Please share with me any archival or flight history that might be available. Say a certain airline and flight number on a certain date, something like that, or even the 911 flights. Thanks, have a good day and God bless.
64 postings and you haven’t read the questions/answers yet? And it’s 9/11 or 9-11, not 911. 911 is an emergency phone number.
Aw that’s alright damiross, my day wouldn’t be complete without an a-- chewing from somebody. Like when I defoliated the wrong cotton field one time, I just hung my helmet in shame. OK, so you told me everything I either did wrong or didn’t do at all, so now do me the additional favor I first asked when I wrote about if you’ve a minute, and tell me where the stuff is of which you speak and of which I asked about. 
And you go right on and have you a good day suh. I’ll do likewise regardless of all this.
I told you where the answer to your question is. It’s in the Questions/Answers section located at the top right side of each forum page.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re under the influence of the defoliating material and tell you right out:
How far back does FlightAware’s airport history go when browsing through recent arrivals and departures?
Although FlightAware keeps the data forever, currently only the most recent 48-72 hours of activity are available for viewing.
Yes, this applies to airports but the principle is the same. You’re not going to get data that is very old. The most you will get is about 6-7 months.
You can also use (drum roll, please!) the “search” link to search for historical flights (i.e. flights in the past).
Mr. 1271 damiross you just too good to me!
OK, that’s the way you wanna play huh, so lemme get this straight. So far I can’t spell or punctuate to suit you, I was stupid to ask such an obvious question, I didn’t do my homework in this school of yours, I don’t know the most obvious things about this site that any fool should know, I don’t have as many posts as you and now I’m under the influence of defoliant. I’m sure you can conjure up many other faults you can pointedly point out. Gah, and all that for simply posing a question. What kinda place is this anyway? NO! Don’t answer that! I don’t wanna know! I’m already getting more than just a hint anyway on that.
Y’all told me early on I had to have a sense of humor to post on this board, and I’ve got one and remember well, or believe me I’d never have asked this question today. I don’t ask much around here if you wanna check. You, and you’re not alone here at this place, appear to believe the only way you can raise yourself is by lowering others. That’s sad, you should be able to make it on your own and have enough confidence and assurance that you could be nice to folks. Folks running scared they really don’t know that much and lack confidence and peace are the ugliest to others of all.
I’ve a parting question. How come you and some of yours get such a kick outta being ugly to folks when being nice would actually work better? For cryin’ out loud, after all, though you obviously don’t want me for a friend, I’m sure not your enemy. I wish you well, the very best. You might even like me if you knew me. I hope you’re the smartest and most intelligent guy out there. It’s fine with me if you’re even the best. So you can pee higher on the tree than the others, that’s fine with me too. I hope you get the most posts, the most of everything. You can even be the best pilot if you like, the best everythinggood. But even then you can be nice. “God don’t love no ugly”. And the number of posts? Hmm, they don’t really have much to do with that do they? Kinda like, well, almost immaterial, but if it makes you happy I’m for it.
Have you a good day, and accept my apologies for taking your valuable time with sheer stupidity on my part, and I apologize for the disappointment you feel in my schooling and education.
And now don’t you hesitate one moment to let me know if I can do anything for you. Though the chances are slight, I may even know something you don’t, and if you ask it of me I’d be very nice and helpful and I wouldn’t abuse you in any way, talk about you or run you down, for I can maintain my own without running you down, God being my helper. I’d help you in a heartbeat. You’re probably an alright guy that just doesn’t like folks going around asking questions. Shoot, I’ll give ye the benny fit of the doubt on that just like you did me.
Now you go on now, go on, and you be a good boy. Brush your teeth, wash behind your ears, and you be nice and show your manners to others now, you heah?
The best to you damiross, and God bless.
crickets crickets
Right. So.
I didn’t know you were an “Ag guy” Ponpilot, your Avatar always looked to me like a plane that made an “unscheduled” landing in a field of flowers, knocking them down. I didn’t see that it was actually spraying. (upon closer inspection it is clearly a Cessna 188 “Ag Truck” right?)
Bless your heart cfijames, good to hear from you again. Now, to be sure, I made a few unscheduled landings in a field of whatever I was over at the time, road, lane, turnrow, whatever. But thankfully, most of my 40 years and 25,000 plus hours was spraying, or planting, fertilizing the likes.
Actually, I did start my own business with a Cessna 188, but the AgWagon, the AgTruck came later. My first years though were in the Pawnee 150 gallon, 150 HP, fixed pitch prop, having missed the Stearmens a year. Later I fortunately switched to the Air Tractor, which the picture is. It came from their website in Olney Texas and Mr. Leland Snow is a good personal friend of mine. I started with the AT-301 and when I retired I had just bought an AT-602, 1,000 HP 630 gallon turbine plane with the P&W-60. It was “detuned” to 1,000 HP because of the 1,000 horsepower gearbox it had.
But you’re right on, that’s where I was, that’s what I did. It was good to and for me, put three boys through college, built the house bought some nice vehicles, boats etc., t’was a good life for me that I loved. Oh, I let some things slip up on me and in the old radial days of course they’d just quit every now and then. You hated to fly behind a newly overhauled one, or one that had been a long time since. Somewhere in the middle was a deal that lived and let you.
Take care, good to hear from you. God bless.
One last thing, I think that your answer was found in this same forum under the “pay” thread. It will cost you, but if there is a flight history, you can get it.
Hope you feel better now that you got it off your chest.
Geez! I hope I never get so thin-skinned as you.
I enjoy the hell out of reading some of your posts, but how come I always see http://www.movieprop.com/tvandmovie/reviews/independencedayquack1jpg.jpg in my head when I’m reading? 
Hey damiross! Nah, you don’t wanna be like me. Don’t even think about it. You doin’ good jes like you are! Besides, I thought I told you to be nice now! Hang in there tough with me. Everything’s gonna be alright. Say your prayers and go back to sleep now.
JHEM! Mercy me, how’d you get one of those old pictures of me? I didn’t know any of ‘em were still around! Thanks, it’s good to see it again, I lost mine. I’m tryin’ to think, I believe I had just landed by that old barn to tell them to stay away from that powerline on the ground I just cut and that the power company would be out soon to fix it. Dang good lookin’ guy there huh? Hmmm, wonder, wonder whatever did happen
Have a good one.
About being nice - there is one thing I neglected to mention. I do respect ag pilots. That has to be some of the toughest flying. I knew one ag pilot - and you can let me know if this is typical - who had one arm much stronger than the other due to the way he had to fly the aircraft!
Just lucky I guess.
It’s amazing how much you remind me of my old Cajun business partner down in Larose.
Whenever he went into his “aw shucks” good-ole-boy routine I’d lock the dog in the truck and grab my crotch and wallet! 
damiross I thank you, see, you’re a good guy! I knew it.
About the arm that is very true, and it’d be the right arm that’s stronger, the ‘stick’ arm. They’re physically tough to fly and of course the right arm and hand is full time stick and physical manual all the way, no hydraulics or help there. The left hand has to do all the rest, spray valve, hopper door, emergency dump God forbid, then all the regular flyin’ stuff like trim, flaps, power and all that. Then there’s spray monitors, pressure gauges and GPS stuff to operate along with watching the calibration, amount of material left in the hopper, keeping it lined up on the swath within a foot or two laterally, not to mention watching for the other crop dusters around and down in there with you and keeping up with the number of loads plus getting on the correct swath coming in the field. All that while keeping it off the ground or crop just a couple or three feet. If you have to think about any of it you’re out of luck, it’s gotta be natural, ain’t much time to think.
And when I started we used to do a lot of formation flying with two or more planes in the same field together working it together, but we pretty much got away from that in later years. You can understand that some of them ran together, and nearly always at the end of the job, “mopping up” (trimming up the ends and edges of the fields).
And oh, you want to be in the right field also! Don’t wanna be in the 2&1 cut when you’re supposed to be in the Gabe cut. The stick has controls on the top also for different things like smoke, the automatic flagger if you have one, radio push to talk, maybe a windshield washer, pump fan brake, stuff like that.
I was racing motorcycles once and got my left shoulder knocked out of place, and me being the only pilot I just had to work around it. That farmer ain’t gonna understand you don’t feel like doing it. I had a little routine that worked fine and all was well.
Getting in and out of them is even a trick for you need to back up the wing walk and throw a leg over through the window then swing down in the seat holding onto some tubing in the roof, there are no doors as such, just windows, a little like a race car. Almost always you opt for the right side of the plane because all the controls are on the left side, the right side is pretty clear of obstructions. The windows have quick removal hinge pins that can be operated from the inside or outside in case of a turnover in a crash or accident. There’s bars down the front of the windshield for powerlines, and a cable running to the top of the vertical fin from the cockpit to slide you under a powerline if you misjudge. Some of the earlier planes like the Cessnas had wire cutters on the landing gear leading edge, but most of the bigger later planes neither need nor have those.
The old guy that taught me back after the war told me as far as calibration of the material, he wanted me to run out of material at the end of the last swath in the field. I told him, well, when I run out, that’ll be the last swath! He allowed that wasn’t what he was talking about! You gotta make the material run out as the field does.
It’s a tough flying deal but like everything else you just get used to it and start trying to find something on the radio to listen to as you go. So many times you’re really overloaded in bad air and wind, in the worse flying time of day and year, hot (thank God for air conditioners later on), almost always rough and your helmet bangs regularly on the tubing somewhere, and the load is constantly changing and sloshing during the load near the ground most of the time going under powerlines when you can, looking into the sun and a windshield full of spray at times, around trees, then trying to climb them at the end. The time they’re really fun to fly is toward the end of the load but when they’re heavy they can be a real bear and you really can’t force them, if you try they hit really hard! They can carry quite a bit more than they weigh and they have a lot of power, these new good ones, but you know, you can overload a train. Then you cut fuel as close as you can, not wanting any more weight than necessary.
There’ve been a bunch of cases of ducks, buzzards or even smaller birds coming through the windshield getting into that crowded one man cockpit with you. You have to really watch for that and dodge those birds, they’ll do you in whether it’s the windshield or a wing’s leading edge or prop. You just don’t want to hit one, and these later planes can work around 175 mph or so and it’s quite a jolt hitting a bird with them. I had a friend who was knocked unconscious briefly coming out of a field when a buzzard came through his windshield but thank God he was trimmed for a slight climb and when he awakened he was well clear of the ground away from the field and the spray still on. But the bird was in there with him and it was a nasty mess not to mention everything else about it. We usually trim for a slight climb making it necessary to hold just a little forward pressure on the stick just in case of stuff like that.
Then the runways taking off and landing, you’ve really no choice. If there’s a 15 mph tailwind for takeoff and you’re loaded big time you just go, takes too much time to taxi to the other end loaded like that and it’s hard on the gear besides. Crosswinds can be worse but you’ve no choice with just the one runway. Add to that the runways are usually soft with grass and it takes a little of a soft field technique just to help with that.
Then we’ve operated off of remote strips where a plane or two would be loading on each end of the same runway and you work out a signal of sorts to let the other know when you’re taking off, blow smoke, raise some dust, stuff like that or which way each is gonna turn after liftoff if you’re both ready to go. Then you hope everybody’s paying attention and remember the deal. And you gotta fly it the whole time, tailwheel stuff all the way to the hangar, none of this automatic stuff as far as the flying goes.
The hope and plane design is based that you’ll be empty to land, but as you’d know it, there are times when Murphy comes around and something goes wrong right out of the chute and you’ve gotta turn around and land that thing loaded like that. You’ll get to the field and can’t get the pump to turn on, its brake will be stuck or something like that. And if you want to use that airplane and that gear again that day you’d better put it down like you would your baby, soft and easy, power, flaps etc., else you’ll do their spring gear in. And you usually need a lot more runway than you have. Then, you’ve used more fuel for that load and you figure if you need to pick up a little more of that or not. The reverse thrust of the turbines is mighty nice then but brakes for the most part are not up to such as that, they get so hot so quick that you’ve nothing much left sometimes but a faded out system.
But like I say, you just get used to it. What the ‘regular’ pilots do is just as amazing to us though, as I guess ours is to them. It’s whatever you get used to. It’s all I ever did except some aerobatics. Now, if you really wanted to scare me, and a lot of the other ag pilots, put them in what y’all fly and send 'em to “town” to land on concrete and asphalt runways with a choice of runway direction, talking to a tower around a bunch of other airplanes! We really don’t like that much for the most part, though I have worked and carried loads out of those places also, but a tower operation really slows you down when you’re trying to make so many loads an hour, sometimes around five or six. But we’d rather be at home out in the country on our own doing our thing.
Piper long ago kicked off the planes that came from the factory ready to work, their Pawnee. Up until then they were home built, mostly a Cub or a Stearman. Then Gruman kicked in with the double wing Ag Cat, then Leland Snow showed up with his “Snow”, which later became a Thrush, then he sold that and got into business with his improved designed Air Tractor in Olney Texas. He’s the neatest guy and runs a tremendous business. And, he just about single handedly took over the ag airplane market. It is by far the one you most often see in one model or the other, all over the world, and for good reason.
But by golly it’s flying, and you can reach out there and get you a thrill 'bout any time you want one. If God blesses you with living through it all, which He did me, it’s good money and you can raise a family nicely and educate them. Even get them some extra stuff. Couple of grand an hour sometimes more or less, but “sometimes” is the kicker, even though you don’t fly but six or seven hundred hours most years it’s still a small part of the year. So while you’re out there and at it, given the million dollar price tags of these things now, you’d better be doing good, else you’re out.
Have a good one. Thanks for calling.
One of my students a while back was the son of an old and bold cropduster in NJ. He was a natural stick, not surprisingly, and did very well. His dad was there to see him solo and was very proud. His parents must have had a pretty good sence of humor…
his name? Dusty.
His sister’s name? Sandy.
Yup, Dusty and Sandy, the cropduster’s kids.
I enjoyed hearing his stories of the Ag lifestyle…very interesting. His dad was offered a job for awesome pay in Columbia. He turned it down, I don’t blame him. The planes are armored like an A-10, but they fly at 50ft and 100kts spraying “crops” that the owners don’t want sprayed!
Good idea JHEM! 'Specially the wallet part! Gah, I might know him, or heard of him, I’m “Luzyannah” also. Most all our association meetings were in south Louisiana, Lafayette or Baton Rouge. Sometimes I have to ‘polygize’ fo da great state of Luzyannah just like old Earl Long did! But I can’t a bit more understand some a that Cajun talk down there than I could fly to the moon. 'Bout all I could do fishing down 'round Grand Isle was jes stan up there and pat ma foot 'n grin. 'Cause they Do have a good time down there! As you sound like you know. Take care.
cfijames, that’s a good story! I like those names. Yeah, “natural’s” the key, you need to be a pretty good “stick” because there’s so much more that’s going on. It’s gotta be that way else you won’t make it unless you’re mighty lucky and God says so. You just hope that if there is a Big Bang, God says you can stay.
But you just do something enough and you get used to it. I play piano too and folks say “oh how good”, how “talented” and all that stuff, but I tell them if you put a monkey on that bench as long as I’ve been on it and he’d be playing that piano too! It’s a little like that with flying that crop duster I reckon, if you live through it and sit there long enough, you’ll of necessity get the hang of it.
The old guy I loved so much that raised me in the business had a number of hours in his mind, below which you weren’t fit to darken the door of a hangar, after which, well you might make it. I couldn’t wait until I finally got to his magic number, 10,000 hours. That was long long ago but I remember asking him, “well Pappy, think I’ll make it now?” Then I went on for nearly three times that.
Gosh, I’m so glad none of my three boys wanted to do that! One of the most nerve racking things is watching somebody you’re trying to teach nearly do themselves in and you’re either in the other plane or on the ground. That’s a terrible feeling. I went through that with a kind of an orphan child we raised that had no home, and it was full enough for me.
We were flying formation together on a field one day that had a powerline through it and I was going under it, but I told him not to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with so he was going over and it was fine with me. The thing about going over though is judging your gear and all and you lose sight of it momentarily. So he called me on the radio and asked about going under. I told him if he felt comfortable go ahead for I’d been doing it the whole load, just to watch me. I was the lead plane and had turned to watch him and he got so excited about trying to clear the line he almost hit the ground. After he got settled back down I called him back on the radio and mentioned to him that one problem was gonna be 'bout like the other on that. But he got it after that and all was well. But you don’t need to be exciting them on the dang radio when he’s already up against the wall so to speak. But I tell you, you talk about nerve racking, that’s trying to teach somebody else to do it, especially somebody you love like that.
But by golly, after he crashed a few and by God’s grace he lived through them, he eventually caught on and I’m so proud of him, he’s doing a good job and yep, raising another family doing that silly crop dustin’. He got him some scars and burns but he made it. Good boy.
cfijames you’re right on the planes for spraying dope, additionally many are armed and one of the two guys handles that in the two seater versions of those.
Folks might be surprised that’s not just in South America either, for even in for example, Arkansas, when we go up to fertilize timber some of those good-ole-boys in the backwoods don’t understand and think the pilot has either seen something they don’t want them to or, are trying to kill it. All that’s going on there is fertilizing timber, but you have to try and convince them of it, which ain’t so easy given how itchy some of them are. I’ve been shot at before and it’s a poor feeling in something as helpless as a crop duster plane so low and easy to hit along with nothing with which to defend yourself.
As well I do know!
The boy (CFIJames) was stuck in KMCB last night and couldn’t even get any bugs. I felt so sad for him.
My partner’s folks were about 58th generation Cajun/Black from around Lafourche. I had the good fortune to have been invited several times to family fests, the point of which apparently was to eat, drink and dance until you passed out.
His Mamer and Granmer made me their pet Yankee and did their best to add several hundred extra pounds to my usually sleek frame every time I visited. Not that I fought them much!
I’m actually salivating thinking about their shrimp and crawfish etouffee!
I want to thank you for that great writeup about the life of a 'duster, some of the best reading I’ve experienced here in the Forums.
James