Friday Fun: Air Tractor Music Video

Direct link to March 2007 video from Aggieman1125 on YouTube

 I saw this great video on YouTube just now, the video was done in March 2007 by aggieman1125. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

Ag Aviation Helicopters

 

Direct link to July 2025 video by Garrett Stanfield on YouTube

I am interested in Ag Aviation so I do post on this every so often as I last did on November 3rd. On a somewhat quiet day I wanted to make a post highlighting what an Ag Aviation helicopter can do. I found the above video this morning to share with you. 

About Ag Aviation (crop dusting) from the pilot of a crop duster

Direct link to 2020 video from Scott Palmer on YouTube

I have seen crop dusters in action in New Jersey both over north western New Jersey where I live and down in the cranberry farms in the New Jersey Pinelands in central and southern New Jersey. I have also heard about crop dusters in northern New England. My point is that is not just in larger farms in the midwest and the west where you will crop dusters, as you see in this video, but crop dusting happens across the United States and Canada and elsewhere. Enjoy this video about crop dusting in 2020 from Scott Palmer who talks about crop dusting in this 2020 video.

Friday Fun: Aerial (Agricultural) Spraying

 It is time for some Friday Fun focusing on aviation. As a non-pilot member of the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) I know that they produce interesting aviation related videos both for their members and the general public. I happened upon an AOPA video looking at an Aerial Spraying Operator in my part of the world in the Mid-Atlantic area of the United States. The video that I am sharing hear is about Chroman Spraying's aerial spraying operations. You will hear Jeff Chroman talk about the history of Chorman Spraying, their focus on aerial spraying for agriculture and learn a little about the different types of aircraft they fly, all configured for aerial operations. There is also some nice footage of their aircraft spraying. Enjoy. The video is under seven minutes.

Direct link to video from the AOPA on YouTube

Friday Fun: Snow S-2 one of the first agricultural aircraft

 I knew that I wanted to focus on some Friday Fun today. In considering what I wanted to share, it has been awhile since I shared anything on ag aviation, so I knew that is what I wanted to focus on for today's Friday's Fun. It did not take me long to find this video by Tyson of Ag Aviation Adventures showcasing the Snow S-2. The Snow S-2 was designed by Leland Snow and built by Snow Aeronautical. Leland Snow designed the first purpose-built aircraft for ag aviation. If you go to Ag Aviation Adventure's video showcasing a fully restored Snow- S-2 and expand the "show more option" you can see their excellent commentary on the Snow S-2, Leland Snow, and commentary about their video. Here is what they say about Leland Snow:

Leland Snow is the pioneer of Ag Aviation and he is the brains behind both of the two most popular ag aircraft used today. After the Snow S-2, he went on to rename/redevelop under the name Thrush Aircraft. When Thrush moved from Texas to Georgia, Leland resigned and started Air Tractor. It’s hard to say what Ag Aviation would be today without Leland Snow. What’s even more wild, shortly after Leland, who at the time was 23, completed test flights with the S-1 in 1953 he flew the S-1 on application jobs in both Texas AND in Nicaragua until 1957. Ag Air Update has dubbed Leland Snow “the godfather of the modern ag aircraft” and we couldn’t agree more.  

Enjoy this video on Ag Aviation Adventure's video showcasing the Snow S-2.

Direct link to video by Ag Aviation Adventures on YouTube

Friday Fun: Ag Aviation Demo

Enjoy this video of Ag Aviation airplanes -- an Air Tractor AT-802A and a Thrusy 510P demonstrating crop dusting at the 2021 EAA AirVenture. 

Direct link to video by AirshowStuffVideos

Ag Aviation: about GPS and lightbars

 If you are an an arm chair ag aviation enthusiast like I am, you may have seen the lightbars on the outside front fuselage of many ag aviation planes. Now I had an idea that most ag aviation planes had a GPS system, but I did not how the GPS worked to help the pilots spray a field. I only recently saw, thanks to recently watching ag planes in action that the light bar may have been tied into the GPS system. Of course this was pure speculation on my part. I was wondering around on YouTube this morning when I saw a video from Ag Aviation Adventures called "How the Light Bar and GPS Systems Work in Ag Aviation." I watched this short, six minute video and got a basic idea for ag pilots use the light bar and GPS in their work spraying fields. I do not know how many variations on the light bar and GPS systems there are in ag aviation. That does not feel important at the moment. I did learn something and as I have recently been posting articles sharing ag aviation videos, I wanted to take you along on my journey to learn more about ag aviation operations. Enjoy

Direct link to video by Ag Aviation Adventures on YouTube

Ag Aviation: ag helicopter ride along

I have not yet had the privilege of seeing an ag helicopter up close and personal. Perhaps one day. In the meantime, I enjoy watching videos of ag helicopters and want to take you along on this video from Ohio Ag Net & Ohio's Country Journal. This is a demonstration ride along with Stan Sayre from Sunrise Cooperative.

I enjoyed this video and learning more about ag helicopters and how they are used. I hope that you will enjoy this nine-minute video.

Direct link to video from Ohio Ag Net & Country Journal

Ag Aviation: crop dusting in Idaho

I am continuing to reflect on the importance of ag aviation. To that end, I wanted to find a nice video showing an ag plane spraying crops. I also hoped to find a video that I have not shared here before. I think I found a video that met both goals. You will hear from ag pilot Eric Lewis as he talks about being an ag pilot and the type of crop and ranging spraying that he does in Idaho. The video is from Inside Agriculture. Not only does the video (camera on the wings) give me an eyeball view from an ag plane but I got to hear good commentary from ag pilot Eric Lewis. Allow a little over eight minutes to watch the video. Enjoy

Direct link to video from Inside Agriculture on YouTube

Ag Aviation celebrates 100 years (August 2021)

I did know that ag aviation celebrated 100 years in 2001 through the National Agriculture Aviation Association and also as a subscriber to Ag Air Update. As sometimes happen, I admit to getting involved in other things, including some personal transitions late last summer into the fall, but that is a weak excuse for not writing about ag aviation sooner. What happened to jump start my mind was seeing a post from the  social media late last week with a link to a nice article from the NAAA linking to a nice article in the Air and Space Museum's Winter 2002 edition of Air and Space Quarterly. That is, the Winter edition of the Air and Space Quarterly has a nice article with photos on the history of ag aviation, go here to read the article. I urge you to read the article. A caveat is in order, I am never quite sure how long links like this will be active, so if you are coming here weeks or months after this post and the link does not work, I am sorry.

I know that Downstown Aero Crop Services engages in a variety of ag aviation services. I have personally seen their planes spraying cranberry fields in the Pinelands, and providing cover crop services in northern New Jersey. I have seen videos of their planes spraying for mosquitos near the New Jersey shore. Last but by no means least, Downstown has had contracts with the NJ Forest Fire Service for 54 years providing single engine air tanker services (through 2021). The fine folk at Downstown have been very supportive of my work on this blog over the years, I own them a debt of gratitude and a tip of the hat.

I leave you with a nice video from the NAAA celebrating 100 years of ag aviation, allow a little over nine minutes to watch the video.

Direct link to video from the NAAA on YouTube

Friday Fun: Ag Aviation

I want to end this week on a light note. Many of you know that I have a great deal of respect for all who are involved in Ag Aviation. I have seen these special Ag Planes up close and personal, including watching spraying operation in the New Jersey Barrens spraying our New Jersey Cranberries (see my March 13th post featuring Downstown Aero Crop Services. What a treat that was. Here are some fun video of Ag Planes in action. 

Direct link to video on Youtube

Direct link to video on Youtube

Reflections on smaller SEATs Part 3 (300 to 799 gallon tanks) Downstown

I wrote on March 4th about Downstown and I want to continue with some more reflections about the wonderful folk at Downstown. My friends at Downstown have always answered my questions about wildland firefighting or ag aviation. What I do on my blog as I try to focus on wildland firefighting in New Jersey is easier because of Downstown. I have visited their airport and base of operations three times.  In May of 2012, they flew me down to their base in Vineland New Jersey for the afternoon. I had a great time and got to see their base and their planes up close and personal.

Here are some highlights from my visit, there may be some minor changes such as the designation of the SEATs and perhaps some newer equipment. But you will get an idea about what is involved in using a SEAT in southern New Jersey for wildland firefighting:

• dispatch
• loading area
• direct attack
• indirect attack

In addition to wildland firefighting, Downstown is an aerial agricultural operator. They provide a number of services including but not limited to crop fertilization, insect control, and winter cover crop seeding. 

In the fall of 2012, I drove down to the Pine Barrens while they were spraying cranberries. I saw them load the aircraft and spray the fields. It was wonderful. The also introduced me to some cranberry growers to see their operations. Nice to see where those very special New Jersey Cranberries come from and how they arrive at our tables for the Fall holidays. 

I will start with a few shots I took on Downstown’s airstrip in the Pine Barrens showing the fertilizer and and loading into the Air Tractor 602.

I will close by sharing to videos (combination of stills and videos) that I took during this visit.

Direct link to video 0f AT-602

Direct link to video of Ag Cat

Air Tractor 602: spraying wheat in South Africa

Air Tractor 602 can fight wildfires, but they also do ag aviation. Here is a nice video, almost 12 minutes of an AT-602 spraying wheat in South Africa. You will watch and listen to her while she and her pilot are working.

Enjoy!


Direct link to video

AG-Cat crop dusting up close and personal

Being in the middle of what seems like our weekly line of thunder storms passing through my area of New Jersey this seems like a perfect time to share a video that I came across last week about flying a Turbine Ag-Cat for crop dusting. The video was uploaded by Scott Palmer who according to his Youtube channel is a pilot, professional skydiver, indoor sky diving coach and adventurer. In the video below, he takes us along for a day flying a turbine Ag-Cat crop dusting in Washington

Allow a little more than 15 minutes for the video. Thanks to my friends at NJFFS Section B10 for sharing this video in their video of the week page several days ago.

Hopefully I will be off before the I hear more thunder.


Direct link to video uploaded by Scott Palmer

Up close with a crop-dusting helicopter

I found some awesome footage of a crop-dusting helicopter this afternoon that I think you will like. For much of the video you are inside the helicopter on crop-dusting runs. But that is not all, there are some views, probably from a camera under the helo, as well as some awesome footage on the ground.  I especially enjoyed the small landing pad on the portable tanks so the helo's tanks can easily be refilled close to the dusting operations. Strap in and enjoy. Allow about eight minutes to watch the video.


Direct link to video on youtube

About Ag Aviation from an Ag pilot based in Mississippi

Please take six minutes to watch this nice video from the Mississippi Farm Bureau where you will hear Ag Pilot, Karl Holcomb talk about agricultural aviation in Mississippi. While perhaps specific to Mississippi, agricultural aviation plays an important role in agricultural all over the United States and over seas. Enjoy.


Direct link to video

Ag Plane working a cotton field

I have a couple of irons in the fire, including reading up on post-fire recovery for the 2013 Rim Fire (California) and the 2015 Soda Fire (Idaho/Oregon). In addition, I had some house chores to do in anticipation of a snow storm this coming weekend, including buying groceries. Yes, I really was out of food and wanted to beat the milk-bread rush. Actually, I only bought one loaf of bread.

So I leave you with a nice 9 minute video of an ag planing working a cotton field. You will see the pilot doing some nifty flying to avoid some utility lines. Power lines are among the obstacles that pose hazards to ag pilots.


Direct link to video

Air Tractor 602 doing Ag spraying in South Africa

direct link to video

Some of you may have heard about a wildfire in Ventura County, California last Saturday as well as a brush fire in Victoria, Australia that burned 116 homes. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today writes about:

The brush fire in Victoria, Australia on December 27th
The wildfire in Ventura County, CA in two posts on December 26th - about the wildfire and a family records fire as they drive by the fire

Aerial Applications in Central NJ - seeding winter cover crop (2 of 2)

I conclude this short series (See articles I posted on September 22 and September 24 about aerial applications of winter cover crop seeds in Central NJ.

Please spend some time to look at this great slide show of seeding operations from NJ dot com (9/18/14). Allow a few minutes to view the 44 photos in the slide show.

Residents near the farms that were seeded were notified prior to the seeding operations which began the afternoon of September 16 and were completed on September 18. See this September 18th article from the Hunterdon Democrat for more information.

Christian Bench, a Soil Conservation Technician with the  US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service in Pittstown NJ provides some additional information about the seeding operation. He gave me more information about the benefits of cover cropping:

Some cover cropping benefits are seen right away including soil erosion protection. Other benefits such as increased water infiltration, nutrient scavenging, increased soil microbe activity and increased soil organic matter will be seen only after several years of cover cropping on the same fields. This is why we are doing this for 3 consecutive years on the same fields.

Bench speaks to the advantages of using aircraft to disperse the winter seed cover over no-till drilling methods:

While aerially seeding is not the only way to plant a cover crop it is the only way to seed into standing crops that have not been harvested yet. No-till drilling cover crop species after the cash crop is harvested is a very effective way of seeding but as it gets later in the year the farmer is limited to what species he/she can plant. Aerial seeding opens a whole new window of opportunity because it allows for a more diverse mixture of seed species to be planted that all benefit soil in a different way. Drilling cover crop species after harvest limits farmers to very few species that will take root late in the year.

I asked Bench if similar seeding operations, including the use of aircraft, are happening in other parts of the United States. He says:

Yes. This occurs across the U.S and is catching on more and more as government programs are helping to fund such seedings. Farmers are also seeing the benefits of cover crops to their operations and seeding cover crops aerially on their own dime as well.

loading the hopper with seed

loading the hopper with seed

close-up of loader

close up  of spreader (disperses seed)

Aerial Applications in Central NJ - seeding winter cover crop (1 of 2)

A couple of days ago I wrote about watching Downstown Aero Crop Service doing loading operations for seeding applications on nearby farms. I begin today by introducing the seeding program with part 2 coming on September 26th where Christian Bench Christian Bench, a Soil Conservation Technician with the  US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service in Pittstown NJ provides more information about last week's seeding operations.

This was the first of a three year program, last done in this area some thirty years ago, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. Farmers participating in the program will have a four-species cover crop applied by a Downstown Air Tractor 602 each September for three years. This is year one, aerial seeding operations occurred from late in the day on September 16th through the afternoon of September 18th. Farmers will receive monetary compensation (on a per acre basis) for participating in the program with farmers in the Neshanic and Musconetcong River Basins receiving additional compensation from the North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council.

The four species in the winter cover are: clover, tillage radish, triticale, and oats. Among the benefits of this winter cover seeding is providing soil nutrients. In the spring the idea is that nitrogen will be produced. Additional information on this aerial seeding program (including information about the program and a description of each species) may be found in this September 9 article from the Hunterdon County Democrat.

close-up of four-species winter seed cover

four-species winter seed cover