@@Invertedaviation it’s a fact. There are not “facts” being stated here. He’s stating one potential fact. Stop butchering the English language because your favorite illiterate rapper says stupid things. God, your generation produces nothing but garbage lol.
Hard work? That’s an understatement! 14 hours a day? I would be so mentally drained after a couple hours! You guys have to be sharp as a tack 99% of the time. Amazing!!
Yeah? Get your CDL and come to work in the high Rockies of Colorado. Try hauling 95k up down these mountain roads. My pilot friends say they’d NEVER do what I do for a living…nothing to deal with in the air other than stationary objects…driving a commercial vehicle on the steep roads in the mountains is far more challenging. Respect to the folks who do this work though 🙏🏼
Totally blown away by your videos!! Thanks so much for explaining everything while your flying but hopefully not to the point where your distracted from your job at hand. You guys please be careful. And keep those videos coming!!!
Because of what you said at the first of the video about that model (and size) of plane, L-3 Aeromet Inc. has a contract signed to convert 30+ of these models into USAF light attack planes at its shop in Tulsa, OK. 7,000 pounds is a lot of Hellfires, rockets, or cannon ammo! Cool vids!
Nice work. The 802 is a beast which requires lots of attention, not a good beginner ag plane. I’ve never worked one on farm crops but I’ve flown a few SEAT’s. The cockpit feels like an L1011 cockpit, like a barn. I used to stuff AgCats under wires in Ca. They’re pretty tall at the top of the vertical fin, but AgCats don’t cross the field at 170😮 It’s great that average folks can watch your video and see what a real Cropduster does for a living, compared to the horrible Hollywood cartoon character. I’ve done many 15 hr days during rice season, and forget lunch, no time for that. Lucky if you get a Gatorade..”no joke” 😅
I’ve eaten lunch in the plane more often than not, that’s for sure. Used to have to put my lunchbox in the cockpit in the morning so I wouldn’t have to get out to go get it. Id like to fly a SEAT one day! It’s on the list of things to do.
@@pcohen85 I’ve never worked a SEAT on an actual fire as I’ve yet to be carded by the USFS. It’s just some post airline retirement SEAT training I did for an operator in AZ, and some ferrying of the 802. But, enough to have a great respect for the airplane. Especially as an ag aircraft. Considering it’s size and speed, and knowing how tight farm fields can be, much respect to you!
I’m 61 and you are living the dream I’ve wanted since i was a young boy living in south Louisiana with sugar cane fields all around me miles and miles of it. Air Farm was just about 3 miles from us they would fly 600 or 650 radial engine At Cats loved the sound and the airplane itself, I used to ride my bike to where they were flying and i was loving it would even get dusted occasionally by the chemicals 2-4D and mythalparathyon omg and I’m still alive today 😁. Keep on flying that tractor, I have FSX And got the Air Tractor 802 on it with the crop duster app also my daughter downloaded a Ag Cat with the radial engine which is nice 👍🏼 thanks for the video!!! Hey nice flying and landing!!!
Love your videos! The narration is great! After I got my license in 1969, I wanted to be a spray pilot. So I would rent a Super Cub and go out (unknown to others) and find an open field and "practice". I remember black birds flying up in front of me. You have a great job, but I'm sure you know that.
I’m really enjoying these videos with the added commentary. Adding commentary to a job like this definitely takes a laser focused professional, and that professionalism definitely shows without a doubt. I work in the aviation industry as well, and have always been interested in crop duster‘s and how they work. Would it be possible for you to make a video explaining all of the various gauges and switches used for the AG application? #cropduster #airtractor802 #flying #powerlines #agriculture
I will probably do a walk around of the plane and cockpit here soon. We are starting to slow down and I should have some time in the next few weeks hopefully.
Hey Patrick! I’m a flight instructor based out of Texas working my way into ag aviation. These videos are awesome. So much to learn, but these videos you put out offer amazing insight when it comes to ADM inside the cockpit.
Learn something every day. Today I learned about saggy power lines. I will never look at them again and not try to judge how much of a load is on them. I will also have a little fun with that bit of knowledge. Glancing at them , " hmmm. Not a big demand today " Powerlines aren't sagging that much. Do what ? Lol Tnx , fly safe. I've often heard about crop duster pilot flying under light wires. You are the first pilot I've seen do so. Yea, I'd fly with ya.
I started my flight training last week and stumbled onto your videos today and i just gotta say watching this is cool asf. Please keep uploading and if at all possible can you do a video on the aircraft itself?
Thanks for reporting how this profession works. I have a lot of curiosity even though it's none of my business. I take it that understanding a turbine engine is at least a bit different from dealing with a piston, which most viewers know from driving cars.
Thanks Patrick. This video is excellent just like the last. Learn new stuff every time. I will have to model a phone now and simulate a random call from my wife .LOL.
I watched an Air Tractor doing it's work many years ago when I was younger. I thought the pilots were either crazy or very talented. As it turns out, it's a bit of both :)
The first time I saw a cropduster go under a wire I think my heart stopped. I was driving, and saw the airplane heading for the wire and the pilot just didn’t pull up. I was absolutely certain that I was going to see a man die, but he just squirted under and did a big wing over and went back to do it again. What a job!
We used to say that if farmer Joe can drive a harvester under the wire, then we are good to go... But the heat can change that. In the 502, If I had any doubts, I would pull 200 of the torque before the mid span just to keep the tail down a little bit more. It was even more fun at night. It's funny how you would still duck your head as you went under... Flaps were awesome for turns...
Very impressive. Loved the ride along. First time seeing it in a video. The powerlines look almost invisible. The trees are at least mostly easy to spot. Those single poles in the middle of a field would have me losing sleep. Every now and again you spot a single pole in the middle of a field and wonder, what the hell is that for.
I was trying to figure out where you are, got to be NE Arkansas or SE Missouri. I checked fight aware and there’s a bunch of ag-planes in the air today. I’m in NE Louisiana, we don’t have near as many as we used too. 👍🏼
My instructor back in '79 said. "do not fly crop dusters" just too darn dangerous....... SEEMS like I might have missed some fun flying all these years, ... yeh I know it's work ..... would love to ride back seat just for the experience , BUT not under those lines (lol).
Had a Heli clip some lines across town a few weeks ago. Wires were 75-100 ft up. He had already made about 10 passes over them and they stretched the whole field. Sounds like he caught them with the skids or boom. Unfortunately he did not live. Article had interview with his sister and she seemed confused on how this could happen because he had 10 years experience. She must not have keen on all the intricacies that AG spraying has.
Patrick I really enjoy watching your videos. I've always wanted to fly from a young boy. But as I grew older my health was a problem. So I just enjoy your comments as you do your job. Do you an Lance ever come to central Indiana to spray? We live close to the Marion airport. I've seen a couple of air tractors flying outa there. If your ever up here I'd like to meet you sometime. Please stay safe God Bless 🙏🙏
Just started watching your videos a day ago..already hooked. Amazing skills, amazing plane. Enjoy the commentary as much as the visuals. Keep up the interesting educational and entertaining videos...thanks for sharing as they say... Oh..if you get a chance..listen to the book Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck...you'll enjoy it and especially his encounter with crop dusters on his voyage west.
Nice work. I could not fly and watch for all the hazards, well I could not fly under a power line period.....We have fields all around us and they do get dusted every year. I have a picture of one plane coming off the tops of the corn from 100 yards away with wind blowing at my back. I see people stop in the road right where they spray.....and wonder how much they got dusted......We keep indoors when they spray. Stay safe out there.
Military fighter pilots' enemies are foreign, whereas crop dusting pilots' enemies are domestic. Both sets of pilots are phenomenal pilots IMHO. I'm a novice compared to this guy.
Your comment about bouncing in when the video is on got me laughing. I flew a Saab 340 for a while; then landing gear on them was so stiff, you knew you botched the landing when it was a greaser.
do ya ever spray over by dyersburg TN :) ive seen a few air tractors doing fields and got intrested in learning about what its like doing arial application even in your videos its a thing of wonder seeing how well u handle the plane.
Great video. I fly 802 as well but only during the corn run in the Iowa. Looks like your rudder and aileron interconnects are disconnected. Do you have a preference? Your load was very fast. I go out with 400 acres and probably have 4-8 fields to spray. Welcome to Iowa! Lol.
Good eye! I did remove the interconnects in this plane. It was a bit too stiff on the controls for my liking with them connected. I prefer them in a 502 or anything smaller but not the 8. 400ax is a pretty big load! We spray between 3-4 gpa and 250ac is about the biggest load we will take here.
@@pcohen85 OK. Mine is a 2017 model and I can’t decide if I like interconnects hooked up or not. I did one season without and this last season with. Both years my feet and ankles hurt really bad. Lol.
Just so you Know Sir I Absolutely was Terrified To Fly in Huge Jets But Absolutely Love Small Planes, Along With Helicopters. I am in my late Fifties so I feel Old Man Time Has Pushing Me Passed my Time To Learn ButI Sure Enjoy Airplane Crop Dusting also any Plane Shows WetherFast Jets to The Smaller Craft Type Planes.
There's a company making windshields from armored glass (for protection against birds and potential drone strikes), and the engine inlets usually have a mesh screen to prevent ingestion. We avoid birds if we see them and have the option, sometimes even aborting a pass if possible, but like Patrick said, most of the time you just hope for the best. Big flocks can sometimes be herded out of the field by using the smoker upwind of them. Buzzards make poor life choices and will dive straight into your windshield if you fly under them, you can't herd them out of the field, and without that armored glass they often come straight through the windshield into the cockpit. I can't speak for other ag pilots but it breaks my heart every time I have a bird strike, they're my buddies and I like sharing the sky with them, so I do everything I can to avoid it.
Love your video's man, have been interested in flying fires for a while and ag is a great way to train for it so I love watching/hearing the commentary. I like the authentic sound of the radio mic but was going to mention Adobe has a program called Adobe Podcast that will silence any background noise amazingly well. I think mentioned in one of your videos you'd been interested in flying fires, are you still working towards that or if you'd reconsidered I'd be curious why?
Hey Patrick I’m in flight school right now and am considering career paths and i find crop dusting absolutely fascinating. I’ve grew up in farm country and always thought crop dusters were the coolest thing. What is the path one usually takes to become one?
Do you spray around central eastern Indiana? Ive watch a yellow plane spray fields a bunch of times out there and wasnt for sure if it was you or not =)
It’s never too late! You have to want it pretty bad though and military experience will definitely help you to achieve your goal. All it takes is a commercial pilots license, experience working the ground side of the operation and the right attitude.
Yes we do that frequently. Generally we do that to see what is planted in the surrounding fields usually for a herbicide job. We have to do it from the ground early in the season most often, when the crop is unidentifiable from the air.
Looks like I-81. 80/hr 800-1200/day (Generous 5 months) 2019 High time p&w pulls in the hangar at 5k hrs (6-8 years) Looks like a fixed budget. 2200hrs in 4 years $176,000 You love what you do. I could scrum Red Bull Pilots for you since they drove around with a circa 93 aluminum crush can dancing on a piano on top of a pt cruiser until 2005. You take a hell of a lot of risk. I hope the distribution company up I-81 has you solid like a living room fan when you're off. Damn.
Back when going to school I worked at our local airport. An aerial spray company flying Ag Cats would setup operation every season behind our FBO. More than once I fielded a call where someone would threaten to shoot the guy out of the air, saying things like "If he scares my horses one more time blah blah blah". Do you ever have to deal with that nonsense?
We don't have to deal with that much in our local area but we do if we go fly in an area that only sees a plane once a year. Scaring horses and cows is probably against federal regulations because we can only get close to things if we aren't causing harm to persons or property on the ground. Scaring livestock can probably fly in court as damaging property so we have to be careful with that one. Threating to shoot or actually shooting at an aircraft is a federal offense also, and I know plenty of pilots who have pressed charges.
So I haven’t flown crop dusters but a have stocked lakes with fish in seaplanes, the tank in my plane used to slouch around and make plane wobble. In guessing the hopper is better at controlling the chem surging like swinging beef?
It can still get sloshy if you fly uncoordinated or pull negative G's. The 802 has a wall in the middle that acts like a baffle and the smaller planes all have baffles to help with this issue.
That plane has a laser altimeter and it is displayed on the light bar next to my gps cross track. The laser altimeter is an option and many ag planes do not have them.
That is specific to a constant speed propeller and it has to do with blade angle. If you run your prop at a lower rpm it has an increased blade angle which makes it less efficient. Here is a link to some information on propeller efficiency from the MIT website. web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/FALL/thermodynamics/notes/node86.html
I use it to see the exact direction and velocity of the wind. It is the same smoke they use in during an airshow and it hangs around in the air a long time. It is invaluable when I am spraying herbicide next to a susceptible crop or spraying anything near houses or people. I need to know for sure that the wind isn't taking the product in a direction that I don't want it to go.
