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

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

A visit to NJFFS Air Attack Base at Aeroflex-Andover-pt 2

Today I am going to share some photos of the G-164-A (Radial) Ag-Cats, Alpha 3 & 4, that were at Aeroflex-Andover when I visited this past Monday. But before I do that I want to show you a photo of the 300-gallon hopper of a G-164-A Ag-Cat and a photo of the 400-gallon hopper of the Turbo-Cat. I don't know about you, but I was wondering about the larger hopper on a plane that used to have a smaller 300-gallon hopper. I learned the answer to that during my visit to Aeroflex-Andover this past Monday from Joe, one of Downstown's pilots. When Joe was showing me the Turbo Cat, one of the first things we talked about was the larger, 400-gallon, hopper on the Turbo Cat. He pointed to the portion of the hopper that is visible on the outside of the plane, pointing to a "bulge" in the larger hopper that is not present in the smaller 300-gallon hopper of the G-164-A Ag-Cat. It seems that the larger, 400-gallon, hopper in the Turbo Cat accounts for this "bulge." I have circled the hopper (in yellow) in each of the photos.

Turbo-Cat, hopper circled in yellow

 G-164-A Ag Cat, hopper circled in yellow

Here are some photos of the two G-164-A Ag Cats.

G-164-A Ag Cat

G-164-A Ag Cat

G-164-A Ag Cat

G-164-A Ag Cat, Turbo-Cat in background

G-164-A Ag Cat

A visit to NJFFS Air Attack Base at Aeroflex-Andover-pt 1

I finally made it to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Air Attack Base at Aeroflex-Andover  the Air Attack Base for Division A of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. That is my Division folks. They are really nice people and I had a great time. I spent a couple of hours there on a nice spring day. Oh, by the way, I drove. About an hour one way, not too bad all things considering. 

Before I begin, I want you to meet Orville in the photos below. Orville is the airport cat, and a good mouser. He is a real sweet and friendly cat, coming up to greet me. As you can see, he posed for me. I feel like I made a new friend in Orville.

Orville posing in front of the NJ Forest Fire Service Air Attack Base Office

Orville

Unless something comes up, I'll be posting a few articles based on my trip to the Air Attack Base over the next few posts. Today I'm going to start with some photos of the Turbo-Cat.

There were three Ag-Cats on base today, the Turbo-Cat was not in service as her pilot had the day off. Instead, I got to spend some time with Joe, whom I met last year. In the two photos below, the Turbo-Cat is on the far end.  Joe flew up in one of G-164-A (Radial) Ag-Cats.

Downstown Aero converted one of their G-164-A Ag-Cats to Turbine over the winter. They purchased a conversion kit and a turbine (Pratt & Whitney PT6A-28  680 hp) engine and did the conversion in their shop. Everything from the firewall forward is new. The new fuel tank is slightly bigger, 120 gallons compared with 80 gallons in the G-164-A  Ag-Cats. And the hopper (also new) capacity is 400 gallons. Another nice feature is that there is a bottom loading fuel system. Joe tells me that they can refuel the plane and load water at the same time, saving a little time. The cockpit steam gauges have been replaced with a glass cockpit. There is a new drop spray boom system coupled to the new Ag Nav GPS. The plane has been repainted inside and out with.

Ag-Cats at the NJFFS Division A Air Attack Base, Turbo-Cat on far end

Ag-Cats at the NJFFS Division A Air Attack Base, Turbo-Cat on far end

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Turbo-Cat

Fuel loading (labeled with Jet A fuel) and water loading at bottom of Turbo-Cat

Visit to Downstown: Rebuild Ag Cats

When I visited Downstown at the end of April, I learned that they rebuild Ag Cats from the firewall back. This includes all sheet metal, painting and the like. In addition the take care of "minor" engine maintenance such as magnetos, carburetors, cylinder changes, etc. They do not do major engine or propeller over hauls. Engines are sent to Aero Engines in Los Angeles for major work. Propellers are sent to South Coast Propeller Works in Alabama when a major overhaul is needed.

As I understand it, Downstown ships at least one engine a year to Aero Engines who ships the engine back to Downstown when it is ready.

Ag Cat Airframe ready for rebuild at Downstown (May 2012)

My friends at Downstown thought that you'd like to see the above photo of an Ag Cat airframe that they have just started rebuilding. It was brought into their shop a couple of weeks ago for rebuilding. As you can see in the photo, it was stripped down to just the frame. It will be built-up, inspected then re-painted. They already have an engine for it from Aero Engines. I am told that it takes 3 mechanics working full time 3 to 4 months to do a rebuild. But during the summer the mechanics only work on in when the weather is not suitable for flying. Downstown's mechanics will get moving again on this rebuild in September when flying begins to slow down. This aircraft won't be ready until at least January 2013. When the rebuild is done it will be an A model 600 hp Ag Cat. They do a similar rebuild on all of their Ag Cats every 7 to 10 years.

Here are some more photos of an Ag-Cat that was sitting on the ramp the day of my visit. This Ag Cat, including the engine placard for her Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial engine, was also being rebuilt. As you can see from the photos, it was pretty far along in the rebuild process.

Aerial Operations at the Owassa Fire

The webmaster of the NJFFS Section B10 webpage told me about this video that he had posted to his webpage last night and I want to post it here so that you may enjoy this footage. There is some decent footage of the NJFFS UH-1H Huey Helicopter -- Delta 6 -- performing bucket operations with its 300-gallon bambi bucket. For those of you who want to see an AgCat in action, you will see two drops by the Ag Cat. Now, I don't know if we are seeing one or two AgCats. Two AgCats were working the fire on April 7 and I understand that the tanker base is about a 15 minute flight from the fire. So, if the video we are seeing is what was seen in real time, then I am pretty certain that we are seeing the two AgCats from Division A (Alpha 1 and Alpha 2).

I am thrilled to have some video footage of an AgCat flying a fire in New Jersey to show you. Enjoy!

And Speaking of SEATs

Take four minutes and go and check out this awesome video on Patrick's Aviation on SEATs working fires in France. Some of this is taken from the cockpit of a SEAT. You will see some footage of an AgCat shot from the SEAT cockpit. TL Stein tells me that the single-winged aircraft are an Ayers S-2R and confirmed that the bi-wing planes are AgCat G-164A's.

For a refresher on AgCats, see this earlier entry to my blog on AgCats. I wrote about the Ayer's Thrush aircraft here.

NJ Forest Fire Service: aircraft photos

Section B-10 of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service maintains a photo page of NJFFS aircraft that may be found here.

I want to draw your attention to some new photos of one of their contract AgCats (a SEAT) and the new Air Tractor-602, and a very nice photo at the bottom of the page of an AgCat working a fire in the NJ Pine Barrens.

There are also photos of their air attack bases, observation helicopters, more AgCats, etc.

AgCat aka FireCat

In my previous post, I referred you to the web page of NJFFS Division A, Section2 that has several different pages of photos including a page of air operations photographs. I ask you to go back to the air operations page by clicking the link at the top of the home page. While you are looking at the photographs of the fixed and rotor winged aircraft, check out the four pictures of the FireCat, aka AgCat. Pay attention to the two photographs labeled "FireCat at Strawberry Field." You will see that what is known as the N number (on the tail) is N6620Q. The AgCat is a biplane manufactured by Grumman and Schweizer from the late 1950s through the late 1990s. The AgCats were built for crop dusting.

You may go here to see a video of an AgCat in action. I believe that this is NJ Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) contracted AgCat making a water drop.

Those of you have have read the previous entry of this blog may recall that the NJFFS contracts with Downstown Aero, located near Vineland NJ, for AgCats during the March through May fire season. In addition, Downstown makes AgCats available to the NJFFS later in the summer as needed.

Anyone can go to the FAA registry website and obtain some basic information on a particular aircraft (fixed-wing or rotor) by searching on the N number. If you want more information on the aircraft, you have to pay for it, which I did not do. According to the freely available information the AgCat N6620Q, a model G-164A with a Pratt and Witney model R-1340 engine, was manufactured in 1976.

I'd like to thank T Janney, aviation historian, for his help in showing me the FAA registry website, for helping sort out two engines commonly used in the AgCats, and for obtaining the design specifications for the AgCat model G-164A biplane. What is known as the airframe of the G-164A's was originally designed around R-985 450 HP Pratt and Witney engine. In some cases, as seems to be the case with the N6620Q, a Pratt and Witney model R-1340 engine was installed. There are 15 variants of R-1340 engines ranging from 425 HP to 600 HP. A variant known as the R-1340B (450 HP) is commonly installed on the model G-164A. The original design specifications of the G-164A are:

450 HP engine
speed: 128 knots
service ceiling: 13,000 ft.
empty weight: 2,690 lbs
max. take off weight: 4,497 lbs
wing span: 35.9 ft
wing area: 393 sq. ft.
length: 23.3 ft
height: 10.7 ft
tank capacity: 300 gal mixed with 1/2 gallon of firetrol foam additive
tank type: standard Gruman style dump gate / salvo time: 2.5