Early yesterday evening, the dogs started barking at something. Went to see what they were barking at. I didn't see anything, but after a couple seconds I heard it. The distinct sound of a radial aircraft engine. I instantly knew what the plane was and where it was. Grumman Ag-Cat spraying the huge corn field across the road.
So, I shoved my feet into my sneakers and headed out the door with the plan on crossing the road and standing at the edge of the field to watch the Ag-Cat at work. On the way up the drive way, I saw that our landlord was out in the veggie garden pulling weeds. My plan to get as close as possible to the sight and sound of a radial flier went out the window...there was simply no way I could allow an 83 year old man pull all those weeds by himself. I changed direction to the garden and began pulling weeds. I could still hear the sweet sounds of that Pratt and Whitney 9-cylinder radial as the crop duster made low swoops across the back edge of the corn field. I knew that before long he would be hitting the front part of the field...which would bring him right over the veggie garden and directly over my head as the plane pulled up from the field and climbed over a stand of trees along the road. And before long, there it was, roaring over head, climbing steeply, at full power. The sound of those 9 glorious cylinders thumping just a couple hundred feet from my ears was almost heavenly. As I helped Glenn, the landlord, pull nearly 10 5-gallon buckets worth of weeds from his tomato and pepper plants, the Ag-Cat flew overhead at least a dozen times. No more than 200 feet over my head. I could not make out the tail number, but the paint job is seared into my brain....and I think I need to pull my partially completed paint template for the Ag-Cat off my external HD, finish it up, and apply the scheme to it. The fuselage is yellow with a medium blue stripe. Wings are white with yellow airelons. Probably not the prettiest plane in the sky, but this was a working plane and not a hangar queen.
Once he was done with the corn field across the road, he moved on the the huge corn field just over the hill from us. All in all, the Ag-Cat was in my airspace for at least 45 minutes.
OBIO
So, I shoved my feet into my sneakers and headed out the door with the plan on crossing the road and standing at the edge of the field to watch the Ag-Cat at work. On the way up the drive way, I saw that our landlord was out in the veggie garden pulling weeds. My plan to get as close as possible to the sight and sound of a radial flier went out the window...there was simply no way I could allow an 83 year old man pull all those weeds by himself. I changed direction to the garden and began pulling weeds. I could still hear the sweet sounds of that Pratt and Whitney 9-cylinder radial as the crop duster made low swoops across the back edge of the corn field. I knew that before long he would be hitting the front part of the field...which would bring him right over the veggie garden and directly over my head as the plane pulled up from the field and climbed over a stand of trees along the road. And before long, there it was, roaring over head, climbing steeply, at full power. The sound of those 9 glorious cylinders thumping just a couple hundred feet from my ears was almost heavenly. As I helped Glenn, the landlord, pull nearly 10 5-gallon buckets worth of weeds from his tomato and pepper plants, the Ag-Cat flew overhead at least a dozen times. No more than 200 feet over my head. I could not make out the tail number, but the paint job is seared into my brain....and I think I need to pull my partially completed paint template for the Ag-Cat off my external HD, finish it up, and apply the scheme to it. The fuselage is yellow with a medium blue stripe. Wings are white with yellow airelons. Probably not the prettiest plane in the sky, but this was a working plane and not a hangar queen.
Once he was done with the corn field across the road, he moved on the the huge corn field just over the hill from us. All in all, the Ag-Cat was in my airspace for at least 45 minutes.
OBIO