Been a Corporate Pilot for 30 years. Always admired the skills of the ag pilots. Great videos. I appreciate the explanations and commentary when you’re 5 feet off the ground. Stay safe.
Great video… this reminds of when I was a kid, early 70s, my friend’s dad was a pilot before he passed from a heart attack.. they had a grass runway and a hanger behind their house down near Star City Ar. We spent endless hours playing around the hanger and runway, I remember talking to the crop duster pilots, and I thought they had the coolest job ever… and still do.. I know it’s a dangerous job.. one pilot that had fueled up and taken off from their place, clipped the trees as he was going down, right up the highway from our house, he didn’t survive.. I still remember the smell of the chemicals they sprayed, a very distinct smell.. we would roll the empty 55 gallon barrels out on the runway and see how far we could walk on them… Be safe out there, enjoy your videos..
As a former loader from the 1970;s (started at age 13 and loaded till I left for military at age 17) in Mississippi Delta, thanks for posting these! Brings back old memories. So different any many ways yet still sort of the same. We used Cessna Ag Wagons, AgTrucks and a Grumman (round engine) AgCat's. I remember the first Air Tractor (radial engine) that was brought by our service for demo! All the young ag pilots at the time wanted it but our owner did not purchase. Again thanks for posting, keep em coming, and may I please clean that windscreen of yours! lol
I could watch you fly all day, your content is absolutely fascinating. I think its because your stick and rudder skills are second to none, no doubt better than mine as I have never flown a taildragger. Its nice to see a youtube pilot with real skill because most do not have any, they do have all the silly drama. great work love it. I do have to ask how concerned you are with unamnned operations taking some work away?
Next time you record could you say when you turn the pump on/ off for a couple passes? I'm really curious about when you turn the spray on and off lol love the videos
There is a box on the right side of the dash with green numbers on it. The lower number is the quantity of my hopper in gallons and the top number is the boom pressure in psi. The pump stays running all the time and I turn the spray on and off with a handle that opens a ball valve. If you watch the boom pressure readout you can see when I turn the spray on and off.
Question for you. i heard that operators wants beginner AG pilots to spend a season working on the ground... Why is it that operators wants you to work on the ground for a whole season?, I understand the importance of knowing about the ground operations but I think anything more than a month or 2 on the ground is a waste of time. pilots that wants to work as crop duster wants to get to work asap and not waste much time before starting. I would appreciate any information you can get me. I have my commercial license and I'm looking into crop dusting. Thank you, good video.
@@TH-camr-o Working on the ground is where you learn how to do the job in the plane. We don’t get paid to fly, we get paid to apply pesticides and fertilizer to crop. You have to learn the application side of the business and the absolute best way to do that is work the ground and absorb all of the information that you can. I worked on the ground for 5 years before I got in the plane. Also, you will need several hundred hours of tail wheel time before an insurance company will even consider insuring you in an ag plane and a cheap one at that. The planes I fly are $2.5 million brand new and it will take several thousand hours before you could get insured in one of those. In this industry you have to start from the bottom and there really isn’t any way around that.
Im an A&P about to take my checkride for Private. How do I get into what you are doing? I live in upstate SC. I want more time with my family without taking a paycut. Great video
The real and best way to get into this profession is to go to work at a flying service on the ground crew. That is about the only way to learn what you need to know before you are ready to get in the plane and go to work. It is not a flying job, it is a chemical/fertilizer application job. Unfortunately the pay for ground work is not good and you would need to wrench on the side. Having your A&P is a big bonus and while learning the flying/application side you can also learn the aircraft so you can work on them as well.
We aren’t making quite that much on a normal year. $400k would be a 900-1000 hour year. Hired pilots do not pay any expenses. The full gross of an 802 is typically $2000-$2500 per hour and expenses come out of those figures.
That depends on a lot of factors. Flight time is not nearly as important as working the gound side of the business. This is not a flying job, it is a chemical and fertilizer application job. A high time pilot with zero knowledge of application is worse than a low time pilot that has been working on the ground and learning everything they can about application. I started with 350tt and 300 of that was tailwheel time and I had been working on the ground for the 4 previous years.
What's the A&P work like in this industry? Is the pay for mechanics better than GA? I imagine it's seasonal. I'm gonna get my license within the next year and I'm not really sure where I want to go, I have a passion for all sorts of aviation and I want to do something cool! GA stuff always piques my interest but the pay is so much worse than commercial stuff- it's hard to justify it to myself.
I am not sure about the pay but the work I’m sure the work would be more satisfying than GA work. We hit things all the time, come in with weird problems that require a bit of intelligence to figure out, outfit new parts a lot ect. Working in Ag you mainly see airplanes from two manufactures and there are multiple models between the manufacturers that are all very similar to each other. The work is not seasonal at all and is very much year round. If you have a passion for aviation and don’t want a boring job overhauling piston motors all the time or doing annuals on planes that only fly 50hrs per year definitely check out Ag aviation.
What’s your tail number I live and work around where your flying I’ll keep my eye out for your plane I build shop buildings and I’m outside in the summer and love getting to watch the ag pilots of nea fly! 🤘🏼
Been a Corporate Pilot for 30 years. Always admired the skills of the ag pilots. Great videos. I appreciate the explanations and commentary when you’re 5 feet off the ground. Stay safe.
I find it amazing to watch how comfortable you are flying at like 100'.
He’s even more comfortable at about 10 feet agl
Absolutely love it when you do commentary and explain to us.
Great video… this reminds of when I was a kid, early 70s, my friend’s dad was a pilot before he passed from a heart attack.. they had a grass runway and a hanger behind their house down near Star City Ar. We spent endless hours playing around the hanger and runway, I remember talking to the crop duster pilots, and I thought they had the coolest job ever… and still do.. I know it’s a dangerous job.. one pilot that had fueled up and taken off from their place, clipped the trees as he was going down, right up the highway from our house, he didn’t survive..
I still remember the smell of the chemicals they sprayed, a very distinct smell.. we would roll the empty 55 gallon barrels out on the runway and see how far we could walk on them…
Be safe out there, enjoy your videos..
Hope all the ground support crews subscribe to your channel. Invaluable information to the up and coming applicators. Absolutely great content!
As a former loader from the 1970;s (started at age 13 and loaded till I left for military at age 17) in Mississippi Delta, thanks for posting these! Brings back old memories. So different any many ways yet still sort of the same. We used Cessna Ag Wagons, AgTrucks and a Grumman (round engine) AgCat's. I remember the first Air Tractor (radial engine) that was brought by our service for demo! All the young ag pilots at the time wanted it but our owner did not purchase. Again thanks for posting, keep em coming, and may I please clean that windscreen of yours! lol
I think this pilot could fly the Space Shuttle 😊 amazing skills 😊
He said “damnit”!😂 awesome pilot!!
Construction engineers love triangles, Ag pilots hate them with a passion 🤣 I feel for you
This is a lot of fun to watch. Thanks for posting!
A 360 degree camera underneath the plane while commentating or a VR version of your view would be worth paying for.
Thanks for the ride!
Thanks for sharing, your videos are really helpful!
I love your stuff man. Moving out to Van Buren county soon. Gorgeous country
Awesome Vid mate, Loved every minute. Amazing pilot... Cheers from Australia.
Love your videos keep them coming!
As a farmer, I feel your pain with triangles!
AWESOME
I could watch you fly all day, your content is absolutely fascinating. I think its because your stick and rudder skills are second to none, no doubt better than mine as I have never flown a taildragger. Its nice to see a youtube pilot with real skill because most do not have any, they do have all the silly drama. great work love it. I do have to ask how concerned you are with unamnned operations taking some work away?
Thanks for the props! I am not concerned at all with unmanned operations. The only work they will take is small work that we do not want to do.
@@pcohen85do I I have to have my private pilot license and commercial license in order to fly I’m 20 and I’m interested in becoming an ag pilot
Next time you record could you say when you turn the pump on/ off for a couple passes? I'm really curious about when you turn the spray on and off lol love the videos
There is a box on the right side of the dash with green numbers on it. The lower number is the quantity of my hopper in gallons and the top number is the boom pressure in psi. The pump stays running all the time and I turn the spray on and off with a handle that opens a ball valve. If you watch the boom pressure readout you can see when I turn the spray on and off.
I only turn the actual pump off when my hopper is empty. The pump is air driven and when I turn it off a magnetic brake engages to stop the fan.
I only turn the actual pump off when my hopper is empty. The pump is air driven and when I turn it off a magnetic brake engages to stop the fan.
Question for you. i heard that operators wants beginner AG pilots to spend a season working on the ground... Why is it that operators wants you to work on the ground for a whole season?, I understand the importance of knowing about the ground operations but I think anything more than a month or 2 on the ground is a waste of time. pilots that wants to work as crop duster wants to get to work asap and not waste much time before starting. I would appreciate any information you can get me. I have my commercial license and I'm looking into crop dusting. Thank you, good video.
@@TH-camr-o Working on the ground is where you learn how to do the job in the plane. We don’t get paid to fly, we get paid to apply pesticides and fertilizer to crop. You have to learn the application side of the business and the absolute best way to do that is work the ground and absorb all of the information that you can. I worked on the ground for 5 years before I got in the plane. Also, you will need several hundred hours of tail wheel time before an insurance company will even consider insuring you in an ag plane and a cheap one at that. The planes I fly are $2.5 million brand new and it will take several thousand hours before you could get insured in one of those. In this industry you have to start from the bottom and there really isn’t any way around that.
Where is your flight suit? I have never sprayed anything without gloves and a suit. 48 yrs in the cockpit as of June 12th.
Im an A&P about to take my checkride for Private. How do I get into what you are doing? I live in upstate SC. I want more time with my family without taking a paycut. Great video
The real and best way to get into this profession is to go to work at a flying service on the ground crew. That is about the only way to learn what you need to know before you are ready to get in the plane and go to work. It is not a flying job, it is a chemical/fertilizer application job. Unfortunately the pay for ground work is not good and you would need to wrench on the side. Having your A&P is a big bonus and while learning the flying/application side you can also learn the aircraft so you can work on them as well.
Where are you from. Your spraying in Ark. I live here In Tenn boarding MO. and Ky.
I live in NE Arkansas. I have sprayed around you quite a bit out of Fulton, Union City and Halls.
@@pcohen85 I live in Union City. We just lost one of our Ag pilots lately. His name was Scott Rainey. Please stay safe.
$400k a year, I assume expenses like plane payment, annual, fuel, repairs etc come out of that?
We aren’t making quite that much on a normal year. $400k would be a 900-1000 hour year. Hired pilots do not pay any expenses. The full gross of an 802 is typically $2000-$2500 per hour and expenses come out of those figures.
We did 10gal per acre on grass killer in a plane with 200 gallon hopper......lots of loads.........
Awesome videos, what kind of hours do most ag spraying companies look for?
That depends on a lot of factors. Flight time is not nearly as important as working the gound side of the business. This is not a flying job, it is a chemical and fertilizer application job. A high time pilot with zero knowledge of application is worse than a low time pilot that has been working on the ground and learning everything they can about application. I started with 350tt and 300 of that was tailwheel time and I had been working on the ground for the 4 previous years.
@@pcohen85 right on thanks for the response, also have a A&P. Might start trying to dip my toes into the ag side of aviation
Shit man!! Awsome videos!! 👍👍
Clincher!! I've not had good luck!
Haha, I’m not sure anybody has!
@@pcohen85 🤣
What's the A&P work like in this industry? Is the pay for mechanics better than GA? I imagine it's seasonal. I'm gonna get my license within the next year and I'm not really sure where I want to go, I have a passion for all sorts of aviation and I want to do something cool! GA stuff always piques my interest but the pay is so much worse than commercial stuff- it's hard to justify it to myself.
I am not sure about the pay but the work I’m sure the work would be more satisfying than GA work. We hit things all the time, come in with weird problems that require a bit of intelligence to figure out, outfit new parts a lot ect. Working in Ag you mainly see airplanes from two manufactures and there are multiple models between the manufacturers that are all very similar to each other. The work is not seasonal at all and is very much year round. If you have a passion for aviation and don’t want a boring job overhauling piston motors all the time or doing annuals on planes that only fly 50hrs per year definitely check out Ag aviation.
@@pcohen85 Great, I appreciate the response! Ag is definitely something I will be looking into
Flying low and talking like nothing is happening 💪
I think you’re hauling a bit more weight in fuel, Jet-A is 6.75 pounds per gallon, no?
I’ve never looked it up honestly.
@@pcohen85 after 18 years flying radials I just got into a turbine this past year so I only just noticed myself 😊
Address I can send an $0.85 mic cover to?
I’ve been about to buy some for around 5 years now, haha
What’s your tail number I live and work around where your flying I’ll keep my eye out for your plane I build shop buildings and I’m outside in the summer and love getting to watch the ag pilots of nea fly! 🤘🏼
Hey! Thanks for poisoning our food. I appreciate it. thank you once again. good job!
Thanks brother! your craft is doing good.
@@prosefson2561 You should read about the stuff they spray on organic food 😂🤣 Google organophosphate
Your ignorance is astounding. Your desire to publicly show it is amazing. Bravo