Hi Matt,
I hope you are really giving us a wind up WRT your preferences to not wear protective clothing. Just in case you are not, may I offer some friendly advice from my experience of more hours and years than I care to remember or will admit to and training and managing more pilots that I can remember. And yes we do ag as well as all low level stuff on our AOC but mustering / shooting etc is 95% of my profile, if there is one away from a fridge.
In our industry and I am sure even in little ol' Nebraska, you will notice that an accident that results in serious burns and facial or head injuries because you were not wearing helmets etc, could result in no insurance for your self. That's nasty, apart from holes in the head resulting from lack of protection, apart from the one that you have, would be even nastier.
As far as experience goes I can tell you that Savoia and other posters here are uttering wise words. Pilots become used to manipulating their machines in, err, the routine stuff when doing routine work at around 300 hours. That is when Fixed wing pilots and routine work pilots like yourself enter their dangerous stage.
Rotary pilots who consistantly do a highly demanding manipulative sort of work, such as mustering, long lining or any of the other hundreds of jobs that we do with these damm things, become really smart arses at anywhere between 900 to 1200 hours. That is when I take them up and do violent T/R failures from in the hover at 1200 ft AGL., and other little nasties to really bring them down a peg or three if they need it.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate your candour, but of course you will not be at any stage to understand what I am talking about yet. I sincerely hope that your CP is reading your posts and will help you understand some of the good advise that you might glean from many who post on these pages.
You have a nice bit of gear there and every indication is that also would be a reflection of the maintenance of the aircraft. However, good maintenance aside being mechanical they are fallacious, be warned failure will occur when you least expect it.
Full protective clothing is a must to give you any sort of protection in case it bloody well brews up and your legs all of a sudden don't work and you can't get out even though one hand is still working and you can't undo the seat belt. I note that on your shirt I couldn't see any sleeves when I blew your photograph up a bit. I hope for your sake it is not of the plastic variety.
As far as chemical burn is concerned, for sure the stuff that our guys over here use nowadays, is a lot less harmful in most applications than it used to be, something to do with not spraying human food with carcinogens eh? That might be the least of your worries, but I am surprisied that your handlers are not wearing more protection, surely the state laws there would require it which they should see when you and they get their poison handling tickets.
WRT to full clobber and high quality saftey gear, there is a couple of good threads through these pages that you can use to study up on.
However, I sincerely wish to impress upon you to forget about your conceited attitude about how hot it is. That is absolute and utter drivel. How f'n hot do you think it is for your contry men in Iraq or back in the jungles of Vietnam? Just ask one of them if you are game, about your attitude and whether they would gallivant around in shorts and no socks. Be expected for a blast if not a good biff under the ear or a number ten on the backside, if they even care to pass the time with you.
I indeed work a lot closer to the equator than you and I wear full length clobber at all times, at least heavy cotton or wool and helmet.
You will go a long way toward gaining some semblence of respect here-abouts by posting a photograph of yourself and staff being suitably attired for impact, fire and poison protection.
What I am saying is chicken feed to what some the dudes here who have thousands of hours doing ag work may say to you.
Unless of course it is a wind up in which case I will unreservedly apologise. BTW where did your sight bar gear come from, out of the ark?
cheers tet