Crop Dusting

[the goon]

Does anyone have any advice on a UK pilot getting some work as a crop dusting pilot?? I`ve a degree in agriculture and am finishing off my CPL and thinking of doing some crop spraying. I`ve talked to a couple of schools who offer the ag pilot course and they say 100% chance of employment etc, we`ve all heard that before! So my question is what are the chances of securing some work??

[FWA NATCA]

I think one hurdle that you need to leap first is obtaining the proper visa. Imagine the looks on their face when in the block "Reason for Visit", you put "Crop Duster Pilot". Talk about alarm bells.

Mike
NATCA FWA

[yachtpilot]

I looked into this a couple of years back and I doubt that the situation has improved since then....My research showed that the days of year round flying are just about gone...if you have a green card for the States and then are willing to follow the seasons around the world you might be able to make it work but without the Green Card it would be next to impossible...the experienced people I spoke to were flying 6 to 7 months of the year... the rest of the time they helped out on farms...and these people had all the contacts and many years of experience....
Good luck but don't believe everything you here ....I was told much the same from a well known school in Oklahoma

[George Semel]

Ag spraying is tough work. I did it for five years when I started out. I spent two years driving a nurse truck, Helicopters. Nobody is going to let you just come out of one of the schools and jump into a AgWagon or AgCat. You start out as ground crew, and you work and work hard. Along the way you learn the business and get some stick time. Its a very specialized field. Take California for example, you need a State Applicator Lic. That test is a bear, you can spend a year studying for it. The Idea that you can go to one of those 20 hour ag schools and then jump into a pawnee and in a year build enough time to go to the airlines is bunk. Most operators, will hire you with out Ag school. What you need is tail wheel time, and a Commercial Drivers Lic with tanker and Haz-Mat. A CDL will get you in the door quicker than going to Rigg's or who ever. A lot of the Ag schools have gone out of business the last decade or so. But if you get in, and stick with it, the pay is very good. But like a lot of things, its a hit or miss kind of thing. You don't see the job openings either and the ones you do see are looking for some heavy Ag time. I know one Ag Company that has hired its last pilot in 1981! The good ones and the ones that pay the best, pilot turn over is almost none existant. All the best jobs are found by word of mouth. Every now and again, a company in florida hires Ag pilots to fly Turbine AgCats. They spray herbacide in Columbia . Ag flying like the Spotting tuna is a limited thing, not like it was thirty or forty years go.

[the goon]

Thanks for that. Thought you had to have some sort of Ag sign off to spray, however did hear that from the schools. I presume that if I get a CDL and a green card (Somehow) I`d have a better chance if I went to ag school?? The next question is which school??

[DIVINE WIND]

Howdy Goon,
George Semel makes it sound like it is....Hard. The good old days are over. It really is a career nowadays and not a way to build hours as it used to be. I spent 5 years in the industry. It is hard work, a small industry and you gotta impress first time. Most spray pilots are country boys and they get the good seats by having good mechanical aptitude. You will be doing all types of different work, non-flying e.g. Changing the clutch on a truck, building the boss a new fence, anything. I have done alot of wierd stuff. Once you get experienced and established, you will work the seasons and do well.
If you really want to do it, go for it, but be wary of those Ag flight schools on the net, they are full of sh*t. You only walk straight into a job if times are booming and there is a shortage, there is no shortage at the moment and times are not booming. But if you have great connections or.....you have loaded for some time and your employer has sent you off to get trained then you got it made.
All of this is just from what I have seen and experienced. I wish I was still doing it sometimes, it is great flying and not the "yeeha" bullsh*t" that people make it out to be. Cowboys don't last long.
As far as green cards go, let me tell you, don't believe flight schools. Ask a lawyer.
Good luck.
DW