12 comments

  1. When I was a young, I went flying with a bunch of ground pounder marines (the start of the UAV cadre). I was riding as passenger in their old taildraggers and they were getting the wheels rolling on the dry brush in the desert we were flying over. I was duly impressed.

  2. It's a Piper Pawnee, which suggests an ag pilot. Those guys are absolute wizards with stick and rudder. Flying between the fenceline and the power lines is commonplace for them.

  3. That's an Ag plane. Flying close to the ground and other objects is what they do in the normal course of spraying farming fields. They fly under power lines as a normal flight profile, and may have to climb to avoid fences, bushes, and trees, if they can't go around. They define "nap of the earth" flying, and do what military fliers aspire to, only there is a bit of a speed differential.

  4. I was always told that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are darned few old AND bold pilots.

  5. We have a lot of those planes around here. And has been mentioned, they are used for crop dusters.
    We have a field behind our house and across the street from us. If it weren't for our oak trees, I would not be surprised to have one bounce off our roof occasionally, as they use it for a turning point and fly low enough that I can count the sprayers (if I count fast).

  6. Air Tractor AT-502. Used to dove hunt up around Olney, TX where they are built and saw them flying around a lot. There are a couple of tactical and fire fighting versions available also.

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