Helicopter flying low and close to house in a rural setting

Jim K

Jim K

Final Approach
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Richard Digits
This is the most expensive airshow I attend each year, but the crowd is small...

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Not a very clear picture, but thought you all might be interested in the loading rig. This is the advantage of the helicopter, the tank is much smaller than an Airtractor, but they don't have to go back to an airport to reload.

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Gotta genetically modify those crops somehow, may as well be by rotorcraft aerial application. ;)
 
I had a pretty expensive air show last summer. A single-engine Cessna circled our street at pretty low altitude for 20 minutes, in the manner of which I practice ground reference maneuvers. (I knew they weren't doing so since we're in the DC SFRA).

A couple weeks later our HOA gets a huge bill from the city due to a revised stormwater assessment report :(

Little Cessna Airshow review: 2/10
 
When I was a kid I remember watching the crop dusters land on the road next to the field they were dusting. The truck was there waiting, and they would not even shut down the engine to reload. Occasionally the pilot would jump out and run to the bushes, still not shutting down the engine.

One guy was really fun to watch. He would go over the barbed wire fence and under the power lines to cross the road. These were bi-wing planes with radial engines. Wish I had pictures.
 
Zeldman said:
One guy was really fun to watch. He would go over the barbed wire fence and under the power lines to cross the road. These were bi-wing planes with radial engines. Wish I had pictures.
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My neighbor was such a pilot. Robbie's CB handle was 'HighLine'. You can guess why! ;)
 
Baked Potato said:
I had a pretty expensive air show last summer. A single-engine Cessna circled our street at pretty low altitude for 20 minutes, in the manner of which I practice ground reference maneuvers. (I knew they weren't doing so since we're in the DC SFRA).

A couple weeks later our HOA gets a huge bill from the city due to a revised stormwater assessment report :(

Little Cessna Airshow review: 2/10
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Where do you fly out of?
 
Zeldman said:
When I was a kid I remember watching the crop dusters land on the road next to the field they were dusting. The truck was there waiting, and they would not even shut down the engine to reload. Occasionally the pilot would jump out and run to the bushes, still not shutting down the engine.

One guy was really fun to watch. He would go over the barbed wire fence and under the power lines to cross the road. These were bi-wing planes with radial engines. Wish I had pictures.
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I remember a radial engine Ag Cat biplane working one of our fields when I was a little kid. He used our landlord's grass strip, so we were able to watch the takeoff/landing/loading up close. I thought it was cool back then, but didn't realize I'd never see one like that again. That was back before spraying fungicide on corn was a normal practice.

Now, late July & early August sound like a WW2 battlefield around here. A few companies have consolidated most of the business, and have purchased multiple rural airports, so they can notam them closed during the busy season. The guy nearest us is Brazilian, as are most of his pilots. They fly down there in our winter, and vice-versa.

And they still do fly under power lines.
 
We still have a couple of radial powered ag planes around here. I love turbines but you can't beat the sound of a radial at T/O power. I can still hear my mother fussing about the noise and dust during flying seasons. The neighboring farm across the highway from my house also served as the operating base for one ag pilot whose father owned the farm. When Robbie was departing to the SE with a south wind we got an earful of that radial at full song and a generous mouthful of dust when it was dry. We all had CB base stations in our houses and mom would be on the line fussing to his mother. Everyone else got a kick out of it.
 
Meh, all those guys will be replaced by drones soon. ;)
 
Baked Potato said:
A single-engine Cessna circled our street at pretty low altitude for 20 minutes, in the manner of which I practice ground reference maneuvers. (I knew they weren't doing so since we're in the DC SFRA).
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If doing 8s on pylons in the SFRA is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
 
I remember my grandfather telling me the story of a guy in Maine that flew hueys in Vietnam. When he came home he started flying helicopters spraying apple orchards. Gramps got to go for a ride once when they got back the pilot asked him what he thought to which gramps replied... Ida thrown up if I knew which way was up :D
 

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Jim Rosenow said:
Soon indeed! . Drone at work...Taken off my back porch, May of this year ‍♂️
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Yeah, they're pretty impressive. I went to a demo day last year and seriously considered buying one. About $30k, and looked like a 2-3 year payback. My insurance broker never got back to me with an insurance quote, and I had a hard time getting excited about giving that much money and all my farm data to the Chinese (DJI Agras T40). I also frankly don't want to be out there tending a drone in late July when I'd rather be at Oshkosh.

Point being, they are already at a point where they are cost per acre competitive with an Air Tractor, and much more scalable. A small farmer like me could own one, and a large operation that could justify their own spray plane could buy a fleet of drones for a fraction of the cost. Of course, each one needs a part 107 pilot with a 2nd class medical, as well as an observer. It'd probably take 6-7 drones to keep up with an AT 802, but DJI has released a bigger model every year for the last several years.
 
Kitch said:
I remember my grandfather telling me the story of a guy in Maine that flew hueys in Vietnam. When he came home he started flying helicopters spraying apple orchards. Gramps got to go for a ride once when they got back the pilot asked him what he thought to which gramps replied... Ida thrown up if I knew which way was up :D
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It's been over 40 years ago that I went along with a VHPA member in a sorta beat up 204 to set rooftop A/C units on a building in Houston. We approached the jobsite to land around 800' AGL, and he said "This is how we dropped into hot LZs in the jungle."

I can't properly describe the maneuver, but I can say it scared the **** outta me.

:biggrin:
 
Jim K said:
Yeah, they're pretty impressive. I went to a demo day last year and seriously considered buying one. About $30k, and looked like a 2-3 year payback. My insurance broker never got back to me with an insurance quote, and I had a hard time getting excited about giving that much money and all my farm data to the Chinese (DJI Agras T40). I also frankly don't want to be out there tending a drone in late July when I'd rather be at Oshkosh.

Point being, they are already at a point where they are cost per acre competitive with an Air Tractor, and much more scalable. A small farmer like me could own one, and a large operation that could justify their own spray plane could buy a fleet of drones for a fraction of the cost. Of course, each one needs a part 107 pilot with a 2nd class medical, as well as an observer. It'd probably take 6-7 drones to keep up with an AT 802, but DJI has released a bigger model every year for the last several years.
Click to expand...

Maybe one day we'll look at manned spraying the same way we now look at the wing-walkers of the nineteen-twenties.
 
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