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#1
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Dangerous Stuff
Have been thinking of things to post re;Ag Flying with rotorcraft. I
have to pay more attention to my work though! In many of my fields here, they are irrigated with sprinkler pivots. Generally I'll have to fly over them spraying to get the crops underneath. I haven't measured the tallest points on them, but guess 25'? so I have to kind of "blooper" over them while spraying. that often poses some interesting control inputs and that caught my attention today. It requires quick inputs but absolutely smooth ones to keep things on an even keel. Much too difficult to describe aside from doing a pitch pull to go up, and a cyclic push to keep level followed quickly by aft cyclic to flare on the other side while lowering the collective and then level with cyclic again, and all the while manipulating the throttle to keep rpms right. Another point on the turn-arounds, I stay in translational flight all the way thru so if the engine pukes, I can do a decent auto from anywhere in the turn. Got pretty close to some trees on a downwind pullup yesterday. I got into the shadow, the window was a little dirty, and I lost my depth perception. So, I realized I'd have to use some other visual points for my pull up. Nothing dramatic...no pine needles on the booms or no tip caps smacked ggg and didn't brush my skids in the tree tops.....close enough to make me whistle though... Have had my loader take some photos and one day we'll get them up. Often when the wind is calm, the spray hangs in the air and I fly back thru it which makes my windscreen look like some one sprayed furniture polish on it, or milk. Its a bitch when you are flying into the rising sun and obstacles in front of you. bad enough flying into the rising sun anyway but with a dirty window its worse. Been flying 8-9 hours a day with some great weather. Cheers from Finlander country. Rocky |
#2
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wrote:
Cheers from Finlander country. Another great post Rocky... keep them coming. Findlander country... eh. Well I was reading your post the other day about going to the headwater of the mighty Mississippi and being a tad brain dead I kinda though you were in the deep south... silly me. It wasn't until I read a previous post of yours about potato patches in Minniesota that if dawned on me where the headwaters of the Mississippi were located. Hey... you should try some of those Finnish saunas at the end of a day. I can remember with fond and lusty memories some of the fun I had with some of my girlfriends in my late teens growing up in Finlander country. We used to go down to the Finnish sauna on a Friday or Saturday night have something sweet like cake, grab some cokes, and retire to a private sauna room for a couple of hours. Each private sauna came with a change room with a cot and I can't imagine how many body fluids got swapped on those cots over the years, but I will guess lots. It sure beat going out to the local airport to watch the submarine races on a nippy winter's night. |
#3
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How about this one...Yesterday, the local competitor and good guy,
flying his big 600hp Thrush, was threatened by some jerkwater that if he ever flew over his property again, he'd shoot him down! Now, the pilot has been working this area for years and never had any problems. Then the jerkoff even called the customers office and told THEM he'd shoot the airplane if it came over his property. Even ID'd himself and its all on tape. I suspect its gonna get messy. I've had that happen a number of times, been shot at and missed, shot at and hit. I'm here to tell you if some asshole threatens to shoot me, he will find himself handcuffed to a jailbed when he recovers conciousness and I will press every charge I can think of. We got blown out today. Had an interesting few moments when I did a downwind pull-up and was trying to turn over 50' pine trees....couldn't get it to turn and started losing altitude. thought I'd have to dump the load when it began to respond and I kept on going. Sure got my attention though. Thought sure I was going down in the timber. Oooouch I'll guess the wind at my altitude was probably blowing 20+- Wheeeew Rocky |
#5
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wrote:
What an interesting experience! And another interesting story. That's the sort of stuff that makes this newsgroup worth reading. |
#6
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You remind me of the time I got lost in the Bayuda desert in Egypt
while ferrying an Ag Husky (cessna) from Cairo to Khartoum. It was 10 hours into the flight and I had missed a checkpoint. No navaids except an ONC chart. anyway, I got caught in a sandstorm and was forced down to about 500' adl (above desert level..gg) when I came up on the Nile. I elected to stay with it since my fuel state was now down to an hour and I had 2 hours to Khartoum. If I was going down I wanted to stick close to water. then I popped out of the storm and decided to land in the nearest flat piece I could see. Way out in the distance I saw what appeared toa be a road and headed for the landing. Lo and behold it was a dirt strip! I landed and taxied in to the parking area. didn't even have time for the engine to cool down when the sand storm hit. I tried to get out but the wind and sand was just too fierce. Then the temps in the cockpit drove me out and I hunkered down under the tail on the downwind side. Then it began to rain mud drops and I got out in it to wash down some of the sweat. The rain became clear and the wind died down. water was about ankle deep by then. I saw one of my tires had gone flat so I just got out the half gallon of Scotch I was taking to the guys in Khartoum and poured a stiff one, sat down and started to relax. Yahoooo Rocky |
#7
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Clean up loads or passes are for the edges of the fields or around
obstacles so nothing gets untreated in the field. Sometimes we also do a rinse load and it is sprayed on the target field so we have a clean system when we head for the next field. Some pilots refer to them as "headland" passes. Rocky |
#8
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In case anyone is interested, been doing some busy days of late.
Several 10+ hours days in the cockpit. Weather cooperated and we had to get caught up. Get caught up and then have to sit again for a day or two...now busy trying to get caught up again! It will go this way all season. This morning we began at daylight and the wind got us about 0800 after a couple hundred acres. so I spent the rest of the a.m. cleaning the blades and sealing a leak on one of the hopper tanks. Took a nap and it was much appreciated even though I get a good nights sleep. Another pilot I know calls them "safety naps" and it is so appropriate. Several times in the wind I've noticed a really hard time getting turned around. I can't help but wonder where in hell some people say the wind has no affect on performance. I guess they have never done any ag work. I had a discussion with Barry Schiff re; clean blades and their affect on performance. While I have enormous for him and his career, I wish he could experience the difference in dirty blades/wings in crop dusting vs clean/polished blades/wings. I think he'd rearrange his thinking on that subject. In the earliest discussion here I was accused of being too cavalier or nonchalant about the dangers involved and poo pooed the damage I had incurred while crop spraying/dusting. There is no doubt this is one of the more dangerous aspects of flying in putting ourselves in the red zone on every flight we make and requiring that we make zero mistakes lest we end up in the emergency room and on the News At 9. Even so, after 39 years of doing it, I still get a smile on my face when the day goes right, the turns are like on rails, the spray pattern is moving slowly downwind, there are no bumps and the engine is smooth, the blades are smooth and there is no hop to anything....and the money meter is going Ka Chingggg..... Oh yessss.....ag flying is unique and satisfying in a particular way. Rocky |
#9
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Not being rotory rated I can't compare clean on blades, but the Cessna C188 suffers terribly when the L/E is dirty and the Weatherly 201B flies on just the same, I think airfoil section,among other attributes, has a lot to do with it and most blades have a symmetrical section.Keep up the good work Rocky, by the way, what's your average field size you're working there? wrote in message ups.com... In case anyone is interested, been doing some busy days of late. Several 10+ hours days in the cockpit. Weather cooperated and we had to get caught up. Get caught up and then have to sit again for a day or two...now busy trying to get caught up again! It will go this way all season. This morning we began at daylight and the wind got us about 0800 after a couple hundred acres. so I spent the rest of the a.m. cleaning the blades and sealing a leak on one of the hopper tanks. Took a nap and it was much appreciated even though I get a good nights sleep. Another pilot I know calls them "safety naps" and it is so appropriate. Several times in the wind I've noticed a really hard time getting turned around. I can't help but wonder where in hell some people say the wind has no affect on performance. I guess they have never done any ag work. I had a discussion with Barry Schiff re; clean blades and their affect on performance. While I have enormous for him and his career, I wish he could experience the difference in dirty blades/wings in crop dusting vs clean/polished blades/wings. I think he'd rearrange his thinking on that subject. In the earliest discussion here I was accused of being too cavalier or nonchalant about the dangers involved and poo pooed the damage I had incurred while crop spraying/dusting. There is no doubt this is one of the more dangerous aspects of flying in putting ourselves in the red zone on every flight we make and requiring that we make zero mistakes lest we end up in the emergency room and on the News At 9. Even so, after 39 years of doing it, I still get a smile on my face when the day goes right, the turns are like on rails, the spray pattern is moving slowly downwind, there are no bumps and the engine is smooth, the blades are smooth and there is no hop to anything....and the money meter is going Ka Chingggg..... Oh yessss.....ag flying is unique and satisfying in a particular way. Rocky |
#10
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Frank
About 100 acres.....mostly pivots and 1/4 sections. A couple of small fields but some big ones too like 160 clean runs. It is the easiest spraying I've ever done! some wires on edges but I don't have to duck under any of them. Have to hop over the sprinklers sosmetimes but is the easy stuff. Got one pair joined and one mile runs.... gravy dripping off my chin at 5 gpa! I looked at the company WASP's a few days ago and they sure do look nice. Perhaps I'll get some time in them before I'm done here. they haul 100 ga every load. I've just got a tired engine is all I think. I'm doing great with 80 but more like 65 daily. Blown out just now after daylight loads to beat the wind and only got 215 done. Cheers Rocky p.s. did you ever use the trick of SaranWrap on the leading edges and you can just peel off a layer at the end of the day for a clean edge? Have not tried it on rotor. |
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