Anyone know what crop dusting pays?????

[gsrcrsx68]

Hahahaaa

The dude asked a simple question...it's like he stepped on a land mine of rude people...Here on FI, go figure.

I bet he didn't realize the "cost" for a simple answer was a bunch of insults to find one cool person (bugchaser) to give him the info he asked for.

670X, welcome to FI.

 

[avbug]

Bugchaser stated he agreed with the other posters. All posters made the same comments. 670X displays a lot of arrogance, and the comments to him were quite well founded.

Curiously, every post here was on topic except...yours.

The poster asked the questions, then complained about the answers. He states he wants replies from ag pilots, he got them. He didn't like the replies. Tough. He wants to enter a working profession, where one doesn't merely sit in the cockpit and look pretty like he did in his regional airplane. A regional job is an entry level job. Ag work is not.

 

[RichardRambone]

So anyway whats the pay again?

 

[670X]

Rambone you got it man


WHats it pay?????????????????????


As far as experience yeah I learned to fly at a quaint little place called Ft. Rucker from guys that flew in NAM. Low level yeah a little NOE at night with goggles... crappy old 5's no less. loved the weight bag on my $800.00 helmet from uncle sugar. Couple of thousand hours later...with a few Pitts & Decathlon hours to spice things up oh yeah lots of instructing too.

I never said I was Chuck Yeager, yeah I know which end of a plane to put oil in. Just because I don't have a fancy AVTAR of a crop duster does not mean I'm less worthy than you.
Maybe AVBUNG if crop dusters were less like you it would not be a dying proffesion full of a-holes.

Think about it.

 

[bugchaser]

Could pay 100k in a good season. Could pay 20k or less the next year. There are some jobs that pay upwards of 100k on a regular basis. Not many, but some. There are many, many more guys out there driving a truck all winter in order to afford to fly again next summer. Once you get the proper experience, it really is a great part time gig. The problem is, you need many years of full time experience to get to that point. Even then, it's not a good idea to do this part time. Thats why I let my applicators license go this year. Bottom line is that it usually don't pay as good as it should and it sure aint as fun as it looks.

 

[avbug]

As far as experience yeah I learned to fly at a quaint little place called Ft. Rucker from guys that flew in NAM. Low level yeah a little NOE at night with goggles... crappy old 5's no less. loved the weight bag on my $800.00 helmet from uncle sugar. Couple of thousand hours later...with a few Pitts & Decathlon hours to spice things up oh yeah lots of instructing too.

In other words, no experience, then. Thanks for clearing that up.

As Bugchaser noted, the pay varies widely...what does it pay? Almost anything. You might fly hundreds of hours in a year and thousands of acres, or you might not. You might have a mechanical problem that costs you the use of the aircraft, and all your profits. What you can expect from a given season varies greatly with the crop and the year itself. I've seen years in which there was nothing, and then suddenly a run of russian wheat aphid, and we couldn't fly enough...then three weeks later it was over.

You could find yourself fertalizing trees all winter; you'll fly until you're sure you've made a big mistake taking the job, and you will make little for doing it. You might spray blueberries and make good money, you might do winter wheat and get average money, you might get a year round job doing stam on rice or something similiar, and have a decent job in the eighty thousand range. All depends. Go spray poppies in Colombia and make ninety grand for two weeks on, two weeks off.

The guys who go get themselves killed are the ones who think they've got it down. You think you've got it down, and you have zero experience. That will get you killed. Regardless of how many "nam" vets trained you.

Flap your gums all you like. You don't appear to be presently paid for holding a spray handle in your hand, which doesn't really give you much room to talk. Listen to Bugchaser. He wasn't an inexperienced kid; he's been around the patch more than once, and you don't see him doing it now, either. In fact, of those that did respond, most of us are doing other things too, or altogether, or several of the things mentioned at the same time. Ag work is great when the work is there, but it's impossible to predict, and in the ag business, life really does come at you fast. It's all NOE, it's all close to powerlines, and it's all precision work. One farmer doesn't pay for the chemical, and you're done for the year, in some cases, especially where the chemical is worth five times your hourly rate per gallon. It happens.

Pony up the money, got sit your butt in an agcat or a pawnee at an ag school somewhere, and get a sampling, then hit the road and ask every operator you see for a job.

You might get lucky.

 

[670X]

Thanks bug chaser I think that is exactly what I wanted to know.

 

[svcta]

Geez, people, it's not like he insulted your mothers. Get over yourselves.

 

[A Squared]

Well 670X, you're right, the arrogance here *is* overwhelming. The thing you likely don't grasp is that you're the primary source. I'll help you out a little with recognizing it, although I doubt that you'll pay any attention. That's OK, becuse there are other readers, and maybe they'll read it and resolve not to be like you, so it won't be entirely wasted.

Anyway, just this one line speaks volumes about you:

All you $1,400 a month SJS guys need to reply somewhere else. I'm looking for answers.

Right, now go back and point aout which are the $1400 SJS pilots. That that point in the thread, responses to your question were posted by:

414driver, who is/was in aerial fire supression and if he hasn't flown ag himself has flown with a lot of pilots with a lot of ag experience.

RightPedal, who has flown ag, and has family that has been in the ag business for decades.

Avbug who was flying ag when he was in his teens

Waldom, who was flying ag in stearmans, very likely before you were born.

Bugchaser, who has flown ag for 15 years

Nosehair. In all the years I've been reading his posts, I don't recall him mentioning flying ag, but I do know that he's been flying about as long as I've been alive, and I've got a pretty good start on my fourth decade, so he's not some fuzzy cheeked newbie.


So, could you please point out which particular posters you think are "$1400 SJS guys" ?

Right. Not a single one of them. Every one of them is in a postion to know far more than you about the ag business. yet you dismiss thier input, apparently because the answeres weren't the answers you wanted to hear.

There's a lesson in there someplace, but I suspect it will go whizzing right over your head. Perhaps some other readers will get it, and my time won't be wasted.

 

[gsrcrsx68]

There's a lesson in there someplace, but I suspect it will go whizzing right over your head. Perhaps some other readers will get it, and my time won't be wasted.

Here is one lesson, with as much respect as possible:
Nobody cares about how people did it 30 years ago, walked up hill both ways, it was a lot harder back then, yada, yada, yada. It really is that simple.

The guy ask for some facts about pay, if the guy wanted other sorts of opinions he would have asked.