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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,751
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 66,751 |
U member that one that fly upside down on that commercial singin that “catch at pepsi spirit drankit in drankit in drank it in”
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,566
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,566 |
Some jackwagon took a shot at one of the cropdusters around here a few years back. Sprayer finished the job, climbed in his truck and drove over to the guys house. Rumor has it that there wasnt any introduction. He grabbed him as soon as the door came open, threw him off the porch, and the beating commenced. I figure the guy needed that beatin, but the sprayer was lucky the guy didnt open the door with a shotgun. Over by Lubbock, TX years ago, one guy shot at a crop duster and hit the pilot in the foot. He served time in the pen for that. Here's a more recent one. Ranch Owner In Young County Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison For Shooting A Crop-Dusting Aircraft Flying Near His Ranch
Multiple Bullets Struck and Damaged Aircraft
WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Stephen Paul Riley, 41, of Olney, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor, in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, to 120 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3600 in restitution, following his guilty plea in January 2013 to an Indictment charging one count of destruction of an aircraft. Riley has been in federal custody since his arrest on May 10, 2013, for violating the conditions of his pretrial release. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
According to documents filed in the case, at approximately 11:40 a.m., on February 22, 2008, as a pilot flew his crop-dusting aircraft over property adjacent to the Flying Lead Ranch (FLR), a commercial hunting and residential property owned and occupied by Riley, Riley shot the aircraft with a firearm, striking it with multiple bullets and damaging the aircraft. One bullet struck the rudder cable and nearly severed it. A bullet or bullet fragment also struck the V-strut bar, approximately one and one-half inches from the connector bolt. Bullets, or bullet fragments, caused a hole in the aircraft’s left rear wing and indentations on the plane’s left side. The bullet holes and other damage indicated that the aircraft had been shot by someone on the ground discharging a firearm upward into the air. The aircraft was leased by Keeter Aerial Spraying, of Olney, for commercial crop-dusting services in Texas and Oklahoma.
Documents filed further state that prior to the above-stated date, Riley threatened Keeter’s owner, both in person and by phone, that he would shoot down any crop-duster that flew over his hunting ranch. In August 2010, officials with Texas Parks and Wildlife, seeking evidence of illegal hunting, executed a search warrant at the FLR and discovered a disc that contained video footage of Riley firing approximately 23 shots at another Keeter aircraft spraying the same field in July 2007. In September 2010, when questioned by a Texas Ranger, Riley admitted to shooting at Keeter aircraft on more than one occasion, as he had threatened to do.
The case was investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Miller prosecuted.
Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla!
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 843
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 843 |
I dont understand that mentality unless you are paranoid about a really big marijuana operation.
The Flying Lead ranch... Looks to be a lot of truth in that name.
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,424
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,424 |
I dont understand that mentality unless you are paranoid about a really big marijuana operation.
The Flying Lead ranch... Looks to be a lot of truth in that name. There are some organic farmers that can get uppity.
If you love someone set them free
If they come back no one else liked them
Set them free again
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,685
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 23,685 |
There's been one spraying all around our place for the last week. It's cool as hell to watch. Guy is unreal..... I told my wife you can almost hear him laughing hysterically as he flys over. Buddy said they've pulled branches out of his landing gear when refueling him!
I'd love to meet the guy.
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 43,822
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 43,822 |
Yep, they earn their money with tall cottonwoods around the edge of a field.
That or powerlines.
We have a few places where it is ground application only.
Always neat to watch the power company check the tall poles with their fancy helo.
That and when BNSF helo sprays the tracks.
Craziest by far though are the planes pulling up in the trees with a full tank.
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,874
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 15,874 |
I know there is at least one 'crop duster' here on the fire. He'll probably show up in a day or two.
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
Just "Campfire Riffraff and Trash"
This will be my last post! Flave 1/3/21
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,828
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,828 |
I would never do anything that crazy. LOL
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,828
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,828 |
A good friend flew out of Oklahoma for many years. He says that the cable cutter saved his ass several times, but to the chagrin of the power company.
He tells of spraying an alfalfa field with the company owner spotting for him. The owner kept giving the signal for "get lower". When he landed, his tires were green from dragging through the alfalfa.
"How much lower would you like me to be?"
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,133
Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,133 |
I know there is at least one 'crop duster' here on the fire. He'll probably show up in a day or two. I’m here now. I sprayed for over 17 years. Then went to work for Johnny Manville.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice.
--ironbender
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 79,321
Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 79,321 |
I was on I-70 somewhere in Kansas a few years ago and a guy in an Air Tractor was spraying a big field that ran parallel to the interstate. At one point he pulled it up, did a 180, and came flying straight towards me and dropping down as he was coming around to make another pass.
It gave me just a hint of what it must feel like to get strafed by a ground support attack aircraft,....pretty helpless feeling, I'd suppose.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 12,153
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 12,153 |
Some jackwagon took a shot at one of the cropdusters around here a few years back. Many years ago when I was flying the Boeing 727 I read the maintenance log on the airplane I was about to take and saw a write up that said the sheet metal shop had fabricated and installed a patch for a bullet hole in the aft fuselage. It's amazing what some jackasses will do.
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Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,206
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 60,206 |
Guy who sprayed for us for years used to make himself sick at the start of every season.
Took a little while to get used to it again.
He just received a Wright Brothers Award.
I am MAGA.
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 4,208
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 4,208 |
Where I grew up in rural, agricultural Northern California, much of the dusting was done with helicopters. Almond and walnut orchards got dusted, but needed the downdraft of the chopper to push the goods down into the trees. Seemed much safer, I gotta say 
The DIPCHIT ADD, after a morning of drinking:
You despair, repeatedly, constantly! daily basis?
A despair ninny.
Sack up, despire ninny.
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,424
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,424 |
My boss had the helicopter out spraying and I was driving the tender out to meet him. A guy in an airplane who had been spraying in the area flew over me dropped down in front of me about a 5 feet off the road and hit the smoke.
If you love someone set them free
If they come back no one else liked them
Set them free again
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 19,812
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 19,812 |
"There are bold pilots, and there are old pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."
I'm glad some one is willing to do that job. Most of the ones I've seen are great pilots that are as safe as they can be... given the conditions. But, like I said earlier, they get LOTS of hours flying. I think the law of averages catches up with them. "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest Gann sorta deals with that. Great flying book, pre jets.
"Be sure you're right. Then go ahead." Fess Parker as Davy Crockett
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,068
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,068 |
In the early 70's I was driving my combine up through our summer fallow field and as I reached the top of the ridge a spray plane popped up right in front of me coming up the other side of the ridge. He missed me by a couple of feet. That night he called me and said that scared the holy goodness right out of him. I was ducking for cover inside the cab of the combine myself. If I had been a couple minutes earlier he would have clipped my cab and it would have been ugly for both of us. When we were rod weeding in the summer fallow during the early summer they would snick in behind you on your left side where you weren't looking and buzz you at about 5'. Cause you to rethink your life. I really miss those times.
Last edited by BluMtn; 07/26/20.
Writing from the gateway to the great BluMtns in southeastern Washington.
Just remember, "You are the trailer park and I am the tornado". Beth Dutton, Yellowstone.
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,684
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,684 |
My niece’s husband was a crop duster for a few years. He seemed to like it until he punched through a flock of birds (don’t recall what kind) and shattered the canopy. He ended up having to find the airstrip and land with zero forward visibility. He’d also had a run in with a power line that gave him some pause so he decided to take a safer job flying freight. Between the chemicals and the flying hazard it is one of the most dangerous jobs in this country. Getting life insurance must be costly.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 25,430
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 25,430 |
My father in law (May he RIP) flew a lot of spraying missions but those were for the US government and the “farmers” were never happy with the job he did. 😂
He was shot down a few times during his years of crop spraying. He alternated between flying fixed wing spraying missions and rotary wing missions flying gunships for cover. He even got shot down (auto rotated) flying the gunship. He usually had a couple DEA agents and a couple Mexican Federales onboard. My FIL was a proud, card carrying Mexican Federale....he sorta had to be for whatever cover or international legitimacy it provided.
When our children became teenagers and a little more worldly they asked why grandpa had a big framed picture of a poppy that had been scored (cut) and was oozing opium. Grandpa never touched an illegal drug in his life so it was kind of funny.
�Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politician.� �General George S. Patton, Jr.
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~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
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Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 6,392
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 6,392 |
Some jackwagon took a shot at one of the cropdusters around here a few years back. Sprayer finished the job, climbed in his truck and drove over to the guys house. Rumor has it that there wasnt any introduction. He grabbed him as soon as the door came open, threw him off the porch, and the beating commenced. I figure the guy needed that beatin, but the sprayer was lucky the guy didnt open the door with a shotgun. Over by Lubbock, TX years ago, one guy shot at a crop duster and hit the pilot in the foot. He served time in the pen for that. Here's a more recent one. Ranch Owner In Young County Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison For Shooting A Crop-Dusting Aircraft Flying Near His Ranch
Multiple Bullets Struck and Damaged Aircraft
WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Stephen Paul Riley, 41, of Olney, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor, in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, to 120 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3600 in restitution, following his guilty plea in January 2013 to an Indictment charging one count of destruction of an aircraft. Riley has been in federal custody since his arrest on May 10, 2013, for violating the conditions of his pretrial release. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
According to documents filed in the case, at approximately 11:40 a.m., on February 22, 2008, as a pilot flew his crop-dusting aircraft over property adjacent to the Flying Lead Ranch (FLR), a commercial hunting and residential property owned and occupied by Riley, Riley shot the aircraft with a firearm, striking it with multiple bullets and damaging the aircraft. One bullet struck the rudder cable and nearly severed it. A bullet or bullet fragment also struck the V-strut bar, approximately one and one-half inches from the connector bolt. Bullets, or bullet fragments, caused a hole in the aircraft’s left rear wing and indentations on the plane’s left side. The bullet holes and other damage indicated that the aircraft had been shot by someone on the ground discharging a firearm upward into the air. The aircraft was leased by Keeter Aerial Spraying, of Olney, for commercial crop-dusting services in Texas and Oklahoma.
Documents filed further state that prior to the above-stated date, Riley threatened Keeter’s owner, both in person and by phone, that he would shoot down any crop-duster that flew over his hunting ranch. In August 2010, officials with Texas Parks and Wildlife, seeking evidence of illegal hunting, executed a search warrant at the FLR and discovered a disc that contained video footage of Riley firing approximately 23 shots at another Keeter aircraft spraying the same field in July 2007. In September 2010, when questioned by a Texas Ranger, Riley admitted to shooting at Keeter aircraft on more than one occasion, as he had threatened to do.
The case was investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Miller prosecuted. Pilot was flying over the “Flying Lead Ranch” when his plane was struck by bullets. The irony.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
3-7-77
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