Just an Iowa farm boy who owns and operates an aerial application (cropdusting) company. Farming for my sister in law's family and flying for my wife and I. Thanks for stopping by! Please subscribe if you like what you see.
"There's a bug on your phone" cracked us up.... 😅😂 What a season!!!! So fun to see the footage of how close you fly to the ground!! Your team looked great this year!!! 👏 🎉 Rejoicing with you in your successful season!!!
When it's go time, it's go time!!! I remember an army worm breakout one year and we had our 2 birds and I think at least 3 others going out of our strip. Now that was a lot of work!!!!!!!
Not certain, but I think the very first Pawnee's had a 160 Lycoming! Last versions included a 235 Lyc! 20:09.......Turns....I lost a friend in 1971 due to his "turn" procedure.....!
Being in Iowa I'm sure it's just as windy there as it is here in NoDak. Those rubber straps on the doors aren't worth a damn and hinges bend if caught in the wind. Nice aftermarket option that I'm just passing along. Love that top cover! ru-vid.comJcc_C4VcxZc?si=WZklLF5c2F8Sz5zX
I appreciate the ride along. Nice video. I also appreciate your waiting until you were comfortable enough to do it. There’s already a lot happening in the cockpit without talking to us. Stay safe.
It's good to see you enjoying the new Thrush Mark. It looks good and would be quite handy with the 140 and the right boom shutoff. I remember that rain event. We got going at around the same time that day. I'm back home in Australia again but I really enjoy heading back to Iowa for the Corn/bean season each year. I'm enjoying your videos and I'm glad you're doing them. Say hi to everyone for me. Rohan.
My "IFs" for this video: 1. IF I was there and 2. IF your Thrush was a dual cockpit and 3. IF you were willing and didn't mind slightly bending an F.A.R. (I wouldn't ask you to break a rule; just fracture it the tiniest bit 🙂) I would beg to literally go on a ride-along. That's been on my bucket list since I was 5 years old and saw my very first ag plane (old 450 Ag-Cat). Yeah, I know part 137 says "pilot only". Dang laws that protect me from myself. I would make sure to sign a hold harmless so there's no liability to you or the company. If all those ifs fell into place, I would absolutely want you and your company to be free from any liability because deciding to take the risk would be my informed, free-will choice. I just cannot be convinced that even though there are some inherent dangers in the profession that doing liquid work, flying low altitude, climbing over irrigation rigs and pulling up just in time to clear a tree line all have to combine to make one heck of a fun ride. I would hope your model has A/C so you can keep cool on these miserably hot, scorching days. Well, If I was there since you fly a single-seat, I'd be the one on the ground at field's edge watching from first swath until you're out of sight ferrying back to home base. After hearing you asking people not to get too close, I might have to back off a bit, but I would be on foot and not in any vehicle that would present a hazard to you. I have too much respect to ever be a pest. I gotta rib ya just a teeny bit here...ol' feller forgot to turn the booms on. I guess it happens at that age.... J/K. This is really a job where you don't need ANY DiSTRACTIONS. This is a mentally intensive job. You're flying fast which means crap happens much, much more quickly. You have to be 2 or 3 swaths ahead of the plane. THAT BABY GIRL MUST BE A GRAND BABY. PAW-PAW HAS TO SMOKE AND SAY HELLO TO THE FAMILY. AWESOME YOU DO THAT FOR THEM!! I can't believe someone said, "All you do is sit on your rear all day." At 155+ MPH your mental facilities are all taxed. You're keeping up with several things at once, not the least of which is trying your best to avoid everything that can bring you out of the air and end your career, if not your very life. Doing that ALL DAY LONG DAY IN AND DAY OUT SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK DURING PEAK SEASON will wear the best man down.
We had an A model agcat for a while to try out and one day my older brother and dad were in the office and my brother noticed the Grumman symbol from the rudder pedal melted into the bottom of Dad's right shoe. He asked dad if it got hot in the plane and dad said, it gets a bit warm...... The exhaust went down the right side on the 1340 so only his right shoe had that emblem melted in it. I remember that plane as I was just old enough to play in it!!!!!!!
@@ces188charles6 those were the good old days right? 🤣. I think I spent 6 seasons without A/C and hope to never go back! The seasons behind a 1340 with no A/C! 🥵🔥🔥
I have always hated it when people call ag pilots "crazy". They are the farthest thing from that. And to think my dad flew in south Texas during the summer with no AC in his plane... That ole man was tough..... I sure miss him.....
I loved seeing that old Pawnee. She's a nice-lookin' little bird. When you live out in the country and you hear an unusually loud airplane, you just know it's a crop duster. At 55, I still have to drop whatever I'm doing and go to the field's edge and watch. Drift? Not worried. Sadly, all the ag aviation action I get anymore is at the end of the season when an 802 comes to town to seed cover crops. Problem with a turbine is that by the time you hear it and get outside, he's almost gone already. That old recip engine in a Pawnee, an Ag-Wagon or the round engine in an old Cat, Air Tractor, Thrush, or Weatherly is heard a good several seconds before it breaks the horizon, so you have plenty of time to get outside. The Pawnee is the plane many an ag-pilot cut their teeth on over the decades. I wish I lived up there close to your strip. I'd be out there every chance I had VOLUNTEERING to help out any way I could. I love working ground crew and being a part of the team that keeps everything working. I like being right there with the plane and being a friend to the pilot. I never feel like I'm working when it comes to ag planes. AS A CHRISTIAN, I GIVE YOU MAXIMUM RESPECT FOR POSTING VERSES OF SCRIPTURE IN YOUR VIDEO DESCRIPTION. WHAT GREATER TRUTH IS THERE THAN THE FACT GOD SENT THE BEST OF HEAVEN TO DIE ON THE CROSS FOR UNDESERVING SINNERS LIKE US?!?! I always thought it would be cool to fly an Ag-Cat, but after what I see in my flight sim (which I know pales in comparison to the real thing) I'd hate that plane because the wings get in the way of your view! Top wing can obscure wires. It's like either way you look-up or down-a wing is in the way of what you need to see. I don't see how pilots deal with that and overcome it. That round engine is like a lead weight on the front. No matter how I turn that thing I always end up dangerously low (too low) coming around out of the turn. I guess that may be due to the fact I ain't a real pilot of any sort. PLEASE DON'T ASK HOW MANY TIMES I'VE WENT IN THE GROUND ON MY SIDE FROM FALLING OUT OF A TURN....I TAKE THE 5th ON THAT.
@@IowaFlyingFarmer Absolutely! Just because turbines dominate the market, that doesn't mean that there aren't still smaller fields that the old Pawnees, Ag-Wagons, Weatherlys, and 450 Ag-Cats are just the right size to efficiently handle with ease. I love the doppler effect of the engine that makes it sound like it's being given more power as it comes around out of a turn and then the sound of diving into the field for the next swath.
@@WillCrump-e5x As a Surveyor, great to see someone who knows what "Doppler Effect" means. Back in the day (1960's/70's) as a Land Surveyor ( Australia) we used The "Doppler Effect" system gaining access to the Orbiting Satellite constellation RA Svy to fix co-ordinate ground positions.) Later we used other constelations - NAVSAT, NAVSTAR & Glonas.
Would you also please consider posting one of your bigger spray jobs from the viewpoint of a ground observer? I love to watch you guys spray a field. It just never gets old! I love seeing the plane at spray altitude and the chem trails stretching out from the nozzles.
I hate that you had this happen. That has to be a total gripe to get that big auger out of the hopper. It doesn't look light and when you're middle-aged and above, it ain't easy. Neither is having to climb over into the hopper, stay in a cramped position, and then have to climb back out again. As a 55-year-old man, I can tell this job would tell on you quick.
I had a pilot to tell me that when flying an 802, it costs about 2 grand/flight hour plus the pilot's cut for that plane to turn a profit. What does it cost per hour to put that Thrush in the air and make a decent profit? What would it cost a farmer with say 300 acres of cotton that needs methyl parathion ULV (approx. a pint per acre)?
You showed real diligence in a tedious job. I’m glad our boys get to see your example! Oh and they laughed again at the rerun clip of you scaring Gracie😂
@@jennysmid8427 Thanks Jenny. I’m glad that you guys enjoyed it! You could definitely tell that I was dragging my feet and did not want to do it over again but it had to be done! Thanks for watching!
So very sorry this happened to you. Mother Nature has awesome power. Things like this seem to happen at the worst possible times. Thank God the plane didn't get wrecked in flight. I'll bet Gracy thinks she's people. Cute doggie. What plane did you end up renting? Another Air Tractor, a Thrush??
@@WillCrump-e5x thank you for the kind words. We rented another radial engine Thrush which ended up being a lemon so we found a turbine Thrush and finished the season with that!
Walked around a new 802 the other day and noticed it too had hose clamps holding the boom on. Kinda comical for a 2 million dollar airplane, but it’s probably what works best.
We would switch multiple times in a day when really busy during rice season. And yes, we could swap over really fast!!!! Also we could swap booms (dad had a set of booms for each application rate) from 1,3 or 10 gallons within a few minutes. Our dad had a neat hookup that Cessna adopted.
Nice I see some crop dusters here in central Iowa. I seen an AT502 i think. In June. Then my dad yesterday seen a crop duster helicopter. Glad the season is back
@@IowaFlyingFarmerbtw love the color of your thrush plane. Where I’m at I get White and red thrush planes and they fly out of Grinnell Iowa, idk if you know where that is. And the air tractors are all yellow and blue. We got on bi plane right next to my town from Vintion according to the tail number
