Ohio crop duster Butch Fisher of Fisher Ag Service gives a real-time view of aerial application. Ohio Ag Net's Joel Penhorwood joins him in the cockpit.
In 1963 one of my fellow Air Force mechanics was putting time in his logbook flying at the Aero Club at Bitburg AFB, Germany. I rode along with him in a Cessna 120 one day and he introduced me to some aerobatics. I was new to flying and did not know enough to be leery of doing aerobatics in an old, rag-wing aircraft. We also frightened some farmers in their fields by flying at crop duster altitudes. Larry was in a hurry to finish his enlistment and go back to the States to find a crop dusting job. Years later, I got curious and looked his name up in the FAA Airman's data base. I could find no accident information, but he was listed as deceased at a young age. I assume he died dusting.
Stalling an Air Tractor isn't as drastic as Boeing but you don't want to stall at an angle and clip the ground in a cartwheel. These engines are built with tolerances so if you thrash it it's not going to bite back. All about knowing your aircraft.
My Dad was crop dusting, literally, in a Stinson L5, way back in 1945. He flew the Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo Counties. He flew for 50 yrs. Never ‘dinged ‘ a wing. I’m extremely proud of my Dad .FYI His Grandson found your videos, & sent me your links. Thx for a Proud family Ted Simon Dusters
Having seen a lot of crop dusters, I never knew that they flew this low and made complicated maneuvers involving flaps and whatnot. Amazing skills and probably very fun
Markeez Baroon you can just as easily die in acrobatics, the only reason that people don’t die is because they are very thoroughly trained on how to do their things right. Being a pilot is no different
HAHA i literally said it out loud just because how stupid it sounds. The exact opposite from how I learned. I got into aviation because my grandpa had a crop dusting business. and he left it to my self and my brother. we actually took it over before he died and we still spray now but we've hired pilots to fly for us. I fly rotorwing/fixed both, I was flying planes before I could drive a car. and my grand father was extremely picky on how I made my turns because thats usually where guys die at, is in the turn. so my grandpa preached non stop "DON'T OUT FLY YOUR AIRPLANE" I can hear him now. he always would say "TURN THE BORDER IF YOU HAVE TOO" because im from Texas thats where we spray so he would say make the turn the size of Texas if you have too but don't put yourself in danger of stalling. he sprayed from 60's to 2011 and never had one crash. so his method worked lol
Aerodynamically, he's correct. Best turn radius is achieved just above stall for a given configuration. I'm sure his stall warning comes on at least 10kts above stall speed, so as long as he flies precisely, he's not really in danger of stalling. Is a stall spin a common cause of death for pilots? Yes, but if you use proper coordination, the aircraft can be flown close to its limits very safely. The pilot in the video is flying coordinated, and he never appears to force anything, which is how most pilots kill themselves.
Money Mike the difference is can you afford to be a pilot. Are you REALLY smart. Do you want a mindless job, if so become a truck driver. If you want a challenging but rewarding career. Become a pilot. There’s a HUGE difference between the two. Being a pilot actually requires a fairly high iq.
Mark Sanford in my super D, I unplugged my stall warning. The best stall indicator is stick pressure/position. The closer it is to your crotch, the closer you are to stalling. 💪🏼
When I was a teen ager some 65 years ago I worked one summer as a flagger for crop duster spraying rice fields. We had a white flag and after a pass we walked about 25 or 30 steps to indicate the next pass. Nasty job, had to tie a bandana over our face to keep the spray out of our mouths. They used Stearmans bi-planes, PT-17s retrofitted with 450 hp engines.
Did the same thing about 1970/71 in the rice fields of the northern Sacramento valley. No spray to deal with, just rice seed and granular fertilizer. They flew Ag Cats with the big radial engines. GPS has eliminated the need for flaggers.
58efd I lost a friend doing this in a AT502B here 3 days ago, we're still investigating what happened, obviously a stall. He was a professional pilot... things happen, and you're right, dangerous job!
You are correct sir. Lost my best friend to this job in an old 188b back in 97. we were student pilots together. we both got out PPL/SEL. I was working in radio at the time and he was a loading doc manager. He went on to get his commercial rating and then off to ag flight school in Bainbridge, Georgia. He finished his studies. The school offered him an instructor position. he turned it down, said he want to get busy spraying. The NTSB reported he over stressed the airplane. Knowing this man like I do I find that very hard to believe. RIP David. app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20001208X07663&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=LA
Last year I took pics of an Air Tractor 402 over/near our house in Iowa. 3 days later he was dead, crashed in Sac County. So sad. RIP Mark Watson, N1016G. www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/08/air-tractor-inc-at-402-n1016g-fatal.html
dangerous is right ,,Iv'e seen one every year for 3 years across the river from me,,comes in fast drops out of sight behind TALL trees ,expecting ,but not wanting to hear a crash amazing pilot
I did a ride a long at that school a month ago. Would love to attend but banks wont lend for Ag Schools anymore unfortunately. Still stuck at my desk job.
Butch was my first instructor almost 30 years ago... Later on flew bush planes in Alaska for a while. If you have the urge to fly, just go out and take one lesson - It could change your life!
I'm 55 years old, have terrible attention deficit disorder and while I'm a teetotaler when it comes to alcohol my favorite way to relax is with a marijuana cookie So yeah I think a flying lesson might change my life but not in a good way. LOL.
I was in the USAF for many years. I flew in the back of a F-16 (388TFW), F-4 (419th) and F-15. But, we got drunk at a little bar in Louisiana and a local Cajun Crop Duster asked if I wanted to go on a mission. Of course Jack Daniels said, ok. Well, this SOB was crazy. Needless to say, I will not be going on anymore AG missions. I have the ultimate respect for these lunatics.
@MajorLeague Yes sir! When I was stationed at MCAS El Toro I heard those twin engines pushing those beautiful birds doing touch and gos many many times. Good times!
This was a real interesting video, professionalism at its best. So nicely done, camera work and sound made watching this very enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time and effort to allow us to visit the special world of the ag aerial applicator.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 To the rest of you pukes, What a sad lot you are! This is a funny comment! I think he does know what a stuka is orherwise....... Funny image this crop duster screaming out of the sky! 😂😂😂😂
Thank you for this video! Very well done. I sure do appreciate it. It's very interesting to watch you fly. Well, fascinating actually. So much going on, like adding some flaps during the tight turns. You make it *look* easy, but clearly it's not. Years of experience make it look so easy and smooth. Very, very cool! Thank you again!!!
Love it! I was a loader in Holly Bluff, MS the three summers in my high school years. My boss Marvin Weast had an AT-301 and we’d fly from sun up to sundown except when it was so hot that we’d lose chemical to evaporation. I always wanted to go for a ride and didn’t get to until he started flying the Polish Dromader and even in the back seat facing rear wards that was one of the coolest things I have ever done.
Enjoyed the video. Some of you older folks may remember Curtis Pitts, the designer of the Pitts Special stunt plane. He and his crew used to come up to a little Mississippi Delta town I lived in to spray (or dust as it was at one time) in the spring for the cotton season. They used Stearmans then. And, of course, no GPS but a flagman. Mr Pitts died a while back. He was a legend for sure. And a nice man.
wdreeves When I started flagging many years ago it was for the old bi-wing Steermans. I'll never forget when we got our first Ag cat turbo props, it was time to step up our games, mind you, a lot of times we were dodging Water moccasins and Copperheads!
Thank you so much for doing this video. I've been saving to do my ag training and watching your video kept me motivated. And educated at the same time. Can't wait to live my dream
My years of flying has always focused on passenger comfort and safety. I have never seen crop dusting from this perspective before. Amazing. 70 degree turns at 200 ft with the stall warning on. LOL I am impressed. I don't think i could do that job.
I used to watch the crop dusters & sprayers back in the fifties. They flew old Stearman biplanes, and some seemed to take chances. Yeah, they sometimes crashed. I remember seeing some fly under power lines and once I saw a Stearman fly directly toward a row of Eucalyptus trees, 120 feet tall. Maybe he thought it wasn't such a good idea because he changed his pattern. I was pleasantly surprised by the guidance & coverage system in this video. That is a GREAT idea. But it's still a dangerous job.
I used to love watching crop dusters in Mississippi when I was a kid. I always wanted to have one spray our fields, but no I had to do it with the tractor.
In the world of piloting skills and the types of flying pilots do, crop dusting ranks in the top 5 most dangerous type flying. Number 1 is Navy/ Marine Corps carrier ops. Just to give some perspective. High tension wire repair by helicopter. Putting out forest fires via aircraft. Flying the specially equiped NOAA aircraft, like the P3 Orion into a Hurricane. Stunt flying via aircraft like the Long EZ or the Pitts. Bush piloting in Alaska. These types of flying require nerves of steel and a complete understanding of both your ship and the terrain and weather. Crop Dusting is not unlike air to ground strafing. Pilots in all theatres of operation back in WWII utilized staffing to destroy enemy combatants and their equipment. The skill level required to be a crop duster pilot is pretty near the top 1% of the best pilots out there. As you can see clearly by the video, it's a very serious form of flying. Even though it's done in pretty fair weather conditions and the terrain is largely flat, once you go down to the area needing the spray, obstacles are everywhere. Trees and telephone poles to high tension lines and pretty much anything you might see on a farm. Like a wind mill. These obstacles must be foremost on a crop dusters pilots mind as he or she works the pattern. Add to that, air traffic in and around the fields. Crop Dusters are beautiful powerful single engine aircraft specifically designed for close in type maneuvers. Hitting the mark requires excellent vision and excellent hand eye coordination. The modern crop duster is, in many respects, like a WWII fighter. Its very agile, well constructed and extremely tough. It has to be in order to do the job it's tasked to do. Which explains why we call them "flying tractors". They can, via GPS cover a farmers field in a fraction of the time it takes even the most modern equipped wheeled tractor. Which is nice because as anyone in this business knows, time is money. I respect these pilots greatly. I also admire their tenacity to get the job done. Even in less than ideal circumstances. As anyone who has ever lived in Texas knows, the weather can change in mere minutes. A fact, AG pilots must concern themselves with when going out to a job. To become a certified AG pilot, one needs a lot of flight hours, training and quite honestly speaking, guts! Awesome video✈🎧
I was working for a crop duster when I was 16. That was 1946. He took me for a ride in the dust bin (formerly the forward cockpit of that PT 17 US Army Air Corps primary trainer) I was thrilled, and I cannot imagine any 16 year old boy passing up such an opportunity
Wow! I have been a pilot for many years and still this video showed me a part of flying I passed up in my younger years. I grew up in Louisiana watching these planes when I was a kid. I wanted to be a pilot from the start and my first instructor was a crop dusting pilot. I am glad I went military when I finished college instead of crop dusting. Why? Well my first instructor was only 7 years older than me and he died from the many dusting materials he sprayed. It got into his blood even with mask and chemical gear on. He flew Ag Cats and later Ag wagons but in the end the chemicals killed him. I do miss him and watching the crop dusters back home spraying the fields. I fly a desk now days for a large Telecom company, but I still have happy memories every time I see a duster pilot hard at work.
@@kevinramirez538 That was a comment on my full time job for 23 years now. I flew northeast airshow ckt for 12 years but decided to hang it up after to many of my friends went in. I guess the one that made me finally hang it up was when Chris went in with his beast. I have heard of many having lost their rudder cables i.e. Chris, Sean T. etc....but this was one to many. I have enjoyed 50+ years of flying but I finally just hung it up entirely a few days after closing one of my favorite weekend airstrips down. Just to many memories of friends that are gone just loaded up on me one day and I called it quits and threw the wings on the desk and burned my flight jacket.
@@batfirewaf123 thanks for your reply and sorry to hear about your friends. I’m wanting to get into flying but honestly only for financial reasons. It sounds like a way to make a lot of money in a shorter time then most other trades while doing something amazing like flying the skies. I’m scared just thinking about messing up something while I’m 200 Ft above. I’m a truck driver currently but that’s a tough lifestyle to stay in for much longer. I’m worried flying is mainly for adrenaline junkies lol
Love this. Some of the most impressive pilots out there. I was a loader truck driver and my best friend was the pilot I loaded for before I became an engineer at one of the turbine engine OEMs. My dad's college job was flagging for crop dusting too. I still stop and watch whenever I see an ag pilots in action. Never gets boring to see.
The house where I grew up had a Highway and power lines in front of it. And in front of that was a super large corn field. Every year the crop dusters would be flying low straight at our house and those power lines, and then flying straight up right before they reached the power lines. Made it hard to sleep late. It never ceased to be amazing.
I remember watching them when I was a kid when they used the biplanes with radial piston engines with flaggers; no gps back then. I loved to watch them put it in a hammerhead stall and kick rudder to turn around and line up for the next pass. Nobody grows rice here any longer.......they grow san augustine grass for turf use so no more crop dusters.
Lonnie Carpenter Believe it or not, crop dusters are still in use in the state of Louisiana. Driving across country on I-10, these little yellow birds can be seen crossing the interstate. Makes for interesting plane spotting.
Lonnie Carpenter I grew up in southern Louisiana farming rice with my father and i used to help him flag those old radial bi-wing Schweitzer AgCats. Miss those days. Also one of my best friends does this job just like in the vid. We love growing rice here in southern Louisiana!
yep...that's how I saw a guy doing it...swoop in...spray....then str8 up, kick rudder....swoop in.....spray....then str8 up.... rudder wing over ....kinda jaw dropping but.....done in minutes....
Worked as a flagger myself as a kid, sure hated that yellow stuff. It's a Wonder I am still alive. When asked about my behavior I always say it was those farm chemicals that caused it.
What a cool video. It is amazing how a professional can make something so difficult to do appear seem so easy. As a sidenote, I had a good friend who was a crop duster who sustained severe back injuries while spraying a field. He eventually made it back into flying but gave up crop "dusting". Nice video!
Awesome video. I wanted to be a crop duster as a kid. But with the high crash/death rate I didn’t pursue that career. Although I never lost the bug for aviation and am currently working on a kit plane.
@@ScoopdyWhoop Kit planes are about 50 times more dangerous. The irony is not lost here. Kit planes move on a hair trigger because they are so light, and the designs are usually unproven and wacky and based on "trust me bro" from the engineer.
Technology sure has changed crop dusting. 40 years ago when I did this it was more seat of the pants, but lots of accidents and poor spraying (sprayed fish pond and other things by accident.) Glad to see ag work has taken advantage of modern technology.
I missed my calling. Shortly after my discharge from military service, I was employed as a hot shot driver in an agricultural related business. I delivered this and that to various farms throughout the south. I was driving along a freeway on another delivery and giving serious thought to pursuing AG aviation as a career when a hot shot passed me with a wrecked AG plane on his trailer. As I absorbed this new data, another hotshot with another wrecked AG plane on his trailer passed me. I didn't pursue AG aviation as a career. 30 years later, I wish that I had.
Hey that’s my neighbor! He’s a master. I get to see him spray and I always stop and watch. He gets so close to tree lines it makes me uncomfortable watching
Looks to be an Air Tractor 504. Never knew they had one either. Fairly new aircraft. I went to school to be a spray pilot back in 92. Never did get a job though after completing school. I wasn't willing to risk my life flying a Pawnee down south spraying rice and cotton. I flagged one year and loaded planes a second year. Man, was I tan!
I did what my dad thought I should do but of course he couldn't be right cuz he doesn't know anything. :) I went into computers after 17 other jobs I had. I now am a network engineer for a fiber optic network provider. It's not what I really want to do, but it pays the bills and affords me money to blow on airplanes.
I live on an old farm house in the middle of nowhere with fields surrounding me. I love watching these guys fly. The helicopter dusters are insane to watch as they fly over the top of my barn/house while turning. It's amazing to watch.
I want to do a ride along in the mosquito plane here in Saginaw, Michigan. Damn thing is so annoying but the way the pilot flies it makes it seem like a roller coaster.
It’s probably turned off to save the gyro. You don’t need the gyro part of the turn coordinator working. The inclinometer ball is the relevant part for the ham fisted pilots commenting here- and it works all the time, regardless of gyro operation.
I saw one of these in Idaho AT NIGHT. He must have memorized positions of trees and wires which I saw driving by the next morning . awesom they have gps that paints areas that have been sprayed. Makes you wonder if you could do this blind folded.
Could be he was spraying pesticides and was working "Bee Hours" so as not to harm the bees. A lot of people don't realize the precautions these guys take. :)
Pull ups are done by knowing when to do it, no instrumentation for that. The device near the nose is a guidance lightbar. During the application, the three light dots should be centered when you are on swath. If off, it will tell you how far, and which way. It also serves other functions when not in application mode. A slight cross wind is actually ideal for application coverage, but you must account for the wind at all times, especially during herbicide applications.
gary24752 generally, the only thing you look at is spray pressure, engine instruments, and gps swath info. And of course how much chemical is in board so that the load fits the field.
Based on watching the video the instrument mounted on the engine cowl is an angle of attack indicator, which is very useful when making turns close to stall. Navy planes use them when landing on carriers. Knowing a stall speed is useless on an ag plane because the speed changes with weight and an ag plane's weight changes significantly during a flight. Better to measure AOA.
I am watching a crop duster right now. That's what inspired me to pull up this video. This looks like so much fun. I can't imagine the enjoyment of a ride like this. How many of you crop dusters pretend that you're flying a P-51 Mustang while making these turns?
Awesome video. This guy is a real airplane pilot. No flying at flight level 30 for 4 hours at a time. Helluva flying job this. I wonder what an aircraft equipped like that costs. The cockpit instrumentation alone has got to be a bundle. Strange not seeing an attitude indicator. Lol. For that kind of flying I guess you really don't need one.
Real pilots dont need those gadgets. Attitude indicators were not required in USA airplanes until 1957. Before that many used to fly hard IFR way only. Using only what they call now "Partial Panel IFR". Hard to do. I did some hours on it in the 1970's. Hard IFR partial panel can kill you easily. Most WW2 airplanes didnt even have a stall warning indicator. Pilots were pilots, not just drivers.
This guy is obviously a helluva pilot but to completely put down others with thousands and thousands of hours flying IFR procedures making the world go round is laughable. Also attitude indicator isn't required for day VFR flight lol
CFITOMAHAWK2 this guy is amazing, but your attitude is silly. You think a WWII fighter pilot wouldn’t have wanted an FMS coupled autopilot, or at least an attitude indicator? There is a reason why commercial aviation has never been safer. Pilots these days don’t spend as much mental energy on basic flying, and therefore they are now held to a much higher standard. You’re welcome to load your family on a partial panel jet intentionally flying into IFR...
In 1963 one of my fellow Air Force mechanics was putting time in his logbook flying at the Aero Club at Bitburg AFB, Germany. I rode along with him in a Cessna 120 one day and he introduced me to some aerobatics. I was new to flying and did not know enough to be leery of doing aerobatics in an old, rag-wing aircraft. We also frightened some farmers in their fields by flying at crop duster altitudes. Larry was in a hurry to finish his enlistment and go back to the States to find a crop dusting job. Years later, I got curious and looked his name up in the FAA Airman's data base. I could find no accident information, but he was listed as deceased at a young age. I assume he died dusting.
"There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old bold pilots"
“That’s the stall warning you hear but thats the way we get a good turn.”
It’s also a sign that you’re a badass.
Stalling an Air Tractor isn't as drastic as Boeing but you don't want to stall at an angle and clip the ground in a cartwheel. These engines are built with tolerances so if you thrash it it's not going to bite back. All about knowing your aircraft.
Eu já deixo desligada.
I love that the pilot kept telling us what he was doing! So much better knowing what he was thinking doing!
I do that too ua-cam.com/channels/KyJNEhD4neXyFGknHRMdCw.html?view_as=subscriber
My Dad was crop dusting, literally, in a Stinson L5, way back in 1945. He flew the Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo Counties. He flew for 50 yrs. Never ‘dinged ‘ a wing. I’m extremely proud of my Dad .FYI His Grandson found your videos, & sent me your links. Thx for a Proud family Ted Simon Dusters
@@Patty285 awesome story. They were called The Greatest Generation for a reason :)
tree 1,2,3
As a retired commercial pilot of 42 years, I had no idea of how these guys sprayed fields. Very impressed!
Great video, loved his calm demeanor, “yeah that’s the stall horn which means we are flying a little slow”. Love it.
Having seen a lot of crop dusters, I never knew that they flew this low and made complicated maneuvers involving flaps and whatnot. Amazing skills and probably very fun
Markeez Baroon you can just as easily die in acrobatics, the only reason that people don’t die is because they are very thoroughly trained on how to do their things right. Being a pilot is no different
"That's the stall warning, but we get a better turn that way."
HAHA i literally said it out loud just because how stupid it sounds. The exact opposite from how I learned. I got into aviation because my grandpa had a crop dusting business. and he left it to my self and my brother. we actually took it over before he died and we still spray now but we've hired pilots to fly for us. I fly rotorwing/fixed both, I was flying planes before I could drive a car. and my grand father was extremely picky on how I made my turns because thats usually where guys die at, is in the turn. so my grandpa preached non stop "DON'T OUT FLY YOUR AIRPLANE" I can hear him now. he always would say "TURN THE BORDER IF YOU HAVE TOO" because im from Texas thats where we spray so he would say make the turn the size of Texas if you have too but don't put yourself in danger of stalling. he sprayed from 60's to 2011 and never had one crash. so his method worked lol
@@mikez1017 It's all preference, I can guarantee it will cost more to be a crop duster though.
Aerodynamically, he's correct. Best turn radius is achieved just above stall for a given configuration. I'm sure his stall warning comes on at least 10kts above stall speed, so as long as he flies precisely, he's not really in danger of stalling. Is a stall spin a common cause of death for pilots? Yes, but if you use proper coordination, the aircraft can be flown close to its limits very safely. The pilot in the video is flying coordinated, and he never appears to force anything, which is how most pilots kill themselves.
Money Mike the difference is can you afford to be a pilot. Are you REALLY smart. Do you want a mindless job, if so become a truck driver. If you want a challenging but rewarding career. Become a pilot. There’s a HUGE difference between the two. Being a pilot actually requires a fairly high iq.
Mark Sanford in my super D, I unplugged my stall warning. The best stall indicator is stick pressure/position. The closer it is to your crotch, the closer you are to stalling. 💪🏼
I had no idea the extent of technology used in modern crop dusting. This is incredible.
it's not cheap for the farmer, but in the long run, it pays for itself. pilots make great wages doing this.
@@harpoon_bakery162 He earns every dime.
Not a bad way to earn a paycheck! Very cool vid! 👍🏼
steveo1kinevo stevo,,I've watched every one of your vids,,love flying,,not a pilot,,just just love it,,,you need dirty bird more often
A lot of us think that what you do if also a very cool way to earn a paycheck. I'm looking forward to YOUR next video.
No kidding? Does the driver really get paid doing this? Ag-Cats are fun machines, I just don't see too many sidexside seats. Super vid, thks.
Rosalie great eats cafe
A fortuitous appearance by Steve-0
When I was a teen ager some 65 years ago I worked one summer as a flagger for crop duster spraying rice fields. We had a white flag and after a pass we walked about 25 or 30 steps to indicate the next pass. Nasty job, had to tie a bandana over our face to keep the spray out of our mouths. They used Stearmans bi-planes, PT-17s retrofitted with 450 hp engines.
Horrible!
I used to watch crop dusters just for the fun of it, I don’t think it did any long term damage. I don’t think it did any long term damage, damage....
C D Hanks you are lucky to be alive.
@@walterkersting1362 thank you. You just made my morning. 🤣🤣
Did the same thing about 1970/71 in the rice fields of the northern Sacramento valley. No spray to deal with, just rice seed and granular fertilizer. They flew Ag Cats with the big radial engines. GPS has eliminated the need for flaggers.
Excellent presentation! Kudos to the cameraman for "picking up everything the pilot was laying down" by way of explanation.
cameraman should get some sort of a youtube award...
Well done, impressive, shows how dangerous your job is. Zero room for error.
58efd I lost a friend doing this in a AT502B here 3 days ago, we're still investigating what happened, obviously a stall. He was a professional pilot... things happen, and you're right, dangerous job!
You are correct sir. Lost my best friend to this job in an old 188b back in 97. we were student pilots together. we both got out PPL/SEL. I was working in radio at the time and he was a loading doc manager. He went on to get his commercial rating and then off to ag flight school in Bainbridge, Georgia. He finished his studies. The school offered him an instructor position. he turned it down, said he want to get busy spraying. The NTSB reported he over stressed the airplane. Knowing this man like I do I find that very hard to believe. RIP David. app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20001208X07663&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=LA
Last year I took pics of an Air Tractor 402 over/near our house in Iowa. 3 days later he was dead, crashed in Sac County. So sad. RIP Mark Watson, N1016G.
www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/08/air-tractor-inc-at-402-n1016g-fatal.html
dangerous is right ,,Iv'e seen one every year for 3 years across the river from me,,comes in fast drops out of sight behind TALL trees ,expecting ,but not wanting to hear a crash amazing pilot
I did a ride a long at that school a month ago. Would love to attend but banks wont lend for Ag Schools anymore unfortunately. Still stuck at my desk job.
Butch was my first instructor almost 30 years ago... Later on flew bush planes in Alaska for a while. If you have the urge to fly, just go out and take one lesson - It could change your life!
It could also change your bank balance.
I took 1 lesson it was fun as hell but i couldnt afford to keep going ,its for the rich
@@johnnyd655 but if you were with Butch, he was very reasonable.
johnny d Not just for the rich.
I'm 55 years old, have terrible attention deficit disorder and while I'm a teetotaler when it comes to alcohol my favorite way to relax is with a marijuana cookie So yeah I think a flying lesson might change my life but not in a good way. LOL.
This was so cool to watch! Loved it!
I was in the USAF for many years. I flew in the back of a F-16 (388TFW), F-4 (419th) and F-15. But, we got drunk at a little bar in Louisiana and a local Cajun Crop Duster asked if I wanted to go on a mission. Of course Jack Daniels said, ok. Well, this SOB was crazy. Needless to say, I will not be going on anymore AG missions. I have the ultimate respect for these lunatics.
Ahhh, the F-4 Phantom; proof a brick will fly given enough inertia!
thank you for your service,
I have been upside down in an RF-4C! 67th TRW
You’re lying: you and I both know it.
@MajorLeague
Yes sir! When I was stationed at MCAS El Toro I heard those twin engines pushing those beautiful birds doing touch and gos many many times. Good times!
There's a man who knows his aeroplane, and the land. Great pilot!
Butch is one of the best, if not the nation's best crop-duster.
thanks for the ride....been a couple years since I flew...I love those night time landings...
I appreciate all of the videos on YT but this one was even above that. Thank you for a great ride along.
This was a real interesting video, professionalism at its best. So nicely done, camera work and sound made watching this very enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time and effort to allow us to visit the special world of the ag aerial applicator.
@Hello Keith Sorrels, How are you doing?
He so needs Stuka siren on his plane! :D
I don’t think you understand what a Stuka was for.
JJ Westgate I don’t think he does I think all ww2 vets would start having ptsd
BRC 21 I’m annoyed he is whimsical for a nazi icon. Gross. We fought a whole war about that.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
To the rest of you pukes,
What a sad lot you are!
This is a funny comment!
I think he does know what a stuka is orherwise.......
Funny image this crop duster screaming out of the sky! 😂😂😂😂
@@BRC21 dude All WW2 vets?
Hmm I guess WW2 was all about Europe!
Excellent video. Very smooth camera work and a lot of explanation by the pilot. Very cool.
Thank you for this video! Very well done. I sure do appreciate it.
It's very interesting to watch you fly. Well, fascinating actually. So much going on, like adding some flaps during the tight turns. You make it *look* easy, but clearly it's not. Years of experience make it look so easy and smooth. Very, very cool!
Thank you again!!!
My hat is off for all the ag pilots out there and their incredible skills. Thanks for the post.
Love it! I was a loader in Holly Bluff, MS the three summers in my high school years. My boss Marvin Weast had an AT-301 and we’d fly from sun up to sundown except when it was so hot that we’d lose chemical to evaporation. I always wanted to go for a ride and didn’t get to until he started flying the Polish Dromader and even in the back seat facing rear wards that was one of the coolest things I have ever done.
Thanks for posting. Great video.
In my next lifetime, I hope. It seems so effortlessly when your loving what your doing. TY for ride , Sir.
Enjoyed the video. Some of you older folks may remember Curtis Pitts, the designer of the Pitts Special stunt plane. He and his crew used to come up to a little Mississippi Delta town I lived in to spray (or dust as it was at one time) in the spring for the cotton season. They used Stearmans then. And, of course, no GPS but a flagman. Mr Pitts died a while back. He was a legend for sure. And a nice man.
I'm curious, which town was this?
Very interesting! That guidance technology is amazing.
Jim Austin Not really it's pretty basic
Quite different alignment system than when I flagged for a duster 43 years ago!
wdreeves When I started flagging many years ago it was for the old bi-wing Steermans. I'll never forget when we got our first Ag cat turbo props, it was time to step up our games, mind you, a lot of times we were dodging Water moccasins and Copperheads!
@@wdreeves scary!
@@Swoop180 omg
Thank you so much for doing this video. I've been saving to do my ag training and watching your video kept me motivated. And educated at the same time. Can't wait to live my dream
You guys have giant ones! Much respect and thanks.
This is like doing circuits but with wicked tight turns at stall speed...too cool I would love to try it some day!!! Thank-you!
My years of flying has always focused on passenger comfort and safety. I have never seen crop dusting from this perspective before. Amazing. 70 degree turns at 200 ft with the stall warning on. LOL I am impressed. I don't think i could do that job.
This guy is the real deal! I see him a few times a season. Never fails to amaze!
It’s always been so amazing to me , how pilots can do this so calmly and concentrated. Great video !
And for so long. These guys get 30, 40, 50, even 60+ years in. It's in their bones.
@Mike C33, How are you doing?
I used to watch the crop dusters & sprayers back in the fifties. They flew old Stearman biplanes, and some seemed to take chances. Yeah, they sometimes crashed. I remember seeing some fly under power lines and once I saw a Stearman fly directly toward a row of Eucalyptus trees, 120 feet tall. Maybe he thought it wasn't such a good idea because he changed his pattern. I was pleasantly surprised by the guidance & coverage system in this video. That is a GREAT idea. But it's still a dangerous job.
A year ago I watched a crop duster in an open cockpit plane here in Preble County. It was a wonderful display of flying skills in a gorgeous aircraft.
One of the best aviation vids ever witnessed here, and exceptional professionalism.
I used to love watching crop dusters in Mississippi when I was a kid. I always wanted to have one spray our fields, but no I had to do it with the tractor.
My dad sprayed up in the Delta for many years. 72 to about 80, 81.
In the world of piloting skills and the types of flying pilots do, crop dusting ranks in the top 5 most dangerous type flying. Number 1 is Navy/ Marine Corps carrier ops. Just to give some perspective. High tension wire repair by helicopter. Putting out forest fires via aircraft. Flying the specially equiped NOAA aircraft, like the P3 Orion into a Hurricane. Stunt flying via aircraft like the Long EZ or the Pitts. Bush piloting in Alaska.
These types of flying require nerves of steel and a complete understanding of both your ship and the terrain and weather. Crop Dusting is not unlike air to ground strafing. Pilots in all theatres of operation back in WWII utilized staffing to destroy enemy combatants and their equipment. The skill level required to be a crop duster pilot is pretty near the top 1% of the best pilots out there. As you can see clearly by the video, it's a very serious form of flying. Even though it's done in pretty fair weather conditions and the terrain is largely flat, once you go down to the area needing the spray, obstacles are everywhere. Trees and telephone poles to high tension lines and pretty much anything you might see on a farm. Like a wind mill. These obstacles must be foremost on a crop dusters pilots mind as he or she works the pattern. Add to that, air traffic in and around the fields.
Crop Dusters are beautiful powerful single engine aircraft specifically designed for close in type maneuvers. Hitting the mark requires excellent vision and excellent hand eye coordination. The modern crop duster is, in many respects, like a WWII fighter. Its very agile, well constructed and extremely tough. It has to be in order to do the job it's tasked to do. Which explains why we call them "flying tractors". They can, via GPS cover a farmers field in a fraction of the time it takes even the most modern equipped wheeled tractor. Which is nice because as anyone in this business knows, time is money.
I respect these pilots greatly. I also admire their tenacity to get the job done. Even in less than ideal circumstances. As anyone who has ever lived in Texas knows, the weather can change in mere minutes. A fact, AG pilots must concern themselves with when going out to a job. To become a certified AG pilot, one needs a lot of flight hours, training and quite honestly speaking, guts!
Awesome video✈🎧
Kind words! Well said!
I was working for a crop duster when I was 16. That was 1946. He took me for a ride in the dust bin (formerly the forward cockpit of that PT 17 US Army Air Corps primary trainer) I was thrilled, and I cannot imagine any 16 year old boy passing up such an opportunity
I always wondered what it would be like to ride in one of those planes. Now I know. Wow. What a great ride. Thanks for the video.
This is so cool. I didn't know crop dusters could be had in two seater versions. Legit
Wow! I have been a pilot for many years and still this video showed me a part of flying I passed up in my younger years. I grew up in Louisiana watching these planes when I was a kid. I wanted to be a pilot from the start and my first instructor was a crop dusting pilot. I am glad I went military when I finished college instead of crop dusting. Why? Well my first instructor was only 7 years older than me and he died from the many dusting materials he sprayed. It got into his blood even with mask and chemical gear on. He flew Ag Cats and later Ag wagons but in the end the chemicals killed him. I do miss him and watching the crop dusters back home spraying the fields. I fly a desk now days for a large Telecom company, but I still have happy memories every time I see a duster pilot hard at work.
Why the switch to a desk?? If you could be flying isn’t that more exciting?
@@kevinramirez538 That was a comment on my full time job for 23 years now. I flew northeast airshow ckt for 12 years but decided to hang it up after to many of my friends went in. I guess the one that made me finally hang it up was when Chris went in with his beast. I have heard of many having lost their rudder cables i.e. Chris, Sean T. etc....but this was one to many. I have enjoyed 50+ years of flying but I finally just hung it up entirely a few days after closing one of my favorite weekend airstrips down. Just to many memories of friends that are gone just loaded up on me one day and I called it quits and threw the wings on the desk and burned my flight jacket.
@@batfirewaf123 thanks for your reply and sorry to hear about your friends. I’m wanting to get into flying but honestly only for financial reasons. It sounds like a way to make a lot of money in a shorter time then most other trades while doing something amazing like flying the skies. I’m scared just thinking about messing up something while I’m 200 Ft above. I’m a truck driver currently but that’s a tough lifestyle to stay in for much longer. I’m worried flying is mainly for adrenaline junkies lol
God this looks like even more fun than I imagined it would from when I've watched them before. ...and I thought it looked REALLY awesome before!
Love this. Some of the most impressive pilots out there. I was a loader truck driver and my best friend was the pilot I loaded for before I became an engineer at one of the turbine engine OEMs. My dad's college job was flagging for crop dusting too. I still stop and watch whenever I see an ag pilots in action. Never gets boring to see.
What a cool job/fun
Nicely done!
The house where I grew up had a Highway and power lines in front of it. And in front of that was a super large corn field. Every year the crop dusters would be flying low straight at our house and those power lines, and then flying straight up right before they reached the power lines. Made it hard to sleep late. It never ceased to be amazing.
Wow... great video.. Great teacher... thanks much for posting this.
Me trying to go to bed.
UA-cam want to watch a crop duster spray a field.
Me umm well why not
I remember watching them when I was a kid when they used the biplanes with radial piston engines with flaggers; no gps back then. I loved to watch them put it in a hammerhead stall and kick rudder to turn around and line up for the next pass. Nobody grows rice here any longer.......they grow san augustine grass for turf use so no more crop dusters.
Lonnie Carpenter j
Lonnie Carpenter Believe it or not, crop dusters are still in use in the state of Louisiana. Driving across country on I-10, these little yellow birds can be seen crossing the interstate. Makes for interesting plane spotting.
Lonnie Carpenter I grew up in southern Louisiana farming rice with my father and i used to help him flag those old radial bi-wing Schweitzer AgCats. Miss those days. Also one of my best friends does this job just like in the vid. We love growing rice here in southern Louisiana!
yep...that's how I saw a guy doing it...swoop in...spray....then str8 up, kick rudder....swoop in.....spray....then str8 up.... rudder wing over ....kinda jaw dropping but.....done in minutes....
Worked as a flagger myself as a kid, sure hated that yellow stuff. It's a Wonder I am still alive. When asked about my behavior I always say it was those farm chemicals that caused it.
Beautiful feild; beautiful flying.
What a cool video. It is amazing how a professional can make something so difficult to do appear seem so easy. As a sidenote, I had a good friend who was a crop duster who sustained severe back injuries while spraying a field. He eventually made it back into flying but gave up crop "dusting". Nice video!
Awesome video. I wanted to be a crop duster as a kid. But with the high crash/death rate I didn’t pursue that career. Although I never lost the bug for aviation and am currently working on a kit plane.
Kit planes have a high death rate too! Be careful!
@@ScoopdyWhoop Kit planes are about 50 times more dangerous. The irony is not lost here. Kit planes move on a hair trigger because they are so light, and the designs are usually unproven and wacky and based on "trust me bro" from the engineer.
that was awesome
Utmost respect to you, sir! Great flying!
Outstanding! Thanks for sharing that.
I wish I could give the vid more than 1 thumbs up!
Technology sure has changed crop dusting. 40 years ago when I did this it was more seat of the pants, but lots of accidents and poor spraying (sprayed fish pond and other things by accident.) Glad to see ag work has taken advantage of modern technology.
horrible.
you fly over my house on 110 all the time! Always enjoy watching your skill at work. Stay safe up there
That looks like soooo much fun,,, great video
I missed my calling. Shortly after my discharge from military service, I was employed as a hot shot driver in an agricultural related business. I delivered this and that to various farms throughout the south. I was driving along a freeway on another delivery and giving serious thought to pursuing AG aviation as a career when a hot shot passed me with a wrecked AG plane on his trailer. As I absorbed this new data, another hotshot with another wrecked AG plane on his trailer passed me. I didn't pursue AG aviation as a career.
30 years later, I wish that I had.
Start taking flying lessons man. It's never too late.
Reminds me of flying an A-10 Wart Hog on a gun run.
BRRTTT
Great video, thanks for sharing!
My dad crop dusted for 16 yrs.
Love the video...brings back butterflies in the gut!
Hey that’s my neighbor! He’s a master. I get to see him spray and I always stop and watch. He gets so close to tree lines it makes me uncomfortable watching
That was really cool. I didn't know there was a two seat spray plane. I always assumed they were all single seaters.
Catalina 27
Looks to be an Air Tractor 504. Never knew they had one either. Fairly new aircraft. I went to school to be a spray pilot back in 92. Never did get a job though after completing school. I wasn't willing to risk my life flying a Pawnee down south spraying rice and cotton. I flagged one year and loaded planes a second year. Man, was I tan!
Shawn, out of curiosity, what do you do now?
I did what my dad thought I should do but of course he couldn't be right cuz he doesn't know anything. :) I went into computers after 17 other jobs I had. I now am a network engineer for a fiber optic network provider. It's not what I really want to do, but it pays the bills and affords me money to blow on airplanes.
Bigger plane for more fields, definitely an owner operator lol
But also there is just way more room for a pretty similar price.
Great video, thanks for sharing. The life of a fighter pilot, but doing agri a great service at the same time.
Love it. The GPS tech is very cool, as seems the pilot and his very calm demeanor.
This reminds me of Randy Quaid's character Russell Casse in Independence Day. lol "Hello boys! I'm Baaaackkk!"
@Vanargand Thank you.... for being a douche.
The turn coordinator is parked on "no worries mate!"
I live on an old farm house in the middle of nowhere with fields surrounding me. I love watching these guys fly. The helicopter dusters are insane to watch as they fly over the top of my barn/house while turning. It's amazing to watch.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing man, and greets from the Netherlands. T.
wonderfully narrated, Butch.
I want to do a ride along in the mosquito plane here in Saginaw, Michigan. Damn thing is so annoying but the way the pilot flies it makes it seem like a roller coaster.
Who needs a working turn coordinator anyway
I'm glad you caught that too
I came to the comments to see who noticed lol
It’s probably turned off to save the gyro. You don’t need the gyro part of the turn coordinator working. The inclinometer ball is the relevant part for the ham fisted pilots commenting here- and it works all the time, regardless of gyro operation.
@@wtcirrus yeah. VFR you dont need that to tell you which way you are turning. The ball is good. Says the slip or skid before you feel it..
Thanks for the Ride enjoy it 👍
He's very experienced. Nice job hitting the lines. Loved the AGNav back in the day.
looks like an air show cockpit video. pullups over trees are scary. i fly a cessna 152.
That was my first plane to fly....from Wyoming USA 🔫🤠
So is underspray acceptable at the tree line? I'd think a pass at each end of the field 90 degrees to the main circuit would cover the missed crop
damn, thats a cool office!! i missed my calling. thanks for posting!
Always enjoyed watching crop dusters ...since I was growing up and still to this day
I saw one of these in Idaho AT NIGHT. He must have memorized positions of trees and wires which I saw driving by the next morning . awesom they have gps that paints areas that have been sprayed. Makes you wonder if you could do this blind folded.
Could be he was spraying pesticides and was working "Bee Hours" so as not to harm the bees. A lot of people don't realize the precautions these guys take. :)
They use night vision goggles while flying at night, and no you could not do this blindfolded.
It just takes a special breed of pilot. ua-cam.com/video/10BYCPrxgsM/v-deo.html
Do the instruments tell you when to pull up or just experience? What is the instrument on the cowling for? How do you adjust for drift from wind?
Pull ups are done by knowing when to do it, no instrumentation for that. The device near the nose is a guidance lightbar. During the application, the three light dots should be centered when you are on swath. If off, it will tell you how far, and which way. It also serves other functions when not in application mode. A slight cross wind is actually ideal for application coverage, but you must account for the wind at all times, especially during herbicide applications.
gary24752 if you are looking at the instruments, you won't live long as a spray pilot.
gary24752 generally, the only thing you look at is spray pressure, engine instruments, and gps swath info. And of course how much chemical is in board so that the load fits the field.
Based on watching the video the instrument mounted on the engine cowl is an angle of attack indicator, which is very useful when making turns close to stall. Navy planes use them when landing on carriers.
Knowing a stall speed is useless on an ag plane because the speed changes with weight and an ag plane's weight changes significantly during a flight. Better to measure AOA.
+Donald Mei No, as has already been stated, that is a Satloc guidance lightbar. It has nothing to do with AOA.
I am watching a crop duster right now. That's what inspired me to pull up this video. This looks like so much fun. I can't imagine the enjoyment of a ride like this. How many of you crop dusters pretend that you're flying a P-51 Mustang while making these turns?
A beautiful and carefully choreographed dance. Much respect.!
Classy and well done job sir ! Wich aircraft is it?
xabbi bronson q
Air Tractor 504.
Nice better than the older day's where we had to stand with flags on a pole to let the polit know where to pass next.
Yes! Or fields that had alternating colored indicators. Now it's all digital
Skilled blokes always make things look easy don't they, lol. I enjoyed this, keep them coming!
I want to do this for a living, this looks amazing!
Turn coordinator is in INOP.... lol :-)
I saw that too!
Your turn coordinator shows level in those steep turns??
Good eyes
David Schorr I noticed that as well.
He's on the level all the time...lol
Could be electric and shut off since it's not needed or maybe caged so it's doesn't wear out from all the steep turns.
Broken or vacuum pump shot. Won't pass his annual.
Enjoyed the video very much! Thank you!
Excellent video, and flying.
Awesome video. This guy is a real airplane pilot. No flying at flight level 30 for 4 hours at a time. Helluva flying job this. I wonder what an aircraft equipped like that costs. The cockpit instrumentation alone has got to be a bundle. Strange not seeing an attitude indicator. Lol. For that kind of flying I guess you really don't need one.
Real pilots dont need those gadgets. Attitude indicators were not required in USA airplanes until 1957. Before that many used to fly hard IFR way only. Using only what they call now "Partial Panel IFR". Hard to do. I did some hours on it in the 1970's. Hard IFR partial panel can kill you easily. Most WW2 airplanes didnt even have a stall warning indicator. Pilots were pilots, not just drivers.
This guy is obviously a helluva pilot but to completely put down others with thousands and thousands of hours flying IFR procedures making the world go round is laughable. Also attitude indicator isn't required for day VFR flight lol
We are just saying who are the best pilots or who just drive automatic transmission buses in the sky. That is a fact.
CFITOMAHAWK2 this guy is amazing, but your attitude is silly. You think a WWII fighter pilot wouldn’t have wanted an FMS coupled autopilot, or at least an attitude indicator? There is a reason why commercial aviation has never been safer. Pilots these days don’t spend as much mental energy on basic flying, and therefore they are now held to a much higher standard. You’re welcome to load your family on a partial panel jet intentionally flying into IFR...
CFITOMAHAWK2 And who the fuck cares? Pls upload video from your flight or shut the fuck up.
Is there a reason the trees at the perimeter aren't taken down, or at least kept low? Holy shit that looks perilous getting so close to them
Sometimes they act as wind breaks.
they're necessary for the farming
they are innocent trees
Very entertaining and educational. My Boy and I enjoyed this, thank you very much.
Very nice ride along, enjoyed that; it's on your toes all working time for sure for sure, tnx