Originally Posted by
KA350Driver
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve reached out to an ag school in North Louisiana and hoping to get a call back tomorrow about course length and cost. Apparently they’ve been around a while and have a decent reputation but I don’t really know these things.
I admittedly know exactly zero about farming, other than you put seeds in the ground and stuff grows in pretty lines. I’ll be approaching 3000 hours by summertime, mostly in the King Air. I currently fly for an ISR military contractor overseas and know that the airline lifestyle holds zero appeal to me.
As far as going under power lines, I guess if that’s safer than trying to climb over them all the time then that’s what I’d do.
Safer is one reason, the other is to get proper coverage on crop that grows close to or under the lines. It's not a regular practice, but it is done.
Ag flying has different faces. Seeding and dry fertilizer work involves dropping from a spreader; a lot of trips, a lot of takeoffs and landings, due to the amount of material dispensed. Spray work is high volume at many gallons per acre to ultra low volume at up to a gallon per acre, roughly speaking, and anywhere on the spectrum in between. Herbicide work carries the biggest risk, because of the potential damage to susceptible crops (drift damage). Pesticides are more toxic. Handling either one is common sense.
A part of ag aviation, but a separate category is aerial firefighting. Almost never on level ground, it involves large air tankers (multi engine, mostly the BAE-146 or variants, today, up to the DC-10 and B747. The bulk of the fleet nationwide, held in private companies under contract, is made up of Air Tractor 802's. There is zero chance of getting into that right now, for you, but a direction that you might think about. It's not about farming, but firefighting, and it's all mountain flying, often low visibility, moderate to severe or greater turbulence, rough country.
Before you commit to a school or give them money, talk to former students and see who got employed and what they think. Talk to as many ag operators as you can; see what their requirements will be if they bring a new pilot on, and if they'll need to see an ag school, and if so, which one.
Ag work has the perpetual problem of being employed every few months. If you're doing ISR work then you're used to rotating schedules, but you know you'll get paid again and when. Not so with ag. There's no salary, and you don't know when you'll fly, or how much. When you're not flying, that is when the season is over or before it starts, it's not easy to find work. Few people want to hire part year, and fewer of those during the winter.
The biggest hurdle for you will be lack of conventional gear experience and utility flying. There is always a steady flow of pilots who want to do ag, but who aren't qualified or committed, and most operators don't take enquiries too seriously for that reason. I can't stress highly enough that it's not a hobby. It's a living, a profession, and failure to take it very seriously will result in grief. There are a lot of pilots who have done ag for a great many years, successfully, but the statistics and the reputation exist largely because of the inexperienced ones that buy it early on, and drag the longevity numbers down. You don't want to be one of those who ends his career early on the bottom half. Take it seriously. Have fun, make some money, but take it seriously.