Air Tractor 802 Fertilizing - With Commentary
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2023
- This is my first shot at trying to explain what I am doing while working and I will try to make a few more as the season progresses. If there is anything you want me to explain in my next video let me know in the comments.
- ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
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As a pilot on the tail end of of a long career flying ag it's great to know our industry and future is in good hands with young folks like you, thanks Patrick!
Thank you!
Blown away by the prescision of computerized crop dusting. Thanks for explaining it all as you fly!!
I watch these pilots from the ground in Iowa for hours on end diving and ducking powerlines. What an amazing cockpit view and narrative to explain some of the strategy.
I couldn’t stop watching this even after I understood the process. The commentary was fantastic.
Just discovered this. You're a fantastic narrator. You can explain just about anything and it will be interesting.
This is absolutely awesome, thanks for the ride along and thoughtful descriptions of your process!
I am a flight mechanic on S2RT34 and S2RT660 turbo-thrush aircraft in Morocco for 32 years of experience, this aircraft is robust in low altitude flight, the flight control responses are fast, I really like this aircraft and thank you to the manufacturer, my greetings to Mr jody bays
You are one hell of a pilot 👨✈️
Watched many cropdusters in action as a kid in So. Texas in the 60's; AgCats, Pawnees, Thrush Commanders when they had ground spotters in trucks that marked their swaths... even today I would stop and watch mostly AT's in action. This is the first time I got great insight into what a cropduster pilot is thinking and looking out for. Great vid! Just subscribed for more!
I like watching airplanes and you had great experience as a child seeing the activities. I mostly watched military aircraft out of Wright-Pat like the B-52. I've been to the EAA in Oshkosh, other air shows and museums.
Ammonium Sulfate is 21 percent Nitrogen. This is super cool.
In the early 1980's, I worked at a company that was located outside of town next to soybean fields. There was one particular crop duster pilot flying an older Grumman Ag Cat that would do wingovers to line up for his next pass over a field. He was an OV-10 Bronco pilot for a couple tours in Vietnam.
Very cool! Thanks for the ride along.
I'm a private pilot, but have always been fascinated watching crop dusting. As kid in the 50's, I was caddying for my dad on a golf course near Okanogan, Washington, and watching a kid flag for his dad when his dad hit a tree and crashed by the golf course and the plane immediately erupted in flames. Dad ran to help, but it was too late. The fabric covered plane was totally engulfed in what seemed like seconds. It wasn't long before the plane was just a framework with the pilot still at the stick. I wondered about the kid witnessing his dad die that way. So whenever I see a pilot dusting, I say a little prayer that he ends the day safe at home. My dad died a year or so after that tragic incident in a car wreck. So I know the hurt and loss that the kid must have suffered from for years after as I did. Be safe.
Please never tell that story to a crop duster ever agan. We all understand how dangerous this is and I’ve seen my fair share.
@@pcohen85 All pilots need to be reminded that we can't be to careful. I think all pilots know the danger regardless of the news reported nearly every day in the news and TH-cam of tragic results of from failure to retain situational awareness. I have had some close calls myself and they were learning and reminding experiences I still carry that increase my awareness in all modes of flight. .
Really Cool videos you have!! Keep them coming!
Appreciate the fly-along and your thoughts and commentary. I've enjoyed watching crop-dusting all my life. Stay safe my friend!
Outstanding job - thanks so much for sharing this :)
Very cool vid! Neat perspective on a different kind of flying.
Learned a lot just watching this video! Great explanation of what’s going on
That was great! You are a skilled intelligent man👍🏼
This is brilliant, we need more. Keep em coming!
We enjoy your videos too Jimbo.
Greetings from Hawkes Bay.
Super cool. Thanks for sharing this. I have nothing to do with farming or anything, but as a pilot this is some really interesting flying.
Awesome. Also thanks for sharing some knowledges 🤙
Well, stay healthy for all of us & Safety First! ✌😉
Great flying. AG pilot has got to be the most fun flying job there is!
Really interesting to see this side of aviation as well. I often see air tractors at my airport and I have been wondering how it is to fly one of these, now I have a little better idea. Thanks for posting.👍
Wow! I had never seen crop dusting from this pov, thanks!
Great video! thanks for sharing
I'm my area of Pennsylvania they use helicopters to spray the fields.
Its impressive watching the pilots go in and out of the tree lines then dive on the fields to spray.
Good job.
ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT YOU GUYS DO UP THERE TO FLY SO PRECISE. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME PILOTS WITH COOL TECHNOLOGY 🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Awesome video…….Thanks! 👍🏻👍🏻
Really enjoy your videos! The running commentary is nice, great overview of what you are thinking while horsing around that heavy girl!
Thanks! 👍
Nice job Patrick. Its been awhile since your radial engine days on corn in IN! Glad your doing well.
Thanks Mark! It’s been exactly 10 years since I came up to fly with you in the 301. Everything is good here! Hope all is well for you also!
Man! That was fascinating! It looked like you were doing some tree trimming in the process of fertilizing.
This is so cool to watch!
This was a lot of fun to watch. I imagine that before GPS it was a lot more difficult to find that field in a sea of farmland. "flying the airplane is just something I have to do to do the job, its not really something that I focus on" he says at less than 100' and 150mph. 😲
100 feet? Sometimes they’re at like 30.
10’ when spraying liquid.
And I love the cable from the canopy to the top of the tail to prevent snagging the power lines you guys fly under!
But they still do have to fly the airplane; they just have to be so good at it that they don’t have to think about it. Yeah, these guys are good.
Here in Argentina the "banderilleros" (flaggers? flag waivers? Haha) would be waiting at the field before the aircraft arrived. It was a job many young people enjoyed because they got to see the planes up close (They had to stand in the crops serving as visual reference , repositioning for each pass) Of course now it's forbidden, but it was still popular 10 years ago!
AWESOME VIDEO I LOVE TO HEAR ALL THE INFO ABOUT EVERYTHING GOING ON ABOUT THE PLANE
Sweet, love watching these planes on ADS-B flying around the Potato/Soybean/Corn fields near me in Central Wisconsin
Great video
Fly safe
Wow! So sick
dang that is interesting! Awesome stuff!
Cool! Keep em coming :)
great commentary!
saludos capitán pura vida lo saludo desde Costa Rica
Very cool! I’ve done work on my uncles farm/ranch when they need it. And I’m also a pvt pilot, so I’m seeing the whole picture. Your skill behind the stick is superb! Do you ever make a radio call on a UNICOM or CTAF channel to broadcast that you are “maneuvering in a given area for a half hour or so? Just as a beware to other pilots? But then again, your AGL alt isn’t exactly a distance where most pilots will be flying….unless when close to an airport. Thanks! Fun to learn from you!
Wow! The big boy! Leland Snow's 800 gallon model!! I get to watch one put out seed every fall near the end of the growing season here in Bolivar, TN when Chris Pulliam brings Miles Flying Service's 802 to town for the co-op. Even in an 802 if you're seeding or fertilizing a large field, you're landing and reloading every couple of minutes it seems. You get 2 or 3 swaths done and it's back to pick up more dry material.
How many times have you had homeowners near target fields act really rude to you because you're having to turn over their house/property and they're swearin' your plane is leaking and killing every tree in their yard?
Even though the plane has advanced electronics, when you strip it all down to basics, you guys are still a traditional "crop duster pilot" and I love it. How did ag-pilots do this before GPS and automatic flow control, etc.?
you have a bright future doing SEAT firefighting. id love to fly an AT someday!
Thanks this was cool.
Great video, love the commentary. A comment I have about Airline Flying, just because the autopilot is on, does not mean you are not flying the airplane, there is a lot going on. There are certainly lull times, just like when you are ferrying between fields, but I would not say that one flying job is “flying” and the other is not. I am a 25 year Airline guy, my family owned a Crop Dusting business for over 40 years, so I am very familiar with both. Great videos!
I didn’t mean for that autopilot comment to come across as disrespectful to airline guys but but in retrospect I probably should have said that differently. The negative connotation in that comment was directed towards that 18k hour airline captain that said you can’t stall a plane if the airspeed is above the “stall speed”.
@@pcohen85
Yeah, that guy was dead wrong. Again, excellent videos!
Awesome
"Just buy a $2,000,000.00 aircraft, bro"
Dudes got my dream job though 👍
93 gallons an hour in fuel holy smokes! You need a sponsor on youtube!
Consider that an F-16 in full afterburner sucks down nearly 5850 an hour…
Hello, Patrick! Good of you to mention looking for other planes. If you're operating in AR, you probably heard about what happened to the original owner/pilot of Miles Flying Service in Bono.
Just got back from my first glider lesson. Hopefully one day I can be a ag pilot.
It's definitely an achievable goal if you take the right steps and don't mind a lot of hard work along the way.
Came real close to getting a seat a few years back... life led me in another direction though. Damn I miss it every day...
What’s it like flying without the use of sounds?
@@T25de …. quiet.
My dream job. I’ve yet to take my pilots license beyond Lolly gagging around.
This is what I wanted to do, like to work by myself and thought I would like to fly, Lived in Thornville Ohio and watched them all of the time, people out there just liked planes period, more planes than 4 wheelers in that county"was early 90s"But went onto Newark Ohio where you can take classes , 1st time in a plane going down the runway and we hit a time warp that created A distance between us and the earth, well I truly freaked . hard to get into but was asked not to ever come back , when he joked about barrel flip it went to strait hijacking with force, never been so scared in my life , never !but I made history , only man to hijack a plane just to turn back around and land , give up ! no charges filed , no harm , no foul, just me and the pilot and poor dude had awful day at work
Would love to see alot more angles
Make sure Cary Grant isn't down there, too! LOL
They say that a plus of the tractor configuration is the cooling it provides to the engine.
That is an awesome video. Who makes your flight helmet?
That one is a Gallet 250. I also have a Gallet 050, Gentex HGU-33 and HGU-55. I prefer the Gallet because they are about 1lb lighter than the Gentex.
I want more pilot friends
Too cool
Holler if you’re a flyer in Denver
Determining load amount seems to take some extra workload and it would be nice if the software did an audio callout or some beep, or flashing light to let you know like 3/4, 1/2 and so forth, but especially empty.
Hi Patrick, this is a great video; thanks for sharing. You said there is a lot of adverse yaw (even at 140 knots?!?😱); how long does it take to develop the muscle memory between your hand and feet to keep your turns precisely coordinated?
The ball in an AirTractor is all over the place and keeping it in the middle takes a bit of practice. If you are flying pretty aggressively sometimes it takes almost all of the rudder throw to keep the ball centered in a right turn. That big prop is pulling a lot of torque and it’s pretty far in front of the CG. The 802 takes a bit more umph because the controls are much heavier than the other AT models.
@@pcohen85 Yikes! Now that sounds scary. When my neighbor took me for a ride in his 172 and let me drive, I noticed that anywhere over about 90 to 100 knots you could fly it with the yoke, feet on the floor, and I couldn’t even see the ball move. I can’t imagine…
Thanks, and Fly safe!
I grew up farming 5000 acres of soybean fields. From the age of 9 to 18, one of my yearly cycle of duties was to flag crop dusters. I’ve been covered 500,000 times with chemicals they would now evacuate a city for if they found a pint of it. Not sure if the chemicals made me superhuman or if they’re just delaying their release of a horrible death… but I’m somehow, inexplicably, still kicking at the age of sixty. ✊ ✊ ✊… on wood!!
If you lived in California I’m sure you would have 7 different forms of cancer by now.
@@pcohen85 I challenge you to find and product that does not give you cancer in CA… maybe people should just stay out of California.
What plane did you cut your teeth on as a rookie ag-pilot? What did you fly your very first for-pay load in and what were you putting out?
I spent several years when in my teens refilling spray planes at the strips, an ag cat and a Cessna I think. Guy with Cessnas I filled and a few minutes later a farmer came racing up and said he crashed, got in wires. He didn’t make it, it was devastating for me .
Pretty neat. Thoughts on drones doing it cheaper and safer then planes?
With AI and quantum computing on the horizon I think eventually almost everything will eventually be automated. It would make more sense to automate the current fleet of aircraft rather than manufacture and certify some new 8 motor contraption that will carry the same weight and do the same job with the same efficiency. I don't see how drones would be any cheaper for the farmer because if they can somehow figure out how to certify a new aircraft to match our current capabilities, and somehow charge less than the industry's current prices, that would be mind blowing.
Were you on or near highway 55? I was riding through and saw an airplane like yours
Yep, I fly along I-55 between Portageville and Sikeston in SE Missouri. What were you riding?
@@pcohen85 blue honda goldwing!! I’ll try and see if it’s on my video
I'm a general aviation pilot and the turns you are making at less than 100 AGL is so scary. Do you keep track of your speed by the sound of the engine or are you referring to instruments while you are spreading? You lose quite a bit of speed in those turns. Glad I found your channel! I'm subscribing and liking!!
I rarely look at the airspeed indicator. When I fly that plane it is entirely by feel and I would be perfectly comfortable with nothing but the engine gauges. Flying Ag is pure stick and rudder flying and it takes a bit of natural ability to do it well. It’s sort of like the Wild West of aviation.
@@pcohen85 Thanks for your reply - you have a lot going on while you are spreading and I wondered if you had time to scan all of your instruments. It didn't seem so. I'm so impressed how ag pilots fly, great flying and observation skills.
It looks like the computer is starting the spray right before you get to the field and then quits while you are still over it. Does the computer lag a little bit?
I start and stop the spray or fertilizer manually and the computer screen correlates with my input. There is a bit of lag between the time I flip the switch and the time the fertilizer hits the ground. I have to flip it on early to allow for the time it takes the fertilizer to leave my hopper and land on the ground and I have to close it a touch early to allow for the time it takes my gate to close and the fertilizer to stop flowing out of my spreader.
You should put cameras on the outside so we can see the spray
Hi Patrick! Awesome video. Ihave a question for you.
Torque by propeller RPM divided 5252= SHP. Is that correct?
Thanks!
Yes that is right. Torque (in ft/lbs) x prop rpm / 5252 = HP. The torque is measured at the reduction gearbox that drives the propeller so the basic HP calculation formula works in this case.
@@pcohen85 Thank you Patrick!
Patrick, great video. Still flying your Mooney?
Nah man I sold it earlier this year. I spent almost what I paid for it in maintenance, insurance and fuel over 300 hours so I thought I should rid myself of that money hole. Mooneys are the shit though, if I buy another people plane it will be a Mooney.
@@pcohen85 makes sense man! Get into the experimental world and buy an Rv of some sort. I’ve got an Rv6 and it’s the shit, cheap as hell and fast!
Any concerns about the wind carrying the poison over to the homeowners nearby? Probably not
I was dispensing nitrogen in this video. If that’s poison we’re all in trouble.
Imagine what it must of been like for Air tractor pilots having to worry about all these variables before GPS and computer assisted application. I'm pretty sure the chemicals/fertilizer weren't cheap then too.
When I started I didn’t have any of the flow control stuff. I did have gps but it did not have a screen and a moving map and the interface looked like a big TI-83 calculator. I flew like that for the first 3 years and year 4 I got a moving map. Year 5 I got flow control for the liquid and year 9 I got the flow control for dry fertilizer. Before GOS would have been the worst because you had to use two ppl to flag you passes and then had to wait on them to take however many paces you tell them to to do the next pass. If one had longer legs than the other, that could be a problem 😅
How many hours of Tailwheel and Ground school hours and dual instruction in the two seater Air tractor to be qualified
There are no published minimum requirements other than a commercial pilots license. The insurance companies have their own requirements to be insured and the owner of the aircraft/business will also have requirements.
Keep doing the commentary bro.
curious. do you need to have a chute on you, when you are banking and pitching that much?
If the plane stalls and spins at that low of altitude, you’re not going to have any time to get out of the plane and pull a chute.
Zach is correct. Another thing to note is that when we are doing an application to a field, we are flying under part 137 of the FAR's and the chute rule under part 91 does not apply.
@@zach9373 thats not why he was asking.....cool story though
@@pcohen85and isn’t it true that the welded steel role cage and helmet are for just in case you drag a wingtip?
@@David_Lee379 no the helmet is there to protect your head from a multitude of circumstances as is the roll cage. They might not help that much if you straight line it in at 180mph but they have saved lives in many different situations.
“802” is this in Vermont?
Do you have to constantly trim that plane as you unload?
Not as much as you would think. The load is centered very well over the CG but I do have to trim the nose down through four the load depending on where my power is set. If I pull my power back as the load decreases I won’t have to trim as much.
@@pcohen85 interesting. Thanks very much for the reply!!!! Really appreciate your time.
Keith over here has a 802 2 seater
Long hair hippie Keith in West Tennessee?
@@pcohen85 yep
@@SouthernFarmingTV yea man I know Keith. He is a good dude
@@pcohen85 I got a video on here on my channel of him buzzing our heads
Do you own your plane?
93.5 gallons an hour?! Was that a mistake or is that really how much you're using?
That is an accurate fuel burn. That plane has the Pratt and Whitney PT6-65AG which is rated at 1300 SHP.
Does the Farmer get a Computer Graph and or Video of your application?
We give them the GPS data logs if they request them. It shows the exact coverage and will tell on me if I do a bad job.
@@pcohen85 Good idea to show the Customer that he is receiving what he pays for.
What helmet is that? GA pilot asking because it looks cool af
That is an MSA Gallet LH050 and I’ve installed a Bose A20 in it. They are a pretty good helmet but really expensive.
Sorry that one is an LH250. I have a few
@@pcohen85 thanks a lot! Might look ridiculous in a 172 but I'd rather that than the alternative
@@josephportaro3678you will get laughed at for sure
@@pcohen85 story of my life friend
I almost hit a bird at 5500’ today. Being that close to those trees makes me pucker a bit!
I hit birds on a regular basis. Sometimes entire flocks. No joke
@@pcohen85 hopefully small ones! I had Pelicans riding thermals and that would be like hitting a Turkey. Great video btw
@@pcohen85 the Air Tractor just doesn’t care??
@@westofwahpeton4692 I hit a duck this year that destroyed the fan on my chemical pump. I’ve probably hit one of everything.
@@CascadiaAviation depends on where it hits. I know several people that have had big birds come all the way through the windshield.
Looks like you are wearing a fighter pilots helmet. Does that thing have heads up display? 🤔 Hook up a bunch of cameras under and around your plane and the plane would be like an invisible plane. f35 style 🤙
That helmet was actually designed for helicopter crews. Helicopter helmets generally have more forward impact protection vs a helmet designed for fighters. Most fighter pilots wear the Gentex HGU-55 and the helmet I am wearing is an MSA Gallet 250.
These pilots get low
Very professional pilot.
Are you a veteran pilot?
I'm 600 hour TT commercial pilot from Georgia.. any advice finding a job like this?
nvm I read one of your comments below. Great vid! Are you in Alabama?
Nah I’m not in Alabama. I fly in SE Missouri
HOW DO YOU TURN THE FERTILIZIER IN AND OFF
For fertilizer there is a toggle switch. For the spray system I have to push and pull a handle to open a ball valve.
@@pcohen85 I LOVE THE VIDEOS
lol @ the helmet.... channel much? :)
The helmet is required by the aircraft manufacturer and the Federal Aviation Administration.
I’d like to talk to you sometime about becoming an Aerial Applicator. I’ve applied a lot of ground acres but, really would like to have a job doing the same as you. Shoot me a text if you will.
Get a commercial pilots license and go to work for a guy that ownes a few ag planes. Network within the community and eventually you will probably find someone willing to take a chance on starting you in an airplane.
I thought ammonium was nitrogen. It’s a plan available form I think.
Yea I dont really know. It probably has some nitrogen but maybe a lower concentration. I just put it where they tell me, haha
@@pcohen85 i he's you lol. I had a class with all that stuff and the prof was really bad. I picked some up but am never 100 sure
Ammonium sulfate is 21 percent nitrogen, 24 percent sulfate . Great fert if you need some sulfate as well . Patrick do you ever use a density scale ?
Love your vids, your a hell of a pilot and
applicator . Keep ‘em comin and stay safe
@@flywayne9362 Yes we use a density scales for lbs per cubic foot and also our auger trucks have scales that will tell us exactly how much weight we've put on the plane.
Funny how you Yanks like the light bar way out there. Inside on top of the instrument panel just so much better as it is an instrument. Do Airliners have their CDI way out on the nose? no they dont.
Airliners don’t operate at 10 ft agl, where the pilots eyes had better be focused outside of the cockpit. I don’t imagine that the standard panel scan applies here, except during the deadhead. Airliners typically have two pilots as well, one can scan the gauges while the others eyes are outside looking for traffic and maybe some UAP’s…🤔.
Just saying Iv had both and inside was 100 times better. @@DKTek07
Out on the nose you have to look at it, inside you can see it in your peripheral.@@DKTek07
Why pay to have an aircraft spread fertilizer over using a tractor? Is the ground too wet?
Airplane does a much better job spreading evenly and can cover a lot more ground in a given time. Many farmers do not have the extra time, employees and/or the equipment to do this work. The farmers that do have the personnel and equipment usually only use the airplane if the ground is too wet and/or they need a lot done in a short time.
How to get started?
Basically you have to work from the ground up. Go to work for a flying service doing the chemical mixing and the rest of the ground work while obtaining your commercial pilots license. If you already have a comm license then go to work on the ground until you’ve obtained enough knowledge about the job to talk someone into taking a chance starting out a new pilot/applicator.
@@pcohen85 thanks!
Killing the crop already, no? Or us 😅
Air Tractor....that's cute...
Vitaminimulch
Ok someone has to say it! How do you fertilize with commentary? Only a joke guys.
In stead of telling us the pay load in lbs not tons to sound dramatic with a big number perhaps you could tell us what it weighs in oz then it will be an inormous nimber you can say to sound even more impressive 😂😊🎉 oh merry cans