Crop Duster Plane ??

There was a crop duster applying "something" this morning within 1000 yards of the job site (a tree line blocked the view of the crop/field) and a city slicker co-worker asked if ALL dusting planes were yellow . I told him yes, but couldn't tell him why . Would one of you elaborate please ? Thanks

Gotcha. "Here", they're all yellow

Local one working around here this week is red fuselage and yellow wings.  Busy this year as most fields are too wet to use conventional spray equipment.

shameless dude wrote: there are yellow ones, red ones, and white ones, and blue ones, and green ones around here, most are getting away from planes and using helicopters around here now. trucks follow them from field to field, have nurse tanks and all the stuff to  and pump into the copter tanks, the coper lands on top of the truck ona platform over the cab.  oh...and the copters are all different colors too.

I see a few choppers spraying around here, but mostly along the railroad tracks. Local crop duster looked at getting into the chopper scene, but said that he'd have to get something like 50 bucks an acre to make it work. Darrel

Wow.

People ask me why I won't fly a spray plane...I tell them, if the crash doesn't kill me, the chemicals will.

Those pilots are some of the best pilots in the world.  You try staying on the right row at 95 knots, plus or minus nothing, at 3 feet over the crop, plus or minus nothing.  There is no auto steer in the cockpit either.  They are real pros 

When I was a kid in the mid 70's there was a crop duster hired full time by the nearby large potato growing outfit. My brother worked field maintenance for that outfit and they had a fleet of about 8-10 newer International tractors all within a few years of each other, mostly 1466's and a couple 1566's, all with cabs. Potato farms like to keep a narrow strip of bare soil around their fields, I assume for insect and weed control, and all potato fields around here have center pivot irrigators because the soil is so sandy and can't hold moisture. The potatoes were sprayed with fungicide about every 5 days so the duster kept busy with the 3500 acres he had to spray. Sorry for rambling, but anyway, there was an employee out working the edge of one of those fields on a nice summer day and that field was being sprayed at the time. it wasn't unusual for the duster to have potato vines hanging from the landing gear with this particular pilot because he was fearless and would often get a little close to the ground. It was an old Stearman Biplane and was as tough as they get and perfect for carrying heavy loads of chemical. They would have to lift over the center pivot (which run non-stop all summer) and then drop back down and keep spraying, and then lift for the power lines or trees at the end of the field. The tractor operator stepped out of the cab to take a leak and saw the duster clear the irrigator but thought the plane sounded funny as he was peeing. Then he realized the plane wasn't lifting in time for the power lines and was coming right at him, he dove and laid flat on the ground as the plane clipped the folded up wing on his field cultivator and slammed in to the cab of his 2 year old 1466 and proceeded to flip over and land on its top. The propeller slice through the roof of the cab and would have killed the tractor operator if he would have been in the seat. The pilot walked away and was back in another cockpit a few days later. Unfortunately he crashed again a few years later and was killed. True story.

I think it was Arthur Godfrey that uses to say " there's old pilots and there's bold pilots but there's not a lot of old bold pilots "

Arthur Godfrey got fined for flying a DC-3 over New York City back in the early 50s.  Why do people remember stuff like this,  but can`t remember their name?

Generally the yellow ones are Air Tractor brand. Different companies paint their brand their own colors. Similar to the different tractor companies.

truckerfarmer wrote: Generally the yellow ones are Air Tractor brand. Different companies paint their brand their own colors. Similar to the different tractor companies.

Anybody flying these stupid things dumping chemicals down on us should be jailed!---they are idiots with no respect for life in general.

FREEDGUY wrote: ac fleet wrote: Anybody flying these stupid things dumping chemicals down on us should be jailed!---they are idiots with no respect for life in general. WOW !! I did NOT see this type of reply coming  ?? !! There's been "dusters" flying in this neighborhood for 45 years that I can recall, never heard of personal/property damage from them . Property damage due to the local "for hire" Co-Ops/ seed/fertilizer/herbicide joints are a different story

Have heard those same horror stories of Over spray and destruction from Ground Applications not so much Crop dusting as well, Not ever seen People or Homes sprayed from a Crop Duster not even when close to the fields when lived KS, UT and OK as well Here.

Edited by DMiller - 02 Aug 2020 at 8:43am