got some new motivation

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External_Ebb5922@reddit

As someone who in a niche career.

Cropdusting is a ton of fun. Develops stick and rudder skills

If you are crazy enough, you can find some pretty wild strips guys fly off of.

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How did you get into this? I’m currently very close to my ppl and just trying to think of the steps I need to take to get there. I would plan on doing cropdusting until eventually doing wildland firefighting.

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External_Ebb5922@reddit

Where are you located??

Flying is a very small piece of it

The main pathway is to find an operator around you. Go meet them in person (not over the phone, these guys like to shake hands), and act interested. They may take you on as a loader during their busy season. I will warn you, loading is tough. It was 5am to 10pm everyday for about three months. But, the flying hours are about 6am to 9pm, so not much better, lol.

You load for a couple years, and hopefully that operator has a spot open up in one of his airplanes. If not, he may have other guys he will recommend you too. Ag aviation is very much a who you know business. This is both a positive and a negative! Word travels fast, if you do a bad job) It takes a lot of high quality work before an operator trusts you with his airplane.

Flying part of it: A solid amount of guys I know are private and Commercial, no instrument rating.

Tailwheel time is king. It doesn’t matter how much nose wheel time you have, operators look for tailwheel. Totals would be somewhere in ballpark of 500Total and 100-250 tailwheel.

There are ag specific flight schools you can attend, but that’s more of a conversation to have with an operator, once you get established and have a pathway to flying.

Long story short: Find an operator, work as hard as you can. Show up early, stay late, be incredibly professional, be a good human being. Lying about stuff will be one of fastest ways out of industry. Flying will come.

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chupchupandaway@reddit

Thank you for your response! Great information.

Im located in Tucson, AZ. I’ll research more about the loader position. I’m currently a business owner in the film industry and work has been slow so I’ve been looking for another line of work to bring in some income. Even if it isn’t what I was making when business was good.

I’ll start looking for local operators and see if I can swing by to meet and talk to them about how to get involved. I’m definitely a hard worker and committed to anything I get into. Do it right or not at all has always been my mantra. Once I get my private I do want to get some training in tailwheel because I know that’s the typical configuration for this kind of flying. Still just making my way through the early phases here but the PPL is just around the corner as soon as I’m confident with the knowledge tests.

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External_Ebb5922@reddit

There is a Facebook group called “Rookie, I want to be an Ag Pilot”. That is an incredible amount of valuable information.

There is an operator out of there for both firefighting and ag, Rutledge Aviation I believe? Would be a good place to start.

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Accurate-Assist3147@reddit (OP)

eavesdropping in your conversation here. plenty of agricultural community where I live so thanks for the info

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chupchupandaway@reddit

Thank you! I’ll look into both of those resources now. Really appreciate you taking time to answer me here. I was having a hard time finding a company that isn’t using drones or helicopters primarily.

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Accurate-Assist3147@reddit (OP)

cropdusing and aerial firefighting are the two that catch my eye

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External_Ebb5922@reddit

Feel free to DM me with any questions. I can answer questions about cropdusting, and I can attempt to help with limited knowledge of aerial firefighting

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dark_troy_10@reddit

I flew in the military, got out and ran a business. Sold that business and have a renewed interest in flying more than point a to b... that is until I remembered the sacrifice that takes.

Are you willing to move? Do you mind being away from home for extended periods of time? Do you want to have a family? Do you want to keep that family? If you have kids, are you ok with the life they'll have if you die? Are you young and can handle the physical demands?

It takes a certain amount of crazy to do those jobs which I use to have and just don't anymore. If you think that's you, I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty awesome. But you will find that most people who do high risk flying don't do it forever.

Here are some options.

Military Crop Dusting Firefighting Backcountry Humanitarian

Helicopter flying opens up a bunch of stuff. Oil rigs, medevac, law enforcement.

If the sacrifice seems too much, I think your first idea of doing backcountry cub flying sounds pretty sweet.

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Accurate-Assist3147@reddit (OP)

I thought about military but don't think it's really the right route for me. I am 20 and single so I have that going for me. as far as physical demands I'm good there. I mountain bike, backcountry snowmobile, and do muay thai a couple nights a week. I have about a year left in my apprenticeship till I can get my plumbing license so I'm not doing anything immediately anyway. just looking for options right now. I do still plan on picking up a cub no matter what but want to know what carrers would fit me. aerial firefighting definitely stands out and I live in northwest Montana so there's no shortage of wild fires.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

If you have an opportunity repeat that engine out exercise, you might give the new Glide Advisor feature in ForeFlight a try.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

Well, since you take off at one airport, and land at a different one, isn’t mostly Point A to Point B flying?

There are many opportunities for a flying career outside of airline pilot.

Some internet searching using one of the AI agents will present a list of choices.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

flying today is some high and variable winds reminded me why I'm doing all this. CFI pulled engine power for a simulated engine failure (as one does during flight training). I had plenty of altitude, and this was nothing new, so I kept my cool and spotted a small grass strip that was well within my glide distance. fortunately, it was a public strip, so i just decided to go all the way in and land the plane. I put the plane into a slip, which somehow just came naturally. I've never actually been taught how to do it. I just watched someone in a tri pacer doing laps one day. first time landing on grass, second time flying a right pattern, first time slipping a plane, then fighting winds in the pattern for a few more laps. this is the kind of exciting shit and what most people would probably consider unnecessary risk that I absolutely love. I got into all this with the goal of buying a little cub and flying some backcountry strips for fun, but now I think I want some kind of exciting career, or at least a side gig doing this fun stuff. what kind of jobs are out there that are more than point A to point B airport flying?

also, I should probably not my cfi is a backcountry pilot, and we were within his personal minimums by a long shot. non of this was inherently dangerous, just more than most low hour student pilots are comfortable with.

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