he hires a crop duster for it. I was over there once when it showed up,old bi-plane, the soundtrack was right out of an old war movie when it would loop after making a pass. So freaking cool (this was just last summer, so yes they still do it! He flew a lot higher than the guy in the video, video sounds like he's just idling around, not the one I saw! He sounded like a bloody kamikaze pilot) I will try and get video of it this year if I can catch him again

Shoot, I thought this was gonna be about Dulcich's Crop Duster........


Interesting topic guys. Nice break from the norm.

Me too!

However I enjoyed the post, spending way too much time watching aviation stuff on Youtube lately.

I lived in Blythe, CA from 1958 to 1961, it is in the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado River. They grow all kinds of crops year-round and I have seen a lot of those older biplane crop duster in action, they had accidents pretty regularly killing or seriously injuring the pilots
The newer turbine powered crop Dusters have accidents also but not as frequently, thank be to God
Flying can be a lot of fun or terror, depending on the pilot and weather conditions
I had a partial engine failure when a valve failed at 8500 Ft above sea level over western AZ 30 miles away from the nearest airport, luckily Iwas able to make it back to Prescott, AZ airport and had it fixed the next day

I've lived in the middle of farm land just west of Phoenix for 32 years. I used to see both planes and helicopters crop dusting all the time. Now I never see it. I heard now they use GPS and do it on the ground. Not sure how it works, anyone know?

I recently read an article talking about robotic application of bot pesticides and herbicides.
Depending on crop and location there are different methods.
First indoors are spray heads on tracks.
In fields there are both drones and wheeled vehicles. Some even have cameras to identify weeds that get a shot of herbicide.
Google search should yield some articles, or images.