Ever wonder what it would be like to be a crop duster? Ohio crop duster Butch Fisher of Fisher Ag Service gives a real-time view of aerial application in the video below.
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Great Video! I’ve lived in Mississippi and Alabama for a good part of my life. Knew a few duster pilots and always watched them spraying over my house, and on it. These guys have to keep sharp! I remember when they had a flagman at each end of the field also. Always wonder how much chemical they ate in a day. Thanks for posting.
Very interesting. Amazing technology in that plane. Since he appears to have an intercom system, I assume he also has a radio. There are frequent, often heated, debates on various forums about crop dusters who either don’t have, or don’t bother to use, radios when operating in and out of public airports. Since they also do not use standard patterns when flying into public airports this has created some serious safety issues and near misses. Flying NORDO AND 200 foot patterns at public airports is s recipe for disaster. Makes it nearly impossible to “See And Be Seen.”
Some duster pilots say they have radios. Others claim “NO crop duster planes have radios.”
One would think that with all that high dollar tech stuff in the cockpit, they could at least carry a $300 handheld to use when flying into public, mixed use airports.
I work with quite a few new Air Tractors and would guess radios are installed in 95% of them. Transponders are installed most of the time as well, with a trend towards TSO’ed ADS-B units, such as the Garmin GTX345, on the rise. Many of the aircraft I deal with do have radio stacks comparable to those found in late model aircraft without glass panels, that the owner/operator have invested thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars in.
Most ag pilots are just as concerned with collision avoidance as GA folks, if not more. An AOG situation for them not only means they can’t fly, it means they no longer have an income. While there have been situations that could have been handled with a little more tact, the ag aviation community as a whole strives to be as professional and courteous as possible.