Crop Dusting share your picture and stories.

[K5lwq]

I thought it would be fun to discuss crop dusting and Ag aviation. I can think of no better way to start the conversation than with Johnny Dorr.

Johnny started the first Ag Aviation school at Dorr Field in Merigold Mississippi. I had the pleasure of knowing Dot Dorr, Johnny’s wife, and spent some time at Dorr Field. My family is from the Mississippi Delta and Dad flew with Johnny often. Dad taught himself how to fly at the age of 16 and crop dusted for 2 years before he took his first lesson. Dot told me stories about Dad as well.

Johnny also did aerobatics and Dot would wing walk on his Stearman. I will have to find pictures to share but to begin with here is a short video about Johnny and Dorr Field. Dot talks in the video. Enjoy!

 

[BnRidge]

The local airport here has someone who restored a Stearman. I see it out fairly often. Kind of a unique story behind it. There are enough pilots and builders in the area, so every so often we'll get a nice acrobatic show over the farm.

https://eaavintage.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2008-Vol.-36-No.-05-The-Sorge-Stearman-Speedmail-Special.pdf

 

[Tinhack]

Back when the farmer to the north of me was active (his family turned it into a turf farm) he had a pilot spraying his cotton. I was out in the barn working on something and had both south side doors open. There were massive amounts of Mud Dobers flying in and out of the barn. After a couple of flyovers, I saw quite a few of the Daubers roller coasting as they flew in then dropped to the ground. At that moment, I decided to go back in the house and take a break.

The plane was flying about 25 feet over my barn. I could see the rivets in the fuselage. My barn is about 30 feet from the fence.

 

[K5lwq]

Back when the farmer to the north of me was active (his family turned it into a turf farm) he had a pilot spraying his cotton. I was out in the barn working on something and had both south side doors open. There were massive amounts of Mud Dobers flying in and out of the barn. After a couple of flyovers, I saw quite a few of the Daubers roller coasting as they flew in then dropped to the ground. At that moment, I decided to go back in the house and take a break.

The plane was flying about 25 feet over my barn. I could see the rivets in the fuselage. My barn is about 30 feet from the fence.

I use to get sprayed all the time from Dad. We would be in the field with what we called a flag. Our job was to give him a target to fly towards to make sure he got the coverage needed. The flag was what we would get under as he went overhead.

 

[dodge man]

I vaguely know a pilot that does both fixed wing and rotary wing crop dusting. Last year it was big around here, mostly on corn. It’s fun to watch. On a bicycle ride last year I stopped and watched for a while plus I didn’t want to ride through the spray. A couple of zoomed in cell phone pictures.

 

[Wood_Butcher_Dav]

From my back yard a few years ago.

Dave

 

[K5lwq]

Watched this Video tonight and really enjoyed it. Hope you like it as well.

 

[Doorman63]

Saw one lat week spraying in Dekalb Illinois. One of my guys got a pic of a chopper as well while loading from a truck. I’ll have to grab the pic from my work phone.

At our place in southern Illinois (Marion county) we see both planes and choppers crop dusting.

 

[K5lwq]

Saw one lat week spraying in Dekalb Illinois. One of my guys got a pic of a chopper as well while loading from a truck. I’ll have to grab the pic from my work phone.

At our place in southern Illinois (Marion county) we see both planes and choppers crop dusting.

Lived in Herrin for a couple of years when I was a child. Dad was hired by Ziegler Oil Company to set them up in farming.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

My brother said our mothers husband walks around crop dusting most of the day.

 

[bcp]

Lived about 30 years in an active farming region with sprayers and dusters working all year round.

There were Cubs and Stearmans, and one Waco. I spent one summer as a flagger/loader for a company with a Stearman and a Waco. Near the end of that time the designed-for-the-purpose planes arrived, but no helicopters or turboprops yet.

During that whole time it was rare to not hear a radial engine in the distance every morning.

Bruce

 

[Doorman63]

Here’s the chopper pic I referenced.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I've been around crop dusters all my life. There is a ag aviation company about a mile from my house. The main agriculture crop around here is rice. Rice fields are flooded most of the growing season, so airplanes apply most of the fertilizer and pesticides.

Back in the 70's I was the flagman many times. Two flagmen would stand on each end of a field and wave a big white flag for the plane to fly over. After he flew over the flagman, we would take X number of steps and wave the flag again for his next pass.

I've never flown in a crop duster, but often the pilots would invite me to get in the hopper for a short trip. I did fly with some of the pilots, but not in a crop duster.

I've known several pilots who crashed and did not survive. Every few years, there is a crash. Most of the time, they walk away.

 

[K5lwq]

Crop duster pilots really become one with the plane. They are some of the best pilots out there.

 

[dodge man]

Recently in our area, western Illinois.

 

[EddieWalker]

Do we have crop dusters in the Tyler area? I've never seen them here.

I have been watching a few YouTube videos where they are using Drones for crop dusting.

It has me wondering if that's an option for spraying hay pastures? A few years ago when we had the Armyworm invasion, and so much hay was lost because it took so long to spray them after finding them. Each day meant massive loss to them. If drones where available, the fields could of been sprayed almost instantly!!

 

[K5lwq]

There isn’t any around Tyler that I am aware of. North of us around Paris there is for sure. Also there will be some helicopter spraying around Atlanta for the forestry industry. Just not enough demand for it around Tyler.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Many years ago, when I worked in the research lab, they brought me a small cardboard box with pieces of painted material, taken from the covering of an old crop dusting plane. Seems the plane had been spraying cotton (Arizona, I think); when finished, the pilot landed at the airport, parked on the asphalt ... in the sun, and went into the restaurant. In the meantime, the plane burst into flames and burned to the ground.

To make a long story short, he was spraying with a chemical, Sodium Chlorate, as recall, manufactured by the company I worked for. Seems the stuff is OK when wet, but when dry, and soaked into a flammable material, it spontaneously combusts with a little heat. The pilot had mixed it with water to spray the chemical, and of course it covered parts of the airplane.

I ran some thermal analyses; the stuff burst into flames at a low temp., something like 120 degrees F.

This turned into a year long research project for me, but we found a way to prevent this in the future.

 

[bcp]

Crop duster gets drafted.

AT-802U Multi-Mission Aircraft Series

Purpose-Built ISR Strike System // Rugged and Reliable – Collapse The Stack

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Bruce

 

[bcp]

A pair of these have been working on fires around here.

Bruce