Wisconsin Life | Crop Duster

oh hey look at all those buddies right there they're all over the leaf Hoppers carry a virus called Astor's yellow and when their mouth Parts penetrate the leaves they infect the plant with that virus and begin to kill the plant when a pest gets to a certain level it's going to cause crop loss and that's why we have to be here all the time we are known as crop dusters but we are aerial applicators we haven't been putting out any dust for many many decades this type of flying is really unique there is very little time spent in straight and level flight there's no autopilot and the aircraft is constantly being maneuvered by the pilot it's a skill set that takes time to develop and to me it's the type of flying that I want to do we're at the world headquarters of Dairyland Aviation here in Waupun Wisconsin foreign is a family tradition I was about four or five years old and was walking on the property alongside my dad and I just told him that when I grew up I want to be a pilot like you Dad my grandfather is Roy Ruby he was a transport pilot during World War II when the war ended Grandpa started the crop dusting company in the late 1940s here in Waupun the amount of work that I can cover in an hour compared to what Grandpa could do with his first airplane is a factor of about 15. it's changed so much and I think he just really loved to be here to see it so the airplane is quite sophisticated as you concede I go to my GPS tablet and I select how I'm going to spray the field the fields shape and what's around the field will determine which one of these patterns I select [Music] the optimum height is a boom height of approximately eight foot which puts the wheels at approximately five feet I don't view it as dangerous every pilot that flies an aircraft has to be a blue landed and when you land you have to know where your wheels are visually right so while it seems like a really difficult thing to do knowing how high your wheels are above the ground is actually just part of flying [Applause] it's all about safety we take a lot of precautions we are looking for obstructions and people near the field the idea of being a daredevil simply doesn't fit it requires all of your attention and all of your mental processes to fly and particularly be an aerial applicator it's fun I'm in a place where all of my thoughts are focused on doing the job and when that happens everything else goes away it's just a wonderful feeling

Channel: PBS Wisconsin

Views: 4,358

Keywords: pbs wisconsin, wisconsin life, damon reabe, crop duster, long line of pilots, family of pilors, world war 2 veteran, family crop dusting, crop dusting business, dairyland aviation, reabe spraying service, aerial industry

Id: zBlnIRW6i_0

Length: 3min 38sec (218 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2023