Dangerous Stuff

Have been thinking of things to post re;Ag Flying with rotorcraft. I
have to pay more attention to my work though! In many of my fields
here, they are irrigated with sprinkler pivots. Generally I'll have to
fly over them spraying to get the crops underneath. I haven't measured
the tallest points on them, but guess 25'? so I have to kind of
"blooper" over them while spraying. that often poses some interesting
control inputs and that caught my attention today. It requires quick
inputs but absolutely smooth ones to keep things on an even keel. Much
too difficult to describe aside from doing a pitch pull to go up, and a
cyclic push to keep level followed quickly by aft cyclic to flare on
the other side while lowering the collective and then level with cyclic
again, and all the while manipulating the throttle to keep rpms right.
Another point on the turn-arounds, I stay in translational flight all
the way thru so if the engine pukes, I can do a decent auto from
anywhere in the turn.
Got pretty close to some trees on a downwind pullup yesterday. I got
into the shadow, the window was a little dirty, and I lost my depth
perception. So, I realized I'd have to use some other visual points for
my pull up. Nothing dramatic...no pine needles on the booms or no tip
caps smacked ggg and didn't brush my skids in the tree tops.....close
enough to make me whistle though...
Have had my loader take some photos and one day we'll get them up.
Often when the wind is calm, the spray hangs in the air and I fly back
thru it which makes my windscreen look like some one sprayed furniture
polish on it, or milk. Its a bitch when you are flying into the rising
sun and obstacles in front of you. bad enough flying into the rising
sun anyway but with a dirty window its worse.
Been flying 8-9 hours a day with some great weather.
Cheers from Finlander country.
Rocky

wrote:

Cheers from Finlander country.

Another great post Rocky... keep them coming.

Findlander country... eh.

Well I was reading your post the other day about going to the headwater
of the mighty Mississippi and being a tad brain dead I kinda though you
were in the deep south... silly me.

It wasn't until I read a previous post of yours about potato patches in
Minniesota that if dawned on me where the headwaters of the Mississippi
were located.

Hey... you should try some of those Finnish saunas at the end of a day.

I can remember with fond and lusty memories some of the fun I had with
some of my girlfriends in my late teens growing up in Finlander
country.

We used to go down to the Finnish sauna on a Friday or Saturday night
have something sweet like cake, grab some cokes, and retire to a
private sauna room for a couple of hours. Each private sauna came with
a change room with a cot and I can't imagine how many body fluids got
swapped on those cots over the years, but I will guess lots.

It sure beat going out to the local airport to watch the submarine
races on a nippy winter's night.

How about this one...Yesterday, the local competitor and good guy,
flying his big 600hp Thrush, was threatened by some jerkwater that if
he ever flew over his property again, he'd shoot him down! Now, the
pilot has been working this area for years and never had any problems.
Then the jerkoff even called the customers office and told THEM he'd
shoot the airplane if it came over his property. Even ID'd himself and
its all on tape. I suspect its gonna get messy. I've had that happen a
number of times, been shot at and missed, shot at and hit. I'm here to
tell you if some asshole threatens to shoot me, he will find himself
handcuffed to a jailbed when he recovers conciousness and I will press
every charge I can think of.
We got blown out today. Had an interesting few moments when I did a
downwind pull-up and was trying to turn over 50' pine trees....couldn't
get it to turn and started losing altitude. thought I'd have to dump
the load when it began to respond and I kept on going. Sure got my
attention though. Thought sure I was going down in the timber. Oooouch
I'll guess the wind at my altitude was probably blowing 20+-
Wheeeew
Rocky

Another interesting day.... Was finished with a field and had a cleanup
load in the hopper sitting on the truck at idle. Out of the haze came a
humoungous thunderstorm from behind me...the wind shifted 180 so fast I
couldn't get off the truck safely with a load. So I had to shut it down
and wait it out. The wind kicked up to about 50-60, the blades kept
"sailing" and flapping. I sat there strapped in literally flying the
helicopter with that strong wind behind me and hoping I didn't get
blown off the truck. Heavy heavy rain was forcing its way in thrugh the
rear of the doors and I got soaked. After perhaps :20 minutes the storm
blew on by and things settled back down. I fired it up, lifted off and
sprayed out the load and quit for the day. What an interesting
experience!
Cheers
Rocky

wrote:
How about this one...Yesterday, the local competitor and good guy,
flying his big 600hp Thrush, was threatened by some jerkwater that if
he ever flew over his property again, he'd shoot him down! Now, the
pilot has been working this area for years and never had any problems.
Then the jerkoff even called the customers office and told THEM he'd
shoot the airplane if it came over his property. Even ID'd himself and
its all on tape. I suspect its gonna get messy. I've had that happen a
number of times, been shot at and missed, shot at and hit. I'm here to
tell you if some asshole threatens to shoot me, he will find himself
handcuffed to a jailbed when he recovers conciousness and I will press
every charge I can think of.
We got blown out today. Had an interesting few moments when I did a
downwind pull-up and was trying to turn over 50' pine trees....couldn't
get it to turn and started losing altitude. thought I'd have to dump
the load when it began to respond and I kept on going. Sure got my
attention though. Thought sure I was going down in the timber. Oooouch
I'll guess the wind at my altitude was probably blowing 20+-
Wheeeew
Rocky

wrote:

What an interesting experience!

And another interesting story.

That's the sort of stuff that makes this newsgroup worth reading.