Crop Dusting

[psysicx]

Does anybody know any of cropdusting companies in the Southwest.I know its hard to get on and better if you start on the ground.Also how hard is it to start your own company.Is getting clients difficult to switch services.Thanks

 

[MTpilot]

Does anybody know any of cropdusting companies in the Southwest.I know its hard to get on and better if you start on the ground.Also how hard is it to start your own company.Is getting clients difficult to switch services.Thanks

I loaded for a season and flew a pawnee some. I don't about the southwest but in Montana people tend to use the same guy until he's not around anymore. Best way to get started would be to load for an old guy or one who is about to retire. Hope this helps, Bill

 

[psysicx]

Yeah thats what I figured.How did you like doing it in Montana?

 

[HowlinMadMurdoc]

Psysicx,

Like English said on another thread, why don't your post your qualifications in your profile??? People might be able to help you more if they knew what you were qualified for.

HMM

 

[MTpilot]

It was a lot of fun but it's seasonal, and when there is work there is way too much of it. Up here it's not something you could make a real living off of anymore, all the big operations get their own ground rigs and the little guys can hardly afford the chemical. The guy I was working with flew freight two nights a week, just to have some steady money. Things could be a whole lot different in other parts of the country, Montana's had a rough decade or two lately especially out on the high line.

 

[psysicx]

Yeah I think your best bet would be to get on with a big operator.Down here in Az it looks like they do it year round.But they might not do it in the summer do to the heat.

 

[N1atEcon]

In AZ they beat the heat by doing it at night. Yes i said "night". You have to be good, really good and you have to be lucky to live through your first season. It is cool watching a radial at night working the cotton with those jet aircraft landing lights on them. I did a season in KS and a season in OK. I never made much $$ but it was what I wanted to do at the time. I had a friend who worked in Lamar CO. area. He did ok, they had a good season due to the varity of crops grown there. Good luck to you.

P.S. Stay away from the Pawnee's with the gas in the nose. It is easy enough to burn to death flying ag that you don't need any help from an idiotic aircraft design.

 

[avbug]

A number of operators work in Arizona, but a lot of ag pilots with a lot of experience go there to get away from the winter no-work seasons elsewhere...lots of qualified talent.

I wouldn't bank on starting your own operation. Odds are that you'll be bankrupt or dead in a few years if you're increadibly fortunate to last that long. That's assuming you can get certification and open shop, and assuming any insurance company would touch you...to say nothing about having no chemical experience, no entimology experience, no crop experience, no maintenance experience, no low level experience, no application experience, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Add to that Satloc experience (which is a lot different than using GPS to navigate between two cities)...try following it with a foot's width tolerance while flying at three or six feet, at night, around obstacles such as powerlines in a loaded airplane, while maintaining an exact altitude, with a sharp pullup and steep turn every fifteen or thirty seconds...all night long, with landings every few minutes in a tailwheel airplane. It's a little different than toting around a passenger at altitude or flying boxes somewhere.

Probably the best place to go in Arizona would have been Pierce, though I doubt they'd have hired with less than one or two thousand hours of ag experience. Not much chance there since Jim Pierce died this winter. Most of the equipment has already been sold off.

 

[psysicx]

avbug what is the best way to get experience.And can you make a living working for an operator.Also can you tell me some names of operators in that area.Thanks

 

[English]

psysicx, why don't you post your quals...many of us know of job openings in the southwest...we might be able to hook you up with something. Unfortunately, all we have to go on is the 300 or so questions you've posted on this board in the last few months.

I know I'd like to help you get a job. Give us some more info!

 

[DC4boy]

Yes, you can make a very good living. The best way to get experience is on the ground. Loading, flagging, etc. I've spent lots of time in a field covered in chemicals, just watching. Trust me, there is alot to learn. A good Ag pilot must also be something of an "arm chair farmer".

Once you figure out Chem types, applications,and how to run the GPS, then it's time to learn how to sty alive. You will spend your first 1-5 seasons just learning how to stay alive.

Also, I suggest getting some heavy tailwheel time, if you don't have some already.

 

[psysicx]

Thanks for the help.I plan on taking a trip down to Phoenix area to see if they have any ground positions open.Does anybody know what pay is like when working for a big operation?

 

[propsarebest]

might be a dumb question, but don't you have to have somesort of chemical applicator license to dust? plz correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought u had to have one to load also. Where I come from (SMF), there are lots of guys that plant rice with cropdusters. Its pretty cool to see a agcat flying along throwing rice. The rice makes a real wierd kind of whistle when they drop it.

 

[DC4boy]

No ticket required to plant rice, seed, or fertilize,(except TR10 and a few others).

Most liquid form chems require a Chemical Applicators liscence. Very regulated here in California.

 

[Ill Mitch]

No ticket required to plant rice, seed, or fertilize,(except TR10 and a few others).

Most liquid form chems require a Chemical Applicators liscence. Very regulated here in California.

California is a pain the butt. Out in the southeast, you take a little 50 question written test. The operator usually supplies you with the answers beforehand.

 

[Ill Mitch]

Does anybody know any of cropdusting companies in the Southwest.I know its hard to get on and better if you start on the ground.Also how hard is it to start your own company.Is getting clients difficult to switch services.Thanks

If you want to go to TN, there is an operator out there always looking for pilots. Just tell 'em you have 500 hours of ag and you are in. Not like this operator checks. Some of you ag pilots probably know who I am talking about.

Have you checked out www.agairupdate.com?

 

[DC4boy]

Penciling Ag time is not highly recomended and may be hazardous to your health.

Having said that, Ca. is a huge pain in the butt. Too many sensitive Bee's and mexicans.

Get some good, quality stick and rudder time. Ag flying is one of the most demanding and challenging occupations one can attain.

 

[User546]

Ag flying is one of the most demanding and challenging occupations one can attain.

That ain't no joke. The guy I took my Commercial checkride with was a retired Ag Pilot of 35 years! He gave a whole new meaning to the manuevers: Chandelle, Lazy 8's! The emergency descent to landing he pulled off was one of the craziest one's I've ever seen!

I think the guy just does checkrides so he can still go up and have fun himself!

 

[psysicx]

DC4boy did you fly ag and what state did you do it in.I know that there is a school in Texas that will allow you to meet insurance.

 

[English]

Psysicx,

Like English said on another thread, why don't your post your qualifications in your profile??? People might be able to help you more if they knew what you were qualified for.

HMM

Still waiting....

 

[Cat Driver]

Ag flying takes a special type of person, for some spray applications you will need to get up before the sun rises to get ready to fly if the wind is calm enough, then sit around all day waiting for the wind to die down just before dark.

In Canada you must have an ag aplication license which used to be very time consuming to get, I got mine in 1960 in Ontario ( Canada ) and had to go to a college to take part of the entemology and chemical course.

However for pure flying skills and satisfaction you can't beat ag flying, both fixed and rotary wing.

I flew seven seasons and still wish I could go back and do it all over again.

Cat Driver

 

[psysicx]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ill Mitch]

Penciling Ag time is not highly recomended and may be hazardous to your health.

Having said that, Ca. is a huge pain in the butt. Too many sensitive Bee's and mexicans.

Get some good, quality stick and rudder time. Ag flying is one of the most demanding and challenging occupations one can attain.

I'm definitely not advocating penciling in ag time. It is all one can do just to get thru that first season, stay alive and get the job done right. And even when you have done everything right, some things still surprise you...like when you are down in a field, eyeballing the trees at the end of the run and all of a sudden you see something go over the top of the airplane and your mind goes "Where did those wires come from?". Not that that has happened to me or anything.

CA would be a great place to fly, if you could get a job without marrying into the family, put up with the regs, inspectors, lawsuits, angry beekeepers, angry urbanites who moved out to the country, etc....
But, lots of flying, good money and if you could get a seat seeding in the Sacramento Delta...that would be sweet.

 

[Grumman guy]

DC-4 boy

Learn how to spell Baron why dont ya, I hope you fly better than you spell. And you dont know nothing about no tailwheel boy.