- 97
- 1 726 503
Patrick Cohen
United States
Registrace 25. 08. 2008
Air Tractor 802 Spraying Rice in Arkansas
This is another video of me spraying rice in an AT-802a. This video was shot on one of our satellite strips that we will use to get closer to the work. This strip is a little shorter and bumpier than the home strip and can make for some interesting landings sometimes. Clincher is a post-mergence grass herbicide that will not hurt the rice but will kill corn and milo.
zhlédnutí: 7 497
Video
Air Tractor 802 Spraying Bug Poison on Cotton
zhlédnutí 38KPřed měsícem
Now I am become death, the destroyer of bugs.
Grumman G164B Fat Cat
zhlédnutí 2,1KPřed 2 měsíci
This video was shot in 2015 when I was flying Ag Cats in NE Arkansas. This is a Grumman B model Ag Cat that was widened 14" so they could stuff a 500 gallon hopper in it. The Fat Cat mod is an STC and the modification required an entirely new frame and also a few other parts specific to the Fat Cat like the 14" wider center wing section and 41" wide gatebox at the bottom of the hopper. This was...
Air Tractor 802 Fertilizing Wheat
zhlédnutí 2KPřed 2 měsíci
This is a one load vid fertilizing wheat in a 2019 AT 802. I took a new job over the winter and am very excited for the upcoming season. I will try to get a few more videos up as the season progresses into full swing.
Flying The Air Tractor 301
zhlédnutí 2,2KPřed 2 měsíci
This footage is from my rookie season in 2013. I had maybe 400 hours total time at this point and I was flying a 1985 Air Tractor 301 with a Pratt and Whitney 1340 radial engine. It is hard for me to watch this footage now because the work I am doing is very sloppy and the way that I am flying the plane is not what you would call optimal. I have learned a lot since then and I am glad that I sur...
Flying the Ayres Thrush S2R-T45
zhlédnutí 1,2KPřed 2 měsíci
In this video I am in west Tennessee spreading seed in an Ayers Thrush S2R-T45. This plane has a 500 gallon hopper with a 1000shp Pratt and Whitney PT6-45. That big motor made this plane a really nice plane to work. Unfortunately later in the year that I shot this video another pilot ran it out of fuel and totaled the airplane. The pilot was un injured but the plane will never fly again.
Grumman Ag Cat G164-B Walk Around
zhlédnutí 2,7KPřed 5 měsíci
This is a quick walk around and explanation of the cockpit on this B model Cat. I am ferrying it from Sacremento, Ca to Arkansas and at the time of this video I was down due to a failed igniter box.
Air Tractor Spraying Cotton - Flying Under Powerlines - With Commentary
zhlédnutí 137KPřed 11 měsíci
Navigating a field with powerlines in an Air Tractor 802
Air Tractor 802 Spraying Beans - With Commentary
zhlédnutí 458KPřed 11 měsíci
This is a video of a load of fungicide and liquid fertilizer on soybeans in an Air Tractor AT-802.
Air Tractor 802 Fertilizing and Landing on Farm Road
zhlédnutí 52KPřed rokem
Fertilizing rice in an Air Tractor 802 utilizing a farm road close by. This field is 2 miles long and about 700 acres.
Air Tractor 802 Fertilizing - With Commentary
zhlédnutí 166KPřed rokem
This is my first shot at trying to explain what I am doing while working and I will try to make a few more as the season progresses. If there is anything you want me to explain in my next video let me know in the comments.
Air Tractor 802 Heavy Load Tall Trees
zhlédnutí 14KPřed rokem
Spraying a small field with a heavy load and tall trees in an Air Tractor 802.
Crop Dusting in an Air Tractor 502xp Cockpit View
zhlédnutí 22KPřed 5 lety
Crop Dusting in an Air Tractor 502xp Cockpit View
Air Tractor 502xp Cockpit View Spraying
zhlédnutí 35KPřed 5 lety
Air Tractor 502xp Cockpit View Spraying
Patrick i am a farmer and ex truck driver that sold my trucking business to get my Commercial and IFR ratings. am 61 and plan on spraying in the panhandle of Texas. Not easy to do but would like to visit with you about it when you get a chance.
Amazing! You really do a nice job narrating, whether on the ground or in the air...you must have incredible spacial awareness. I just found your channel and really enjoyed watching an afternoon's worth of flying "crop dusting" Gig'em :)
Good stuff man - don't ever get complacent...
Learn something every day. Today I learned about saggy power lines. I will never look at them again and not try to judge how much of a load is on them. I will also have a little fun with that bit of knowledge. Glancing at them , " hmmm. Not a big demand today " Powerlines aren't sagging that much. Do what ? Lol Tnx , fly safe. I've often heard about crop duster pilot flying under light wires. You are the first pilot I've seen do so. Yea, I'd fly with ya.
Thats a cool job.Wonder how it effects the microbes in the soil?
We call them cotton bugs, boweevills here in NC
Awsome.
I’m looking between apprentice in a trade or going to school to be ag pilot, would you recommend the job and lifestyle ?
@@jacobsumner7892 The schools for Ag Pilots are really the last step in the long process to becoming an ag pilot. You need to do an apprenticeship for several years working on the ground first. There is a lot to learn about this job that you will not learn at an ag pilot school. The lifestyle is a bit different and this type of work is not for everyone. If you have the ability to work daylight until dark for several weeks without a day off you might be able to cut it. There are no vacations March-October and you won’t be going to the lake with your friends on July 4th. The upside to all that is the time off in the winter. Go get a job at a flying service next summer and you will know pretty quick if this is right for you.
@@pcohen85 thank you for the information fly safe buddy
Address I can send an $0.85 mic cover to?
I’ve been about to buy some for around 5 years now, haha
On average, how many days do you fly per month and what months do you not fly in ?
That depends on the month. I’ll give you the averages for the Mississippi Delta region. Feb 7 days, March 15 days, April 15 days, May 25 days, June 28 days, July 28 days, August 25 days, Sept 15 days, October 10 days. Sometimes we do work in the other months and sometimes not.
@@pcohen85 THANKS !!! 👍👍
I've been flying light aircraft in the bush for thirty years, and I STILL think you guys are bonkers. Definitely a breed apart. Respect.
What’s your tail number I live and work around where your flying I’ll keep my eye out for your plane I build shop buildings and I’m outside in the summer and love getting to watch the ag pilots of nea fly! 🤘🏼
would you please tell me what that LED bar is on the cowling? Does it show you remaining fungicide levels?
That is the heads up display for the gps guidance computer. That is what we use to stay on a precise line through the field. It also has a few other displays and they can rotate between several different values. Besides the line cross track, I have my ground speed and pass number displayed there as well.
Im an A&P about to take my checkride for Private. How do I get into what you are doing? I live in upstate SC. I want more time with my family without taking a paycut. Great video
The real and best way to get into this profession is to go to work at a flying service on the ground crew. That is about the only way to learn what you need to know before you are ready to get in the plane and go to work. It is not a flying job, it is a chemical/fertilizer application job. Unfortunately the pay for ground work is not good and you would need to wrench on the side. Having your A&P is a big bonus and while learning the flying/application side you can also learn the aircraft so you can work on them as well.
Awesome video, thank you for taking us along with you, I'm a 100% disabled vet, and you are living my dream, to nice, Thank you!
The water sticks to the windshield because the boundary layer is moving very slowly. The big droplets run off quickly because they stick further out from that boundary layer, which is why the smaller droplets move real slow and sometimes don't move at all...that first mm of boundary layer is hardly moving at all, so if you get a small enough particle to stay within that slow moving air, it won't blow off regardless of how fast you're going. Dust on a ceiling fan is a good example of this. The wiper that Air Tractor uses is hot garbage, it's a universal wiper that they use on Mac trucks and metro buses with a design that goes back to the 60's (the rest of the wiper assembly comes from the same vehicles if you need replacement hardware). I threw that wiper in the trash and installed a 20" HD scrubblade on my 502 instead, it made a world of difference but even just a basic modern wiper blade is a big improvement. You have to modify the mounting point on the blade itself, which is super simple to do, and then add some stop points on the windshield frame to limit arm travel in both directions (if not, the arm will be blown off the windshield and won't have the torque to return), but it clears the entire windshield off like a dream. It'll wipe coron and fungicides completely off, roundup and malathion is no problem, it'll even get rid of most dried up bugs. Relocating the spray nozzle to where the lightbar is made a huge difference too, the propwash and slipstream has more time to accelerate the water so it kind of pressure washes the window. I had a problem with the new spray nozzle (it's just a tube) acting like a venturi that sucked water out and spattered the window every time I dove into the field, so I drilled a small hole at the base of the nozzle facing forward and that fixed it. Seeing as how much more effective the entire system was, I ended up using it a lot more and ran out of water frequently. To fix that, I tapped into my rinse out tank and got rid of the tiny little tank under the seat used for the windshield washer. Had plenty of capacity at that point, and I add a little capful of concentrated washer fluid in there every time I fill it up, so it's more effective than straight water. Bonus is that the rinse out water cleans the hopper even better now, and sometimes I'll use it to momentarily spray down the hopper window part of the way through a job if it's nasty to see through it again. If you have some down time, go out and buy a 20" wiper blade with a steel frame (the ones with aero spoilers for more downforce don't work in our application) and just see how easy it is to install it, just takes a single hole drilled through, that's it. If you want more downforce on the blade, just copy the newer 710 Thrush and add yourself a little aluminum spoiler plate to the thumb screw that holds the blade on. It's a good winter project if nothing else, and you'll never go back to that worthless strip of rubber that Air Tractor slaps on everything.
BEATS A PAWNEE!
One of those videos you think you'll watch for 5 minutes and you end up watching the whole thing! I found it very interesting as growing up in Nebraska AG planes were a common sight. Later when I learned to fly I was able to learn a little more about it as my instructor for my CFI was also an AG pilot. But this video I found very informative as a lot has changed technology wise since those days. Thanks for sharing, stay safe out there this summer!
Awesome video! Great flying. I might go buzz some fields in msfs. Did I mention that I really suck at flying. It would be fun if Microsoft set up a plane like yours filled with spray to see how efficiently you could cover a field without killing yourself all while keeping your customer based on the job you've done. You have a great gig!!!
I've seen crop dusters down on South East Missouri spraying usully. I think cotton spraying for bowl wevels & other bugs. My dad was from that area & he always said you guys were a bit nuts doing that job. But yeah, as a pilot, there is ALOT going on. Great video.
A little help for the water on the windshield. I have same problem riding on my motorcycle does not want to shed the water even at 70. I use the new generations of the ceramic spray ons like NexGen. It is light years away from anything I have ever tried to use. No water sticks at all. Give it a try nothing to lose. Be safe, have fun.
Where are you from. Your spraying in Ark. I live here In Tenn boarding MO. and Ky.
I live in NE Arkansas. I have sprayed around you quite a bit out of Fulton, Union City and Halls.
@@pcohen85 I live in Union City. We just lost one of our Ag pilots lately. His name was Scott Rainey. Please stay safe.
What kind of poison are you spreading on these crops? And what are the long term effects on the people who consume these products? Do you even know and/or understand the implications of where you’re doing? Serious question.
First of all that is cotton. You shouldn’t eat cotton. Without economic positions there would be not be enough cotton and the same goes for rice, beans, corn and everything else other crop we mass produce. The population of the earth has tripled since 1970 and this is unfortunately what it takes to produce enough for everyone. I am not sure that anyone truly understands the long term effects but there are plenty of people trying to figure it out. We’ll know when they know.
Careful of priming booms over random fields even with insecticide. Could be an organic farmer lol
That field was farmed by the same guy. Also it was cotton and organic food crop also gets sprayed with pesticides, haha.
Takes longer to load than it does to dump! That must have been a 3 mile long field? 😂
Thanks for the ride-along……
Flying low and talking like nothing is happening 💪
What is the registration of your aircraft? I might have seen it in North Carolina flying at 775 ft over a field
Wow! My heart is thumping in my chest watching this! You are the pilot's pilot!
Patrick, always announce your intentions. What you are doing is expecting everyone else to announce their own.
Not true. I have been flying around people without radios for 12 years and I don’t expect anyone to announce anything. I use my eyeballs.
Now I see why they put the orange beachball thingies on the powerlines here in Arkansas
These guys have to be good because like other dangerous jobs you don't get to go home if you make a mistake
How do you know how far to get over each pass so you won't spray the same area?? Love your channel!!
“Right meow” You watch Saltycracker?
As a young boy I was in love with cropdusting. In high school my best friends father flew and I got my first job as a ground crewman and flagger. My path to becoming a pilot was cut short with a head injury from football. My best friend made good on his promise to become an aerial applicator. Sadly, he clipped a cell tower guide wire a few years back and was killed. Long story short, aerial applicators are (no pun intended) a dying breed and there is a shortage of these pilots in 2024. That said the world's food supply would be 1/2 of what it is without ag pilots. And you my friend, are one of the great pilots that has experience and knowledge. May the Lord bless you and keep you safe!!! PS- "She thinks my (Air) tractors sexy!!!
My dad did this in the 70s😊
Patrick - would your skills be translatable to fire fighting out west?
Yes I think some of them would be. I have time in type and also low level flying experience however I lack a few of the other requirements like mountain flying time. A lot of guys crossover to firefighting from agriculture and it is something I’ve thought about looking into.
WOW!
I really enjoy your Channel
where do you fly from...used to work as a loader boy during HS (30 yrs ago)and still love to watch cropdusters
air tractors 2of them crashed Shed into each other, Lubbock, Texas. It died pilot
“Man drops chem trails on unsuspecting cotton plants”
I would have 1m views if I’d made that the title haha
@@pcohen85 lol nah you don't want that kind of heat. I've flown a contract with my 502 over a town that made the natives quite restless. There was a lot of talk about chemtrails and shooting me out of the sky on facebork, some vids came out, then the crazies came out from all over the interwebs...
great video
Hey, just recently got the private pilot's book to start studying, so I'm still a long way off from getting into the air yet, but I wanted to ask: my big goal is to work with fire fighters in the lead plane or in the air tankers, and they require hours in low flying and this seems like a good thing to do to get those hours. What's the path to working as a pilot spraying fields?
To be completely honest, this is not an entry level job to get into fire fighting. Nobody will hire you and take the chance to start out a new pilot if you are just going to jump ship to go firefighting. You would be better off flying pipeline.
@pcohen85 I can understand that. So how do people normally get the flight hours for fire fighting if they're coming from the civilian world? Depending on the tanker type, you need seaplane hours, low level flight hours, mounting flying, ifr, night, the whole thing. The private pilot's book is good at explaining the type ratings, and a little research informed me of which kinds of type ratings I'll need to do it, I'm just lost for trying to understand how one usually gets those hours without working as a pilot in some capacity where those conditions are met. What is flying pipeline?
@@trevorjrooney You will definitely have to work in those conditions to get the flight hours you need. Tanker pilots are all very experienced pilots and it will take quite a bit of experience to get there. It will be a long journey. Pipeline is a low level flight job for pipeline inspection and those companies usually have pretty low experience requirements. Plan on several years and thousands of flight hours to gain the experience you need to fly fires.
@pcohen85 Ahhh OK. That makes sense. I know it'll take a long time and a lot of flight hours to do, but helping to protect the wild spaces we have is important. I'm sure those companies will find plenty of flying for me to do. Thanks for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it!
Been a Corporate Pilot for 30 years. Always admired the skills of the ag pilots. Great videos. I appreciate the explanations and commentary when you’re 5 feet off the ground. Stay safe.
I see the airspeed and think 'economy cruise for the long ferry'... and then you pan to the torque setting! 😅 Driving a tractor x-country at about 2.5 mpg, I bet the US of A starts to feel pret-ty big? Love the short 👍
Do you ever make machine gun noises when you are rolling in on a field?
I've done ac & heating in Baytown for 25 years, I have flown Cessna 172 for years. So I went to Georgia in 2015 to see Billy Howell at Ag Flight, I loved it just never got the 60 grand together but now I wished I would have. I did the model planes in the 80's and then starting flying Cessna's. I am thinking about doing it. At 50 I still have great vision and the want to. Any tips are should I just stay ac & heating
Pilatus pt9. Not the porter which has the 502 engine
$400k a year, I assume expenses like plane payment, annual, fuel, repairs etc come out of that?
We aren’t making quite that much on a normal year. $400k would be a 900-1000 hour year. Hired pilots do not pay any expenses. The full gross of an 802 is typically $2000-$2500 per hour and expenses come out of those figures.