I have another video on my channel that is a bit more extreme than that. It’s called “wingover to landing” or something like that. It was from the wilder days of my youth, haha.
@@pcohen85 100% agreed, the lightbar makes it so much more fun. I wrote an external application in C# to do the Spray computer and lightbar. It is connected to MSFS. Also another app to do planning on. It uses a map to draw polygons to export to the spray computer via KML file. The job is also logged and can be viewed afterwards. I am still working on it to display live. I can advance the swath numbers on the joystick. The app currently create 8 different spray patterns. Discovered another 2 to implement. But the flight dynamics of the 802 is a challenge. Never flown one.
@@FritzWeinrebethat sounds awesome!! How can o help you understand the flight characteristics of the AT-802? I am happy to make a video explaining whatever it is you want to know.
Fritz, Patrick excuse my interruption. Fritz, u have never flown an 801, have u flown any G.A.aircraft? If u have ,, Patrick could conceivably compare any similarities,,if there are any.. And highlight the varied differences. No doubt Patrick as a professional came up like the rest of us. In a G.A. aircraft Love ur vids Patrick!! Please keep em coming !
I worked 36 years as a machinist in aerospace now retired and have never flown. That must be an absolute thrill. They aren't called "air tractor" for nothing...
Just discovered your videos and can't stop watching... Don't know why other than it's so cool to watch... Tons of questions that I would love to ask... Fascinating
Military has a variant of the 802 for 'light" ground attack to deploy in places the A-10 cant go, or would be too expensive to deploy. The AT-802U and L variants. And they also have one for firefighting AT-802F. Very versatile little plane.
That field road looks like runway plumb 40...40 miles outta town and plumb rough! Man! Those long runs empty you up quick, fast, and in a hurry!!! Ever met a fellow 802 driver named Chris Pulliam? He flies for Miles Flying Service in Bono, AR.
LOL, FLIGHT NAACP-105. I KNOW THIS FROM MY CHILD HOOD. MY STEP DAD WAS A DUSTER PILOT AND HAD HIS OWN PLANES. THAT SONG WAS PRIOR AND DURING THE CIVIL RITES MOVEMENT. FIRST TIME I EVER HEARD REFERENCE TO IT. BRINGS BACK MEMORIES. OH I STILL HAVE THAT 45 Of that song and others.
I used to fly RC model aircraft in a large field located about 17 miles north of Alligator Alley (I-75) on US#27. Sometimes a crop duster like this one would land & visit. I said it looks like a fun job. The pilot replied that it is not, It is like a flying tractor with no air-conditioning. (It suck because it is hot). Nowadays large (Very large) drones are spraying fields. They have programed routes using user selected GPS way points. Just fill tanks and launch. The drones automatically return to launch sites when batteries low or when tanks get low. The drones remember where they left off and return to that location & continue.
5:43 thats just too badass. Can you control the prop blade pitch? Can't you also adjust the engine rpm separately from the proppeler rpm? Love that aircraft. It can be nimble enough for t/o and landing on fairly short runways. Turns on a dime when taxi 😂 But then the hopper opens up and inhales 8000 pounds of pellets! Thats a hell of a load for even a big truck. But that little PT6 is an absolute monster and hauls that weight with some speed. 🛩️🌽🚜
Yea I can control the prop blade pitch in a few different ways. The regular way is with the prop rpm control lever which is connected to a governor that will hold the rpm wherever I set it until the engine slows down too much and the blades run out of forward pitch. The second way is when the power lever is in a certain position aft of the normal stop and that is called Beta. In Beta I have a linear control of the pitch using the power lever. Beta is only used in the ground for slowing down and reverse.
"The PT6A is a two-shaft engine with a multi-stage compressor driven by a single-stage compressor turbine and an independent shaft coupling the power turbine to the propeller through an epicyclic concentric reduction gearbox."
I haven't explained it in verry much depth. It is basically the HUD for my gps computer that tells me how far I am off my line in feet , displays my laser altimeter readout, displays my groundspeed and my pass number. The Channel Ag Aviation Adventures has a really good video on the lightbar and how the GPS system works. Its worth a watch if you are interested.
The roads we used were shell roads just wide enough for 1 vehicle to go down. Watched my dad turn that agwagon around many times on those roads. Just curious, was that 200lbs to the acre? That fertilizer was going down really fast during your run..
That was 125lbs per acre and I’m moving between 150 and 160mph so it comes out pretty quick. Also the back hopper empties a bit faster than the front hopper on this plane.
Wow a self closing hopper We had to get up top and slam it shut Thx Was fun being a loader..driver Your average..when loaded.. for v1 is in the 70s.. rotate about 78? Nice engine glass
I don’t look at the airspeed indicator that much but I would guess with a full load it flys off around 80mph with 2/3 flap. The tail comes up around 60mph
Flying Ag would be fun but man you work fast! Are there abbreviated checklists you're running through in every T/O landing cycle or is the work load generally pretty light with that type of flying?
I don’t use a checklist or anything. There really isn’t much to it as far as the actual airplane flying goes. For landing I just pull the power back, put the flaps down and land. For takeoff I push the prop forward, flaps 2/3 down, lock the tailwheel and get back to work. There are other things that have more to do with the application and/or application equipment that you want to make sure is set but the airplane itself is pretty simple.
@@77Avadon77 yes we do have to be careful about that. The cockpits are “sealed” but I don’t trust that so much. We use the wind to make sure we don’t fly through our spray drift.
Yea they run over it with a dirt plane and smooth it out as best as possible and then dont drive any tractors down it after that. We dont spray a dirt strip with anything but if it had grass we would spray it for weeds and fertilize it to keep the grass nice.
Yea that’s pretty much how it goes. My first time flying a turbine engine and my first time flying an Ag Cat was the same flight and I only had about 600hrs total time. My boss showed me how to start the engine and gave me some pointers. It takes a real aviator to do this job for more reasons than people may think!
What kind of fertilizer are you using? Looks like miracle grow pellets? Is that actually a window in the panel that lets you see the remaining amount of contents? Also what kind of music do you listen to when you fly?
That was Urea which is 46% nitrogen. There are two windows however they only look into the rear hopper and you can’t see through them very well if the fertilizer is dusty. I listen to about everything in there. Mostly podcasts now because I’ve heard all the music. I spend between 400-600 hours a year in there so there is plenty of time to listen to whatever.
@@pcohen85 haha I thought you might say I only listen to ACDC or something lol. But I imagine at so many hours you've heard all the music you like to listen to already. I'm that same way when I'm in my shop welding. :)
You guys ever come up as far as Jefferson City? I worked line service at the airport years ago hot fueling air tractors on occasions just wondering if I ever ran into you and didn't realize it!
It has something to do with using shape files and you have to turn off the light bar option to have the left and right yellow arrows displayed. I can’t remember what that option is called but it has to be turned off for the center lights to do that edge warning thing.
I usually watch the hopper lid when I am close to empty. When the fertilizer runs out the hopper lid will get sucked down tight by the negative pressure in the hopper.
Yea man that’s a nice field. We’ve got some pretty good running here for sure. One of our fields is 1800 acres and 3.5 miles long. It’s in corn this year so I’ll get to spray it later this month probably. I’ll try and remember to bring the camera.
It is row rice and it’s really close to Arkansas but not quite. Row rice is awesome because they do all the hard herbicide with the trucks and we don’t have to worry about killing all the corn, beans and cotton.
Random video for me. Out of curiosity I searched "Air Tractor 802 price" to see how much one of those little crop dusters cost. Holy moly I almost choked.
It is there because I need to do math. There are plenty of calculations we need to do on the fly, most often having to do with spray/fertilizer calibration. For example: I have 83 acres left to spray and 349 gallons in my hopper.. what spray volume do I set in the computer to ensure I don't run out of chemical before I spray all the fields? There are a lot of variables that will throw off the calibration and I need to keep up with it throughout the entire job. The GPS computer also has a calculator function as does my phone, but ole trusty there on the panel is the easiest and most reliable source.
So cool. Would be amazing if you could ever make a video walking around showing your whole set up and equipment.
Whew, that takeoff roll felt like it took *forever*. Like someone else said, you can almost feel the weight just watching it.
6:50 - sipping coffee and checkin your phone all in a days work. lol Love it.
You can "feel" how heavy it is on takeoff and how light it is at landing. It would be a nice beast for glider towing :)
That was one of the coolest landings I've ever seen!
I have another video on my channel that is a bit more extreme than that. It’s called “wingover to landing” or something like that. It was from the wilder days of my youth, haha.
@@pcohen85 I'll have to take a look. I don't think I'll ever be a good enough of a pilot to do what you do haha.
Living the dream right there... Coffee, good weather, big runs, no ferry and Jet-A ❤️... I don't know how you sleep at night 😂😂
Thanks for these videos. I am developing a 802 for MS Flight Sim 2020 and this is a perfect reference. The last 2 videos are so awesome
Will it come to the XBOX?
If you could incorporate the GPS and light bar that would be the sh*t! Flying the light bar is a pretty big part of our workload.
@@pcohen85 100% agreed, the lightbar makes it so much more fun. I wrote an external application in C# to do the Spray computer and lightbar. It is connected to MSFS. Also another app to do planning on. It uses a map to draw polygons to export to the spray computer via KML file. The job is also logged and can be viewed afterwards. I am still working on it to display live. I can advance the swath numbers on the joystick. The app currently create 8 different spray patterns. Discovered another 2 to implement. But the flight dynamics of the 802 is a challenge. Never flown one.
@@FritzWeinrebethat sounds awesome!! How can o help you understand the flight characteristics of the AT-802? I am happy to make a video explaining whatever it is you want to know.
Fritz, Patrick excuse my interruption.
Fritz, u have never flown an 801, have u flown any G.A.aircraft?
If u have
,, Patrick could conceivably compare any similarities,,if there are any..
And highlight the varied differences.
No doubt Patrick as a professional came up like the rest of us. In a G.A. aircraft
Love ur vids Patrick!! Please keep em coming !
I worked 36 years as a machinist in aerospace now retired and have never flown. That must be an absolute thrill. They aren't called "air tractor" for nothing...
Just discovered your videos and can't stop watching... Don't know why other than it's so cool to watch... Tons of questions that I would love to ask... Fascinating
Very impressive low speed maneuverability for it's weight
Love these utility birds!
Military has a variant of the 802 for 'light" ground attack to deploy in places the A-10 cant go, or would be too expensive to deploy. The AT-802U and L variants. And they also have one for firefighting AT-802F.
Very versatile little plane.
Love these videos, thanks for doing them
I'm down in rice country S.E. Texas it's so awesome watching you guys fly
That field road looks like runway plumb 40...40 miles outta town and plumb rough! Man! Those long runs empty you up quick, fast, and in a hurry!!! Ever met a fellow 802 driver named Chris Pulliam? He flies for Miles Flying Service in Bono, AR.
LOL, FLIGHT NAACP-105. I KNOW THIS FROM MY CHILD HOOD. MY STEP DAD WAS A DUSTER PILOT AND HAD HIS OWN PLANES. THAT SONG WAS PRIOR AND DURING THE CIVIL RITES MOVEMENT. FIRST TIME I EVER HEARD REFERENCE TO IT. BRINGS BACK MEMORIES. OH I STILL HAVE THAT 45 Of that song and others.
My FIL sprayed in ND for over 40 years much respect!
your videos might have me looking into a career in ag aviation, seriously cool stuff
Hell yeah, You're listening to Freak on a Leash by Korn. My favorite band. 7:14
Long runs right next to the strip at sea level.... dream work!
Don't let the altimeter fool you. 🙂 I think these guys just set it to zero where ever the strip (or the loader truck) is.
My Lord, talk about turn and burn! Excellent videos. Instant subscriber. Thanks.
I used to fly RC model aircraft in a large field located about 17 miles north of Alligator Alley (I-75) on US#27. Sometimes a crop duster like this one would land & visit. I said it looks like a fun job. The pilot replied that it is not, It is like a flying tractor with no air-conditioning. (It suck because it is hot).
Nowadays large (Very large) drones are spraying fields. They have programed routes using user selected GPS way points. Just fill tanks and launch. The drones automatically return to launch sites when batteries low or when tanks get low. The drones remember where they left off and return to that location & continue.
5:43 thats just too badass. Can you control the prop blade pitch? Can't you also adjust the engine rpm separately from the proppeler rpm? Love that aircraft. It can be nimble enough for t/o and landing on fairly short runways. Turns on a dime when taxi 😂 But then the hopper opens up and inhales 8000 pounds of pellets! Thats a hell of a load for even a big truck. But that little PT6 is an absolute monster and hauls that weight with some speed. 🛩️🌽🚜
Yea I can control the prop blade pitch in a few different ways. The regular way is with the prop rpm control lever which is connected to a governor that will hold the rpm wherever I set it until the engine slows down too much and the blades run out of forward pitch. The second way is when the power lever is in a certain position aft of the normal stop and that is called Beta. In Beta I have a linear control of the pitch using the power lever. Beta is only used in the ground for slowing down and reverse.
Impressive precision flying!
Your shadows were awesome
what a job. man must have all the stick and rudder skills youd ever need
Good video Patrick👍
Man I should have been a crop duster. This seems like a blast.
"The PT6A is a two-shaft engine with a multi-stage compressor driven by a single-stage compressor turbine and an independent shaft coupling the power turbine to the propeller through an epicyclic concentric reduction gearbox."
Have you ever explained the electronic device outside, on the top of the cowling in front of you?
I haven't explained it in verry much depth. It is basically the HUD for my gps computer that tells me how far I am off my line in feet , displays my laser altimeter readout, displays my groundspeed and my pass number. The Channel Ag Aviation Adventures has a really good video on the lightbar and how the GPS system works. Its worth a watch if you are interested.
The roads we used were shell roads just wide enough for 1 vehicle to go down. Watched my dad turn that agwagon around many times on those roads.
Just curious, was that 200lbs to the acre? That fertilizer was going down really fast during your run..
That was 125lbs per acre and I’m moving between 150 and 160mph so it comes out pretty quick. Also the back hopper empties a bit faster than the front hopper on this plane.
Man, thing is putting out some product fast!
Those were some seriously long passes! Imagine how long it would take driving a wheeled vehicle all that distance?!
It takes much, much longer and they have to run over the rice with the truck 😮
Wow a self closing hopper We had to get up top and slam it shut Thx Was fun being a loader..driver Your average..when loaded.. for v1 is in the 70s.. rotate about 78? Nice engine glass
I don’t look at the airspeed indicator that much but I would guess with a full load it flys off around 80mph with 2/3 flap. The tail comes up around 60mph
Awesome and Far Out!
Flying Ag would be fun but man you work fast! Are there abbreviated checklists you're running through in every T/O landing cycle or is the work load generally pretty light with that type of flying?
I don’t use a checklist or anything. There really isn’t much to it as far as the actual airplane flying goes. For landing I just pull the power back, put the flaps down and land. For takeoff I push the prop forward, flaps 2/3 down, lock the tailwheel and get back to work. There are other things that have more to do with the application and/or application equipment that you want to make sure is set but the airplane itself is pretty simple.
@@pcohen85 Do you have to be careful about personal chemical exposure to the product? Or is that not a problem inside the airplane?
@@77Avadon77 yes we do have to be careful about that. The cockpits are “sealed” but I don’t trust that so much. We use the wind to make sure we don’t fly through our spray drift.
@@pcohen85 Sealed... so does it have heat and air conditioning that's recycled inside?
Have you ever tried to fly the Air Tractor 1002?
So do you also spray/fertilize corn while listening to Korn? Lol I could spot that album cover from a mile away. Nice flying!
Takes longer to load than it does to dump! That must have been a 3 mile long field? 😂
serious aviation talent
Goodness!! How many take offs and landings for the day?!?!
Probably 50 or so on that day.
Do they do any special prep to use those farm roads as landing strips? Calcium chloride spray or anything?
Yea they run over it with a dirt plane and smooth it out as best as possible and then dont drive any tractors down it after that. We dont spray a dirt strip with anything but if it had grass we would spray it for weeds and fertilize it to keep the grass nice.
I love the smell of Urea in tbe morning.
With only one seat in a sky tractor, how do you guys first train, like from day one are you on your own? cheers, awesome vids mate
Yea that’s pretty much how it goes. My first time flying a turbine engine and my first time flying an Ag Cat was the same flight and I only had about 600hrs total time. My boss showed me how to start the engine and gave me some pointers. It takes a real aviator to do this job for more reasons than people may think!
What kind of fertilizer are you using? Looks like miracle grow pellets? Is that actually a window in the panel that lets you see the remaining amount of contents? Also what kind of music do you listen to when you fly?
That was Urea which is 46% nitrogen. There are two windows however they only look into the rear hopper and you can’t see through them very well if the fertilizer is dusty. I listen to about everything in there. Mostly podcasts now because I’ve heard all the music. I spend between 400-600 hours a year in there so there is plenty of time to listen to whatever.
@@pcohen85 haha I thought you might say I only listen to ACDC or something lol. But I imagine at so many hours you've heard all the music you like to listen to already. I'm that same way when I'm in my shop welding. :)
I was wondering if the stab leading edge was protected from rocks.
It is a little bit. It has a 1mm think plastic/rubber tape over the leading edge of the horizontal and also the struts that hold it up.
How many acres are you doing per tank?
Crazy how fast 800 gallons of dry product disappears!
It comes out quick on a long run like that! Those were 20ac passes and it was coming out at 125lb per acre.
You guys ever come up as far as Jefferson City? I worked line service at the airport years ago hot fueling air tractors on occasions just wondering if I ever ran into you and didn't realize it!
Nah we stay pretty local to SE Missouri
How do you get your edge warning lights set up like that? Mine just blink
It has something to do with using shape files and you have to turn off the light bar option to have the left and right yellow arrows displayed. I can’t remember what that option is called but it has to be turned off for the center lights to do that edge warning thing.
Hey how do you know when you run out of urea i know you are using the hydraulic gate on the 802 i can see the controller. Thanks
I usually watch the hopper lid when I am close to empty. When the fertilizer runs out the hopper lid will get sucked down tight by the negative pressure in the hopper.
Nice long runs.....
good choice in music!
Got that gravy running sann
Yea man that’s a nice field. We’ve got some pretty good running here for sure. One of our fields is 1800 acres and 3.5 miles long. It’s in corn this year so I’ll get to spray it later this month probably. I’ll try and remember to bring the camera.
@@pcohen85 that's legit. Def get a vid.
Looks like you have done that a few times. 🤠
In 7000 hours I’ve made about 25,000 landings. No joke
very cool
Looks like row rice. Gotta be Arkansas.
It is row rice and it’s really close to Arkansas but not quite. Row rice is awesome because they do all the hard herbicide with the trucks and we don’t have to worry about killing all the corn, beans and cotton.
Massive field.
One of our fields is 1800 acres and 3 miles long 😅
Random video for me. Out of curiosity I searched "Air Tractor 802 price" to see how much one of those little crop dusters cost.
Holy moly I almost choked.
Brand new they are over 2 million.
Also this is the largest single engine airplane currently in production.
11:55 👍🏻
why do you have a calculator on your panel?
It is there because I need to do math. There are plenty of calculations we need to do on the fly, most often having to do with spray/fertilizer calibration. For example: I have 83 acres left to spray and 349 gallons in my hopper.. what spray volume do I set in the computer to ensure I don't run out of chemical before I spray all the fields? There are a lot of variables that will throw off the calibration and I need to keep up with it throughout the entire job. The GPS computer also has a calculator function as does my phone, but ole trusty there on the panel is the easiest and most reliable source.
Get it !
AWESOME
Where do operate? I'm near Sac in CA.
SE Missouri
@@pcohen85 Rice looks the same everywhere. 🤠
I have to imagine the long fields with quick hops like that gets pretty monotonous to actually perform ALL .... DAY..... LONG.
It gets very monotonous. I would go crazy witout a bluetooth helmet interface for media and phone calls.
😎☝️.