Flying Low Is Flying High As Demand for Crop-Dusters Soars

In a tough job market for the aviation industry, demand for one niche is booming: crop-dusting.

The training is worthwhile because "aerial application" -- the name many pilots prefer to "crop-dusting" -- is a hot field, thanks in part to the recent farming boom. Crop-dusters spread fertilizer, insecticides, fungicides and weed killers. Some farmers even seed from the air. Skilled agricultural, or "ag," pilots typically make from $60,000 to $100,000 a year, and those who own spraying businesses can earn much more. Salaries for pilots at small airlines start at $20,000 and rarely get anywhere near six figures.

Airlines are struggling, canceling routes, cutting pay and laying off pilots. He inquired about a co-pilot job with a regional airline but lost interest after learning the starting pay was $22,000.

News reports in the aftermath of a commuter plane crash in Buffalo, N.Y., earlier this year made the public more widely aware of the low pay and poor working conditions that have become the rule for many airline pilots. Fewer people are taking flying lessons, getting private pilot licenses or buying planes. Even military fighter pilots are losing out as drones get more missions.

Aerial application, in contrast, is on the upswing. Hours flown by crop-dusters rose 29% from 2003 through 2007, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. While most aircraft makers are in a slump, leading aerial-application manufacturer Air Tractor Inc., in Olney, Texas, is cranking out more planes than it did last year.

Pilots are drawn to crop-dusting not only for the money, but also for the chance to be their own bosses and to do the kind of low-altitude flying and stunt like maneuvers one wouldn't dream of performing in a big jet.

The ranks of ag pilots have been thinning for years as experienced fliers get older and retire. So the National Agricultural Aviation Association, the industry's main trade group, is using the field's newfound attraction to recruit younger pilots.

Largely because of high cost of entry, about the only way for newcomers to get a job is through apprenticeships with established spraying operations. Aspiring agriculture pilots typically start at the bottom and often quit before they get a chance to fly.

To be a good crop-duster, a pilot has to be intimate enough with the airplane that flying it becomes second nature. Knowing which controls to move and how to coordinate them precisely helps him feel at home in almost any type of plane. But flight schools no longer teach those basic "stick and rudder" skills.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Welsh, 8/14/9