Hands On Flying

The monthly safety meeting included handouts of product labels. At first glance they looked identical. The issue was, one was a widely used insecticide, the other was a herbicide. Two things you never want to get mixed up. Our clocks shifted to daylight flying for cotton defoliation and the subsequent...

The weather forecast was 100% chance of hot with a 50% chance of miserable. The first few jobs were going to be done while the sun was still scowling down on the bone dry Central Valley. The Old Boy was holding some sort of grudge. Even in the last couple...

I rolled out of the rack at the crack of noon, opened the curtains to allow the glare of an unsympathetic sun singe my bleary eyes. My morning routine normally occurs in the afternoon this time of year. It’s never pleasant. I miss those bright, bushy tailed days of a...

“It was a dark and stormy night.” Sounds like the opening line to a third rate suspense novel doesn’t it? The suspense was little old me strapped into a Thrush plowing through torrential rain. Thunder, lightening, wind and dark coming down the slot pointing the nose at blurry runway lights,...

Flying is a perishable skill. If you’re an ag pilot, your skills have to stay particularly sharp. During slow periods and off seasons we get rusty. Speaking for myself, the rust sets in quick. Even a few days off affects my flying. The longer I’m out of the cockpit the...