UNITED STATES
HANDS ON FLYING
Tracy Thurman thurmantracyt@gmail.com
Some Days “Some days are diamonds; some days are stones. Sometimes the hard times won’t leave you alone...” Thank you John Denver, for recording a song that is so easy to get stuck in a man’s head.
We have to keep ourselves on top of our game, even when we’ve gone weeks with not much time off.
B 26 | agairupdate.com
There’s a lot of truth to that song. We all have good days and bad. Sometimes we go through a bad time or we just seem to find it difficult to keep our ball in the center and wings level. Back home the polite folks call that ‘a season’. I never quite figured that one out, but it’s a term the elder, motherly ladies used to use, so it must be right. They smile sweetly, “You’re just going through a difficult season right now,” they’ll say. Which is okay unless they pat your knee and add a “Bless your heart.” to it. Then you might want to go see a preacher, or a bartender, depending on the circumstances. You don’t have to understand everything for it to be right. Otherwise there’d never be any banana pudding. Hills and valleys of life and work are part of the equation. Maybe it’s just me and the view from my vantage point, but these “hills and valleys” seem to be more pronounced in the agricultural aviation world. What some might consider inconveniences, might be a matter of working or not. It might even be a matter of surviving. Things tend to get compressed in a heavily loaded airplane flying close to the ground. Not all days are the same. One day you might find yourself rocketing through the air like you were born with eagle feathers covering your butt. The next day, you might find yourself flailing around the sky like you’re made of mud. Adapt and overcome. If you’re having an ‘off’ day, or the weather is presenting a bigger challenge than
usual, don’t expect to be the star of the airshow. Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not, just shut up and fly the airplane. Do the best you can without bending anything or screwing up the job. Get through it. Get some food and rest, then come back the next day and try again. As the season progresses, the burden usually gets heavier. There’s always one more thing we’ve had to put off. The refrigerator quit. Daughter’s dance recital. Grand kids want to go to the lake, the missus is mad about something, or you’ve got a not so great application hanging over your head. After you’ve been in this job for any length of time, you get to know the stresses and routine. Spouses and kids learn that when the season is on everything else pretty much takes a backseat, like it or not. You have to make hay when the sun is shining. Don’t worry, there’ll be a day, sometime in the fall, when the hangar doors will get closed for a spell, things will get cleared up, fixed and everyone will take a much needed breather. This is a good place to make a public service announcement to all about-to-marry crop duster kids out there. It doesn’t matter what your fiancée wants, do not plan your wedding during the spraying season! Don’t do it. It’s bad luck. All your kids will be born without any teeth. Trust me on this. I love my job as an ag pilot. I know you do too. Sometimes however, it gets to looking too much like work, especially around August when we’re ➤
