Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pitfalls of Ag Aviation

A friend hit a wire with a load of fertilizer. Thankfully he walked away with some minor cuts and bruises.

Amazing he walked away from that.

Thankfully and Miraculously! Unbelievable!

I hope he bought a lottery ticket after walking away from that.

It’s a dangerous occupation. Happy he survived. Some don’t.

He walked away? Damn. Lucky Man.

A wire did that? Which manufacturer? Thinking about upgrading some of our fence line.

Geez he is lucky! Did that used to be an Ag Cat or an Air Tractor?

Ag Cat with a radial engine

Damn. Glad he's ok.

I guess this is why the Amish stick to manure spreaders...

Any landing that you can walk away from, is a good landing.

I use them every year to spray crops with either insecticides, fertilizer, or weed/grass killer. This time of year I see them all day. Hitting a high tension wire is not that uncommon. Sadly, one goes down every couple years in my area. Had two planes fertilizing different fields several years back. They lost sight of each other and collided mid air. Killed both of them. Both were pilots I used. It is a very dangerous profession.

He needs to buy a lotto ticket quick....

Happens way more than people realize. Pretty dangerous gig. Looks like the plane that flew our fields a few days ago. Valley Air?

What sort of wire did THAT?

A high tension line. Clipping the wire is what knocked it down, the ground is what did the damage.

Lots of hazards close to the ground, and yes to the applicator

It's always the sudden stop that causes all the issues. It does look like the one prop and engine could be hosed off and used again though.

I used to be a mixer loader for spray planes when was in high school. The first guy I worked for flew an old ag cat biplane like that one. One day it blew a seal and covered the windshield with hot oil. The pilot landed it on a dirt road using a handkerchief to wipe the oil just enough to see. Burned his hand and arm pretty good. Those old Pratt and Whitney rotary 9 cylinders have been around a while.

The next year my pilots flew turbine thrush single wing airplanes. They were both apache helicopter pilots in the nation guard too. They used to fly their spay planes to boise once a month for guard duty.

Most spray planes have a wire that goes from the back of the cock pit to the top of the tail rudder. It's to guide wires up over the rudder so they don't cut it off. All our planes had the paint scraped off the top of the tail rudder. A pilot took me for a ride once and flew me under a telephone line. It happens quick at 140 mph or so. It looked to me like we would hit it for sure. Most exciting ride I've been on.

Bb