Landing a $2,000,000 Plane On A Farm Road
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- Another day in the life of an Agricultural pilot. Working off a bumpy sloping grade field road with a 10' ditch on one side and a wet rice field on the other side. I did about 60 takeoff's and landings from this road the day I recorded this video.
I'm an engineer and I've worked on extremely remote jobs, the kind where the first thing you do is build a gravel runway. We would fly to work either on a C-130 (borrowed from the Argentinian Air Force) or in a King Air 200. The runway was at 13,500 feet elevation. The speed at take off (loaded) on that gravel runway was fast, loud af, and it would jar fillings out of your teeth. I think the C-130 cost a lot more, it couldn't take off loaded but that beast loved the rough runway. I love watching your loaded take offs, reminds me of those take offs back in the day.
@@HiwasseeRiver Flying into work on a C-130 sounds awesome! I’ve seen a C-130 land in 1500’ at an air show. Very impressive airplane.
@@pcohen85 Reminds me of the story my CFI told me about a young guy on his first cross-country solo somewhere here in Australia. He landed and went into the airport cafe and when the girl asked him what he flew, he said he'd flown in a C152. She asked what that was and he pointed at a plane and said - "See that? That's a C130!". Not sure if he got the date... 😃
Always loved the C130. My wife worked on them years ago in South Africa and I once got to watch them doing circuits here at RAAF Base Richmond from a R44. We were told to hold for a few mins while they completed a few touch and goes below us - was quite the experience!
Top most respect for what you do and your proficiency in the cockpit! Love the videos and what you do for our farmers! Thank you!
Great job. Keep America growing. God bless the farmers and their support teams.
I had the dream in my younger days. I was on the GI Bill for vets and set to take lessons in a 450 Stearman in Liberty, Tx in 1972 (I was 26 at the time). I had passed my written for my commercial but had not set a date for the flight exam when another student flipped the Stearman on her back when the brakes locked up. The owner of the flight school shut down the school and I never finished getting my commercial. Life took me in a different direction. I had survived Nam by God's grace and I always figured He had a hand in that too.
I returned from Vietnam in 1968, when I got out of the Army in 1969 I worked construction. I had the same dream too. I wanted to fly helicopters, I had checked on the GI Bill and ended up at Boeing field talking to a commercial helicopter outfit. Then Vietnam was winding down on our involvement and helicopter pilots were a dime a dozen. They talked me out of it. I even took the flight physical to go back in the Army for helicopter training but Huey pilots were not needed anymore. I took a different path too. All is good though.
@@joethebumbler Marine Corps vet here. Platoon 203 USMCRD, San Diego, 01/66.
9th MAB, FMF, Pacific, 12/66-11/67. Thank you for your service.
Glad I found this channel. I have always loved operating any farm equipment let alone a turboprop air tractor! Great job man!
Flagging in the San Joaquin Valley back about 1975. My dad was a pilot for the outfit we were working with. I got forgotten in the field after they packed up and left. Dad came in landed on the dirt road and told me to jump in then flew back to the new location, another dirt road. That was a radial Thrush.
In my next life, I'll be a Ag pilot.
LOL
Love your videos man.
We only live once buddy
Thats gravy train on them long passes! $$$$$
Awesome video
Easily one of the most unforgiving occupations in the world of piloting... Love watching the flying.. This job looks like it goes fast and high.. is that because of the media? or am I just seeing things :)
We’re do you fly out of I recognize the area in SE Mo
Plane has a cyclic . Can it hover ?
Nice drops bubba
Seems like those bank angles while fully loaded must put that wing close to stalling.
@@travispower2683 Nah man it’s really much safer than you would think. The bank angle only comes into play when you are maintaining altitude in the turn which I am not. After the initial pull up and roll in the wing is not doing a lot of work. The wings angle of attack is relatively low during those turns. Also, a full load of that fertilizer is only 4600 lbs which is slightly over half of my payload limit.
The payload is so tiny and you wipe it out in 2 passes. This is way over my head because I don't see how this is efficient for the guy paying for it. Mad crazy pilot skills and I love watching the air tractors out by us doing the mega farms. I just don't get the #'s. 2 Mil for the aircraft, then there's the fuel, insurance, and of course pilot wages.
I'm with you on this. The numbers just don't seem like they'd add up. That's a high performance turboprop engine on that thing which means pretty big bucks already in operating costs. Add in insurance, fuel, maintenance (probably a lot being as these planes are doing grunt work like this), and then having to find enough margin to pay yourself. Has to be a grind.
@@derek17005 The guys I see around here own their own air tractors and take care of their own farms only. These are massive farms out the middle of nowhere. My guess is that the write offs play a big part. They also pilot the planes themselves, which blows my mind. I don't pretend to know the numbers, but my guess is Patrick is up and working as often as possible to keep the numbers on the right side of the books. Much respect for the skills and the hustle.
This business has pretty narrow margins. The last 5 years have been pretty crazy as far as the cost of operating goes. In 2018 that plane was $1.4m and now they are $2.3m for the exact same thing. The prices of application have not caught up to the price increases yet and I’m not sure the farmers can afford to pay any more because commodity prices are a rollercoaster. One year corn is $8 a bushel and the next year it is $4. Same goes for rice and beans. The business I work for is owned by farmers and they own it because aerial application is a necessity and owning a business like this is one way to make sure their crop will be taken care of. I’m sure someone with a sharp pencil can do some magic with taxes and what not which is also another advantage. I can tell you that personally I would not want to own an application service in this economical environment because I would only be able to pay myself what I am already making as a pilot and the headache would quadruple.
@@pcohen85 So it's basically like being a corporate pilot where you just fly the plane and are paid a salary/hourly rate and then walkaway and let someone else deal with the headaches and maintenance costs?
@@pcohen85 Thanks Patrick. Fly safe and thanks for sharing such incredible footage.
love the videos, where abouts are you flying? I used to work for cropduster when in high school and loaded/jumped wing etc...loved it. that was 30yrs ago tho
@@tomrigsbee2212 That video was shot in South East Missouri. I flew in SE Missouri for 5 years and the rest of the videos are in Arkansas with some Tennessee sprinkled in there.
I worked in Bay...south of Jonesboro
Do these jobs normally only do a couple passes and then fill up again? I thought it be at least several more passes and fill up more of the green rows on the computer before going back.
@@oldnotboldpilot8836 The number of passes depends on the size of the field and the application rate. The field in this video is pretty large and at that application rate of 125lbs per acre with a 4500lb payload I am only covering 37 acres per load.
@@pcohen85 good to learn that. Well keeps the day busy and getting all those landings and take offs on that awesome "runway". Great video
A little midseason motivation. That looked like row rice. Do the spoon feed that midseason a little at a time like we do on ours, or do they give it all in one bump like levee rice?
@@sosofarms6238 The guys here spoon feed the row rice. Usually 3 100# shots
@@pcohen85 same here! Southeast MO. Naylor, by Corning
@@sosofarms6238 Oh nice, that video was shot in SE Missouri about 10 miles SW of Marston.
Patrick. Love your videos. I transport yachts across the country and many times I've watched out the window as guys like you have worked a field. I appreciate the behind the scenes look. My question is in future videos, can you give a verbal signal when you turn the sprayer on and off on a pass? I understand the gages on the dash but I think it would be informative to hear what you use visually to time up the start and stop of the product. Thanks!
Patrick...please...I've been trying for a while and no one will comment back to me. What is that horizontal LED bar on the cowling of the plane? Does that give you information on remaining load?
@@dang6369 Sorry! I haven’t checked RUclips much in the past few months. That LED bar is the heads up display for the field guidance gps computer. When we fly through the field we are on a precise line and one of the readouts on that bar shows us how far we are to the left or right of that line measured in feet. It is like flying an extremely precise ILS approach. The other readout in that bar is my laser altimeter reading, my ground speed and pass number. There are 4 slots on that bar and you can set it to display multiple values but the 4 that I have set are the most common. The distance from our line is essential and every pilot will have that displayed there. We try to stay within 5 feet of the line we are flying. It is tough to do and takes a lot of practice. I have an older video in the ag cat which has a pretty clear and readable view of the bar and I believe it is titled “Ag Cat Lightbar view” or something similar to that.
so what is it on the windshield? rain? bugs? spray from the load?
@@wdcjunk I think it was just hazy outside. The stuff I was putting out was drily granular stuff about the same consistency as kitty litter so it won’t get in the windshield. I did hit the windshield washer after one of the takeoffs. That might be what you are talking about.
What are the requirements to be an ag pilot
Getting up early, staying late, and having really big, brass ones.
That was a Squeeze pattern?
@@FritzWeinrebe Hey Fritz, that was a racetrack pattern.
Was that liquid or pellets?
He is putting on dry. You apply at a higher AGL than applying liquid. My career ended 4/14/93 with a midair. My Age Cat and a Navy A-6e Intruder.
@@keithgraham6889 So you’re the guy! I’ve heard about that mid-air my whole career. Glad you are still with us!
Sad but cropdusting now is a kid walking into a crowd and farting then acting like it’s someone else or just leaving and have someone record it. You then giggle and guffaw over having to watch them endure that.😂😂
I used to do this all the time but my Airplane was not worth 2 million
@@vancebelchamber1951 Things have changed quite a bit! The turbine by itself in that plane is a little over 1 million.
Dude answer your phone tried calling you tge other day
@@gabekremer7148 Dude I only got the voicemail! I’ll call you tomorrow on my home from work. I have terrible service at work