Ag Flying - what's it like?

[Loc-out]

What's it like?

Remember this, it can be a very dangerous job. It requires a lot of self disapline, and this comes with experience in most cases. You need and will further develope good "stick and rudder" skills.
It is really a career move and something to be done fulltime or not at all. I have known of some exceptionaly good pilots who have been killed by going back to ag flying part time.

There is an old saying in AG aviation "if the flying doesn't get you, the chemical probably will" I did ten years of it in many countries. Now the flying didn't get me, so the chemical probably will. That's the price that has to be paid. If you are working with chemicals, you will take a certain amount into your system, whatever precautions are taken. Some chemicals stay in your body for life.

Have to disagree with super trouper on the dangers of the chemical. Insecticides are designed to kill, period. Insecticides and to a lesser extent herbicides, will kill you too, if you take enough of it in over a period of time. Just because it is legal doen't mean to say it is safe. You can catch a fish mid Pacific and it will have traces of DDT within it. That is a fact. With insects and weeds, we are dealing with nature, therefore weeds and insects become very resistant to the chemical very quickly indeed, in some cases. Millions, if not billions are spent on overcoming this resistance. How much is spent on research on the effect on these chemicals on the enviroment? Not much, believe me.