By Gates L. Scott

The most wonderful thing about aviation is that there are so many different ways to fly. Gliders, helicopters, ultra lights, bi-planes. You name it. There isn’t enough time in our lives to learn how to fly all of the aircraft available in the world. There are very few individuals across the globe that hold all certificates and are type rated in every single aircraft. I think John and Martha King are the only ones that I know. Anyone else?

So, in my search for both interesting aircraft as well as exciting, career opportunities, I have come across some very intriguing pilots, recruiters, and organizations that have a great stories to tell. None, however, like the age-old discipline of aerial application. When anyone thinks of an “ag pilot”, they envision some old guy flying a bi-plane, with no radio and no cares, buzzing the landscape with a type of entitlement as his leather cap flaps in the wind. You remember the pilot from the movie Fandango. The guy who packs Judd Nelson’s parachute with his dirty laundry.That guy. Ag pilots suddenly appear from below, climbing briskly and diving abruptly, as you consciously scan your path on a long cross-country. They show up out of nowhere with no radio call, no nothin’. You’re surprised, maybe even angry, as they dart out like a stray cat in front of your car. However you admire their cavalier, cowboy type of flight. It actually looks exciting.

The first known aerial application of agricultural materials was flown by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in Wairoa, New Zealand using a hot air balloon with mobile tethers. The first known powered aircraft to spread agricultural materials was an U.S. Army Air Service Curtiss JN4, or “Jenny”, piloted by John MacReady spraying lead arsenate from a makeshift metal hopper to kill catalpa sphinx caterpillars that had infested an orchard near Troy, Ohio in 1921. A subsequent study revealed that the pesky caterpillars were virtually wiped out from the application and “crop dusting” was born. The first commercial operation to lead the charge in aerial application was Continental Dusters, once part of Delta Airlines, using insecticides and fungicides to treat a host of crops and tackle insects and other infestations.

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