.
Dear Matt
Welcome to Rotorheads and congratulations on landing your first commercial flying role.
Like you, my first flying job was spraying. In my case this was on a three year contract with the Rome-based FAO organisation of the UN. My assignment was spraying locust and quelea bird in East Africa - this was back in the mid 80's.
For locust control the helicopter (a Bell 206) was used as a scout to identify locust colonies in the savannah before they would reach areas of cultivation (a decent swarm can deplete upwards of 100 tonnes of crop per hour) and involved 'trawling' the plains at about 40-50 kts using the downdraft to 'disturb' the locust. Given the size of some of the plains in East Africa you could spend anywhere between one and three weeks trawling a single plain!
When eventually a colony was found we were supported by three DeHavilland Beavers of the Desert Locust Control Organisation of Kenya and by two Cessna 185's of Tanzania's 'Kilimo Anga' (agricultiral air) who would come in and douse the swarm. The 206 would also assist (we had a Simplex system with booms) and concentrated on those swarms closer to populated areas.
Quelea bird control was a slightly different story and the booms were swapped-out for Micronair sprayers which dispersed the lethal Fenitrothion mix. Spraying ops were conducted at tree-top level, at about 80-90 kts .. at night.
There are too many stories to relate here and now. Mercifully, during the three year contract the only incident was a shattered windshield which occurred after striking too many birds - hitting the birds was of course normal for this op and the 206 was fitted with snow baffles to protect the air intake from clogging up but, too many and it became a risk. Quelea birds are however quite small.
* * *
Words of advice? I never participated in crop spraying but I believe from the work I performed there may be one or two similarities and what I have to offer might apply across most types of flying activity.
Firstly, personal attitude. Some say it doesn't matter, I believe it does. 'Hot heads', the arrogant and fool-hardy are always more prone to accidents than those who approach their work with measured responses. Remaining calm, sensible and ultimately professional is, for me, crucial to successful flying.
Ag work, in my view, represnts a great opportunity to 'know' your aircraft. There's plenty of maneuvering involved which enables you to understand how the craft responds in a variety of scenarios and this, over time, will build your experience and grow your confidence.
Complacency is always a killer. It could be towards the end of the day and you are off to dust another strip and its the same old routine but .. every sortie, no matter how mundane or repititive must be embraced with an alert and conscious commitment to executing the task with absolute dedication to professionalism.
Last but by no means least, low-level ops means keeping your eyes constantly peeled (especially for the known obstructions). The mind has a tendency to 'relax' once a threat has been observed and which is why one needs to remain the more vigilant when it comes to familiar obstacles.
Being familiar with how to perform an auto from a low-level run or from a pedal turn are also techniques you need to be conversant with.
Keep your head down (metaphorically that is), be humble (in attitude) as well as confident in your commitent towards upholding professional standards in everything you do and you should be off to a good start.
Wishing you all the best.
S.