I am an AG PILOT

My alarm goes off at 4:00 am, and I can smell the pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen. I set it the night before to give myself an extra few minutes of sleep in the morning. The dogs begin to yawn and stretch as I groggily roll out of bed. I throw on shorts and a t-shirt as I let the dogs out. I pour my coffee and pack my snacks for the day. I finish feeding the dogs and then move on to the outside animals. With everyone fed, I quickly brush my teeth, wrangle my hair into a braid, and put on some sunscreen. The time is now 4:30 am, and I am getting in my truck to head to work.

I pull up to the farm airstrip at 4:45 am. The crew is there getting the airplanes ready while I review the flying schedule. We sit down for the morning brief at 5:00 am. Once everyone is briefed and safety procedures have been discussed, we hit the ground running. Everyone heads to their airplane to finish their preflight, and one-by-one, we get loaded, are handed a map, and fire up our engines. The first airplane takes off, and the time is now 5:25 am, just a few minutes before sunrise. I relish this golden hour of flight. Sunrises are much more hopeful than sunsets in my opinion. The air is cool and crisp, there is just a flicker of a breeze beginning, and it feels like you can accomplish anything. I try to hold onto that feeling and remember it as the air becomes more turbulent with each passing hour of daylight.

The above description is my daily morning routine from mid-May to mid-September every year. We will fly until

By Emily Daniel

we run out of work or the weather forces us to park the airplanes. In the early part of the season, we run out of work first. When we hit mid-season, the weather becomes the primary reason we shut down, and the work begins to pile up. We go as fast as we can, safely, for those few busy weeks.

So, what exactly do I do? I am a crop duster, agricultural pilot, aerial applicator. These terms all describe the same activity, known today as aerial application.

While I am a third generation pilot, when growing up I had no aspiration to pursue aviation as a career.

I enjoyed flying, but I had the ultimate goal of studying meteorology to become a broadcast meteorologist, flying for fun on my days-off, and learning aerobatics. My dad, who was one of my instructors, encouraged me to obtain all of my ratings regardless. He explained that additional ratings and training would make me a better, safer pilot. I am so glad I listened. When I reached the end of college, I had interned and worked weekends at a local television station for weather. I had gone on to get my multi-engine and commercial ratings, competed in the Air Race Classic, and had been working on my CFI at the time. Something in my gut did not feel right about my career choice, and I decided to take a leap to switch careers back to aviation.

I had begun dating my husband at the time, who had introduced me to his family business, an aerial application business in New Jersey, only about an hour from my childhood home. I began working weekends and spent the summer working on the ground loading airplanes, digitizing maps, and doing a lot of what we call the “grunt work”. Within a week I was hooked. There was something really special about this type of work. It was aviation, but it was also farming. The work we were doing really made a difference in helping farmers and our local economy. Being a part of the agricultural process deeply resonated with me, which is the reason I chose to pursue a career in this profession.