DuckSouth.com

A more modern video of an interesting way to make a living...

http://vimeo.com/15407460

I think msriverrat, who is an ag pilot, said they brought it up at the ag pilot convention and nobody knew.

I would guess that video is less than 5 years old. One thing about the Delta, it could be 1978, 1998, or 2008....it is timeless.

Clarksdale just lost an ag pilot a couple of weeks ago. He started flying ag about 20 years ago when I was finishing up DSU.

Been lots of characters around here. Most still managed to die of old age instead of a crash. Cotton Carnahan flew until his late seventies. I guess it is hard to give it up. I am surprised more did not die from poisoning than crashes then. I have read a book about ag flying in the delta in the early stages. My friend Jimmy Powell was one of the pioneers and he told me about the book. I will have to see if I can find it.

[quoteI will have to see if I can find it. ][/quote]

I'd love to know the name of the book. I am not even remotely associated with the profession outside of knowing a few folks that fly. However, it is fascinating to me for some reason.

i've never met, nor heard mention of, a crop duster that had a boring/lackluster personality!

Low and Slow By Mabry Anderson.

Mabry used to write articles for the Delta Farm Press prior to his death.

Low and Slow is a good book.

I loaded planes in highschool and college. Furadan put me down for a day or two one time. No gloves or mask when loading it. Washing out the jugs bare handed. It'll scare ya when you look down and the muscles on the front of your thighs are twitching and you can see it through your jeans.

One of my old bosses told me about flying through a wire and watching one by one as the telephone poles snapped down the line as the plane got slower and slower until the wire finally broke.

There is a radio tower just north of my house. One summer about 10 years ago, a pilot caught one of the guy wires with his right wing as he was headed south coming up out of the field. When it finally let him go, he had turned 90 degrees and was heading due west. Kinda like an intense game of tether ball. It messed up the wingtip and prop.

Another pilot caught one of those big wires on the cross country line just north of Belzoni. Those lines go straight to the substation just west of town. The whole town was without power until they got that one fixed. He came back to the airport without a scratch I think.

I have seen them come back with cotton leaves in the air intake right up under the nose on those turbines.

They do make for some interesting tales. I have a buddy that had to fly back in with a redtail hawk in his lap that had come through the cockpit. Said it was one of the scariest rides of his life wondering if that bird was dead or just knocked out.

I flagged fields in high school for farm I worked on. Kind of frightening the first couple of passes...they do fly low.

the doc

Forget the pilot, the guy holding the camera on the ground had some balls! The plane whipped by only feet above him


- Nate

I have seen the video before but didnt know the pilot. That was probably taken in the 60's, although the camera work makes it look much later. I was never bored flying ag planes.. I did create work for local power companies a few times..I rolled the tires over a wire flying an Ag Cat and didn't break it...just gave the wire and poles a good shaking...after that I got better and cut a few...I think three with the Cat, one with a Cessna Ag-Truck and one I don't need to talk about..They sound like a .22 rifle when they break..Other than that, I had a few OH S..T moments, one when I was flying under a set of cross country wires while spraying cotton and found the tree line on the other side of the wires were closer than I thought...as soon as I saw the wires dissappear over the top wing, I hauled back on the stick with both hands and with that ole 600 bellowing the Cat climbed the trees and didn't touch a thing, whew.. I guess the most dangerous was one morning I took off from my home strip with a heavy load of liquid fertilizer and stam in the Ag-Cat and couldn't get above the wires that run along the highway...had to duck under them without being able to see if any cars or trucks(as in 18 wheelers) were coming..came over the river early one morning in a loaded Cessna Truck, ducked under a power line and that over loaded Cessna kept sinking..I kept coming back on the stick but hit a rice levee. had to replace the landing gear bolts. That one didn't scare me but did embarass me a bit.
I don't guess I would consider having the oil cooler blow the first time I flew a Pitts Special or grading down to tunnel vision after screwing up an aerobatic maneuver in the Christen Eagle as close calls.
Flying is fun!!

hey jimaire, how many times have you had to "get back on the horse"? good friend's dad was an ag pilot (same one you worked for wingman) and he told me a couple of stories where he was running the loader and watched his dad crash (once coming in ran out of fuel or engine issue and once leaving after dumping load, still didn't work out) and both times he went to pick him up at the end of the runway and his dad made him take him straight to the hangar to "get back on the horse" before he had too much time to think about it.

i've also seen pics from crashes, that judging by the wreckage, you wouldn't think that there's any way the pilot survived but miraculously most still walk among us....that's a stout little cage protecting them!