Now they do it with GPS.
Backhanded Compliments You Can’t Hand Back
36 minutes ago
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Your Sunday Morning Turboprop Noise
An Air Tractor at work:
Crop dusting Aerial application is a lot safer than it once was, back when the airplane of choice was a converted Stearman. Spray rows were marked by "flaggers", kids who stood at the edge of the field and held up a flag to mark the edge of the las sprayed row.
Now they do it with GPS.
Now they do it with GPS.
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4 comments:
There was another means of marking swaths: a chalk dispenser. At the end of a pass they'd drop enough to make a white spot, then line up the next pass with that on the wingtip. It didn't offer any guidance during the swath, but the crop rows were generally enough for that.
Should have added: There used to be something called "frost flying" that made old-style dusting look comparatively safe. On a clear cold night in the Florida citrus fields, it's common to have enough temperature inversion that the oranges are freezing under a layer of non-freezing air a hundred feet up. So ag pilots would do continuous runs, ALL NIGHT, to stir it up.
Deadstick, I live in an apple/grape region and frost flying is still very much a thing although these days it seems to be entirely done with helicopters. Makes sense, I suppose. After all they're just giant vertical fans. Still not a job I would want.
Don't knock the Stearman, I learned to crop-dust in one many many years ago :-)
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