Acrobatics in the Sky

By Alyssa Stromberg

Aerial application, or what was formerly referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific spreading of fertilizer is known as aerial topdressing in some countries.

The cost of an aerial application on average is competitive. The benefits of aerial application eliminate yield loss from trampling crops which means zero crop damage and soil compaction, which can cause up to a 5% loss in yield by ground application. Other benefits include timeliness of application and zero disease transfer.

Between Plentywood, Westby, and Scobey there are between four and five pilots who are aerial applicators. The spray planes are all yellow and have one seat in them. The pilot is the lone occupant.

Across the US there are approximately 77 million acres that are covered by 3,500 pilots. Being an aerial applicator is not for the faint of heart. While they are fun to watch, work crashes happen. Besides being pi- lots, they become weather watchers, too. The wind, the temperature, fog and any other weather disturbance is taken into account when they are preparing to fly. The crops they have been hired to spray become their priority as well as anything that is neighboring the fields.

To become an aerial applicator, you must have a minimum of a commercial pilot certificate along with tail wheel and high-perfor mance endorsements and approval from a chief pilot of operation, or have a 137-operating certificate from the FAA.

So next time you see one of those yellow planes buzzing around, rest assured they have the fields they are spraying in their best interest. If they see you waving, you just might get a tip of the wing.