My first venture linking Image Event to here, so hope it all works ok.  Photos of some of the airplanes and helos that have worked in our neighborhood this summer.

Helo is nice in patches with trees and ditches, etc.  I think spray pattern is just fine with either.  Most of those were taken in the first part of July when we had just caught close to an inch of rain and stuff really looked to have good potential in this area.  Gone downhill a lot in the 3 to 4 weeks since unfortunately.

ANR natural gas pipeline is a couple miles from my house, they have a pumping station here.

Bins and grain legs.  I try to go out of my way to find unique views!

Clay, wow those are awesome shots they are all very crisp and great angles.   What kind of camera do you have??     I have an old Canan and it doesn't do very well with action photos, maybe its me, anyways I'm thinking of getting a better camera for motion pics what would you recommend without having to sell the farm??          Thankyou!

Coochief, I have a Nikon D5100 and these are using a Nikon 70-300 lens.  It is just about the minimum for decent aviation stuff, but I am just learning and this setup fits my budget for the time being.  And "cheap" enough that I don't feel bad packing it around in a tractor.  Getting motion blur and making the props and rotors look right takes slower shutter speeds from 1/100-1/200 of a second, and panning the camera to keep the aircraft crisp is the tough part.  Thanks to digital I can trashcan lots of junky stuff and it doesn't cost me a dime!  It's paradoxically actually a lot easier to shoot fast movers where you can ramp the shutter speed up to 1/1000th or faster and freeze the action.

Thanks Clay,   I checked into your camera looks like it will take about an acre or two of corn to buy one of those...lol.         Great Pics you must hit a few Airshows as well how were the Blue Angels? 

Curt, that is smart.  There is a lot of slightly used stuff out there that can be bought very well with a little research.  When I pulled the plug on my D5100 there was a $200 rebate on a second Nikon lens with it, and I had a credit card that was giving 5% cash back on Amazon purchases at the time.  Careful shopping and a bit of patience can go a long ways.  A DSLR that is one model behind the latest and greatest will still give you vastly more capability than a high end point/shoot for not much more $, and the lenses can always be kept if you upgrade the body later.

     Curt and Clay, thanks I will check out Ebay but will probably end up browsing through them in Billings next time I go to the big city.      Curt, I don't raise corn so maybe a couple acres of wheat this year, huh**  Ron, sorry my reply below may have seemed kinda direct but I sure wish I had A/C at times, a company does make all plexiglass doors but they are not STC'd therefore they would be great untill you get checked out.   I've seen guys cut out the bottom section of the door and put plexigass insert in too.           
    And to limit posts, Poverty Acres, Respectfully!     Those big 802's are great at a sweet Million+ dollars and do eat a ton of country up in a day on big fields.   Meanwhile you could own 2 1/2 helos for that price that can each pack 100 gals.  Then when spray season is over drop the tank and go do other things, I fly powerlines, fire, pack X-mas trees, predator control,gather cattle, etc...,    lil hard to do much other than spray with an 802.  And here up North our spray season is real short.  Not hard to find work for a helo either I've noticed.   But one of those big FireBoss' would be fun!

    Cool, Sounds like quite an operation!   I love airplanes started in a SuperCub 20+ yrs ago.    I was able to fly with a pair of 802's, one 602 and a 502 in Indiana on the Fungicide run this summer.  They kept me busy and gave me my quota, but could not get the planes enough work,   most of what I did was in the windmills though, one field I did was 1219 acres.   Did 1650 ac. on my last day out there and was done by mid afternoon, but I could see in the right running nothing would touch what those big AirTractors can punch out in a day, but this year they couldn't keep them busy, I was getting more acres alot of days.   You ever come to MT hollar and I'll show you around my area!

you are disappointing me with no more photos of the flight crew...  Thought you were really on the right track with that refueling probe a week or two ago lol.  I know helos can't refuel from a 135, but this Mudhen crew got about as good of an eyeful as can be NAT-friendly...

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LOL.   alright heres one helo girl..

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Great work Clay! You must've spent a few hours chasing/climbing/waiting?

I'm surprised the Jet Ranger sprays w/the door off. I'd have thought they would have a/c running for that job?

Ron, I knew when they were running on us, and all the rest of those were taken within a 2 mile radius of my house.  For a week or so there when it was pretty busy I just kept the camera at the farm with me and whenever somebody started circling a field getting ready to run it I would jump on 4-wheeler and go to whatever looked like the best spot to get up high or get in front of the sun.  Not sure about the doors on that bird, but those guys were out of Louisiana so I assume they know a thing or 2 about running when it's warm.  It was certainly hotter than the hubs of hell that day, I know the tender driver was sitting in the truck with the AC cranked in between fills!

Clay

Thanks for info. Sounds like you were lucky on timing. When they sprayed for us, I didn't know schedule & by the time I'd see or hear a plane, he was done or leaving. My "elevation" was going to be the back of a pickup. Not a whole lot of spraying around us this year. Most said "let's wait for a rain....". In most cases, it didn't happen.

I did about half my beans and no corn.  A chem dealer I work with told me I think that they had 40,000 acres on the books originally to get flown on and they ended up only doing about 6,000.  It got less and less enticing to spend money just about every day going through July.

    Theres a couple reasons everybody fly's jetrangers with the doors off.   For one any moving air feels good, most Ag helo's do not have AC  as it weighs 40+ lbs that equates to 5 gallons of product everyload and at 2 gal. work thats 2.5 acresX10$ = 25$ a load times hundreds of loads a season gets kind spendy to have A/C.         
    Next and mostly as you can seen in this photo,   Landing on a little pad with the doors on does not allow much visibility of your skids, and since time is money the quicker you can get plopped down on the pad and get loaded the better,  with the doors off its like take candy from a baby.   
    Lastly,   the guy who mentioned PPE.  Your kinda right but you try your damndest' to stay out of the spray mist on your way back through.  That is why when it is dead calm I will spray everyother pass then come back through my skip passes to finish up, this skipping a swathwidth allows some room to stay out of the mist.   Also you always spray a field so that you move into the wind (upwind) each pass, if the breeze is steady lets say 5-6mph, then I will spray back to back passes.  So really you should never be sucking in pesticide.  Need to really watch it with Insecticide,  I'm not saying I've never taken a hit you damn sure know when you screwed up, dirty's up the windshield in a hurry and your lips go to tingling...         
     Heres a pic door off....

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I figured visibility getting on the pad might be part of it coochief.  I've never seen an ag rig running doors that I can remember.  The Blues never disappoint, although in the airshow venue I kinda prefer the single ship demos as military performers.  Those guys are very approachable and easy to talk to.  Not that the Blues or Tbirds aren't super people, but their day is so scripted that you can't just walk up and talk to them.  Some of those guys will go the extra mile behind the scenes to do cool things for the fans too, which is kinda neat.

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Thanks for explanations CooChief. I understand.

Ron