Crop dusting goes high-tech in Florida

[Guest Glenn]

Interesting article

 

By Kathleen McGroryMcClatchy Newspapers

 

(MCT)

 

MIAMI - At a moment's notice, Bill Malone's four-seat airplane dives nearly 100 feet, dropping within six feet of the ground.

 

He zooms over a hayfield at 120 mph, pulling up just in time to avoid a 20-foot tree.

 

"It's a lot like ballroom dancing,'' Malone says. "You're concentrated. You're accurate. You slowly bring the plane around, take your 180-degree turn and go for your next pass. It's beautiful."

 

Malone has been flying since 1961 when, at 20 years old, he lied about his age to buy a two-person airplane. Spraying pesticides over crops was an ideal way to earn a living, he figured: He could fly in the morning, spend the afternoon on the beach and still earn more money than in sales or repairs.

 

More than 30 years later, Malone's crop dusting operation, Sunniland Aircraft in Okeechobee, Fla., still has an old-fashioned look and feel.

 

But these days, Malone and his fellow pilots don't fly the rickety, old barnstormers you see in the movies. Their aircraft are high-tech and highly specialized.

 

"Our industry is definitely becoming more professional," said Andrew Moore, executive director of the National Agricultural Aviation Association in Washington. "We're seeing new technologies come to market, and we're really emphasizing technique."

 

It wasn't always that way. When Chuck Stone of Fort Pierce began dusting in 1946, he bought a biplane from the military for $250. Using some pumps and a wooden box, Stone turned the flight trainer into a crop duster.

 

"We would take one of the seats out and put in a plywood box to hold the dusting material,"' said Stone, 82, a veteran of the Naval Air Force. "It worked pretty darn well."

 

Much has changed since then. For one, specific airplanes are now made for aerial application. Basic models sell for about $500,000. The bigger ones with bells and whistles made by Texas-based Air Tractor go for up to $1.4 million.

 

Navigation has changed as well. In the early days, pilots like Stone depended on men waving large flags down in the field to know where to spray. The men didn't always mark paces correctly - some had larger strides than others - so mistakes were frequent.

 

Today, satellites direct pilots to their coordinates and can even remember where a plane last sprayed - in case the pilot must return home to refuel.

 

The new technologies have reduced the need for both agricultural aircraft and pilots. These days, the U.S. crop dusting ranks number about 4,000, the NAAA reports. In the 1970s, there were as many as 10,000, Malone said.

 

As for pilots, about 115 men and women are licensed for commercial aerial application in Florida, down from about 200 in the early 1990s, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

 

But experts insist the industry remains stable. The new technology enables pilots to work faster and with greater precision than ever before, said the NAAA's Moore. At least as many acres are getting sprayed as a decade ago, he said.

 

Between the citrus groves and dairy farms around Okeechobee County, there's enough work to keep Malone busy from September through May. And during the hot summer months, he can travel to the Belle Glade area to fertilize sugar cane and winter vegetables.

 

On a typical day, he brews his first pot of coffee at 4:30 a.m. Within half an hour, he meets his pilots - and his rust-colored dog Sonny Boy - in the aluminum hangar on his ranch to go over their work orders for the day.

 

With more than an hour to go before the sun rises, the pilots begin mixing the pungent fertilizers and pesticides. They then dump the materials into the hopper, the plane's holding tank.

 

Some jobs require hundreds of gallons; in other cases, pilots need to release only a pound per acre.

 

Just before sunrise, Malone and his crew leave from the runway on the ranch.

 

Using the Global Positioning System to navigate, they fly out to their jobs, usually at an altitude of 500 feet. The planes are small - four of Malone's five aircraft seat only one person - and often poorly ventilated, but for Malone, few things rival the view from above.

 

"You feel so free," he said, "and you can see for miles. Sometimes I can't get enough of it."

 

Once the pilots reach their target fields, nearly all of their movements are guided by an onboard computer.

 

It lines up each pass and shows them exactly where to spray. Spraying is a simple motion: Malone pulls on a large lever, and a cloud-like mist falls from the wings.

 

Still, flying at such low altitudes - and at such high speeds - is a risky job. This season alone, the National Transportation and Safety Board reported 24 accidents and four fatalities from crop dusting.

 

Malone has had some close calls himself. Twice, the engine has cut out on him, and he has come dangerously close to some unsuspecting wildlife.

 

"This is one job where you've got to be right," he said.

 

"You can't take any chances, even with the GPS."

 

The pilots can spray only until the wind comes up. On a good day, that's around 9:30 a.m. For each hour they spray, they can charge around $100.

 

By midmorning, a barking Sonny Boy welcomes the pilots back to the hangar. There, they wash down the planes and equipment and start calling on customers.

 

"The technology makes my job easier, but it also makes it more fun," Malone said. "Now, we can be perfectly exact."

 

Still, not all pilots find the changes beneficial, especially in the areas where farmland is disappearing.

 

Rick Merrill, who says he is the last crop duster in South Miami-Dade, is closing his business, Growers Crop Care, for good this summer.

 

Merrill plans to try his luck fertilizing sugar cane around Belle Glade, but if he can't find work, he'll sell his plane.

 

"It's getting too crowded for airplanes down here," Merrill says about Miami-Dade, which once had farms and dusting operations as far north as Kendall.

 

"It just isn't efficient for these expensive new airplanes to work the little fields any more," he said.

 

"You can't make a good living here, much less make good money."

 

But Malone is convinced that as long as there are crops, there will be crop dusters. And as long as there are dusters, Malone will be in the business.

 

"A pilot once told me it's a good thing farmers pay us to do this," Malone said.

 

"Otherwise, he said, he'd have to do this for free. It's true. You won't find people who love their jobs more."

[TAA Student Pilot]

Bin using GPS since 1996, not really a new thing.