Vale James,
Though I do not recall meeting James during my stint as a bug smasher, which was mainly in the southern parts of Australia, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to his family who have a huge loss to cope with.
Ag flying in Aus claims pilots every year who are out there every day helping to provide the low cost, high quality abundance of food and fibre that the balance of the nation take for granted. The wool, cotton, beef, vegetable and fruit industries all benefit greatly from the commitment and skill of pilots such as James who made a career of this type of flying. Make no mistake ag-flying is a hazardous occupation where very few pilots take risks for granted.
Those of you who have seen or watched an ag-pilot at work cannot even begin to imagine what it’s like to live and breathe the level of flying involved on a daily basis. Words, or even pictures cannot go anywhere the reality of what this work is like, which is why whilst most of these pilots will tell a few ‘war stories’ up the pub, they can only really relate to other ag-pilots. If they tried to explain to you what its really like you would think they were trying to bullsh*t about it. Until you have flown under the touching branches of two adjacent trees, or flown between two trees that were closer together than your wing span, or flown under a power line that is lower than your tail fin, or flown along a row of trees with one wing under the branches with the controls crossed to keep that wing down low enough and to use the slipstream to blow spray under the trees, when you have kicked the tail left and right to pull the wing tips away from a series of trees/poles whilst keeping the fuselage on a constant line across the paddock, or till you have flat turned under a wire at the start or end of a run because the tress are so close, or flown between buildings/tress/poles/wires/ you name it with inches to spare, and you have done all of this at 130 knots, a metre above the ground, whilst you are also monitoring chemical quantity/ flow rate/boom pressure/nozzle flow/tracking system/susceptible crops/gawking bystanders/dead tree branches/unmarked star pickets/wind conditions/engine parameters while also keeping an eye out for birds (serious size ones that is) that appear from behind trees and buildings, and do all of this day in day out all year in different districts for different weeds/crops/livestock with different types and rates of chemicals/fertilizers/weather conditions/terrain/farmers/agents/loaders/aircraft types whilst flying with the stick between your knees because you are rolling a durrie, you cannot even get an inkling of what the job entails. At least, my first wife could never understand it, or cope with the constant tension of a potential phone call with the bad news while she was home alone with the kids. My new one won’t let me go back to the huge hours, the time away from home and family, the smell of chemical and the great times that I with my ag-pilot friends celebrating life after another hard day.
So from an ex-aggie to James’ family and friends I say that I understand your loss and grief but please know that James was a member of an elite band of pilots who have no equal in the aviation fraternity and one who will be well remembered by those who do know the reality of that business.
HD