AG Flying in Lincolnshire.

[GLIDER 90]

Hello All

Having lived in Lincolnshire all my life I consider myself lucky to have seen a vast amount of different types of aviation. Ranging from the V Force to the Lightning, Phantom, Buccaneer, Canberra. etc But one aspect of aviation I was lucky to see was Aerial Cropspraying many a time I would be near a field to see a PA-25 Pawnee, or Grumman Ag-Cat, or a Hiller 12e or Bell 47 helicopter spraying under the power cables. They were the best times of aviation for me. ( I'm aware of the health & safety issues, but still enjoyed seeing it done.)

Glider 90

[FAStoat]

Those were indeed brilliant times.there were several up near Boston that for various reasons were very interesting.fFrst of all Lyndsay Walton appeared on the Air Display circuit with a ME108,then Alcyon,and finally a Corsair,all out of the proceeds of his Crop Spraying Company.John Allison had the charge of the Corsair,but I did get an invitation to come up to Southend ,but some cretin tried to taxi it in coarse pitch and promptly seized it as the oil was drained from the rear bank.Big Radials are shut down in coarse pitch so the piston in the prop dome is within so kept free from corosion.I seem to remember he was a creamed off QFI from Chivenor,and became a leading light in the Current Warbird scene.Anyway another Crop Sprayer was Ken Harness who ran Boston Aero Spraying.Colin Woods and I flew up to his place as he had self built a S1 Pitts Special GBBOH.He had never flown one,so Colin ,who was leading Rothmans at the time,and I had just completed the 15 hours required to certifyPitts S1C GAXNZ,which Mike Findlay had begun with Manx Kelly.Colin test flew it,and he checked out Ken Harness in a S2.This later became Phil Meesons mount as Ken was too busy to enjoy it.Happy days never to be repeated,but some lovely tales of ferrying Agcats etc from Brendan OB over the odd beer.Excellent types like Noel Kinvig come to mind from the Lincolnshire CropDusters,who i met hilariously in Saudi in a Beech 18 Volpair.Great guys Great times indeed.

[GLIDER 90]

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

Glider 90

[astir 8]

Back (way back) when I was a student I worked for a couple of summers for Findus frozen foods in Grimsby.

As I was working one field, a Pawnee appeared and sprayed the adjacent potato field. It had tall trees at one end, high tension cables across the middle and low tension cables and a farm at the far end.

So it was a steep dive and pull out to get the spray on as close to the trees as possible, level out at 6 feet, under the high tension cables and hard up with spray off to miss the low tension cables or the farm buildings. On one run he just flew through the gate and through the farmyard!

I was told that they were all French pilots that year (1970 or so). Magnificent flying but all stopped now by environmental regulations and high capacity terrestrial sprayers working in tramlines.