A Second World War-era plane hurtles barely five metres above the ground at nearly 170 km/h. There is little room for error at this speed and height.
This is the job of a crop duster. A small group of students have gathered at the Yorkton Regional Airport to become certified.
“It's kind of like a video game—you’re always aiming for that 100 per cent,” Jeff Kiss, a former flight instructor said. “And that's something that drives me to be better, knowing that I was two feet off, three feet off [my mark].”
He said he wants to become an aerial applicator, the proper name for the job, because he is looking for a challenge.
Crop dusting requires nearly absolute precision. In the classroom Kiss practices on a flight simulator. The GPS-enabled computer tells him if he is on target or not.
The Piper PA-25 plane Kiss will fly sat outside on the runway. It’s a small, single-person plane equipped with an apparatus for delivering a variety of cargo.
“We can apply fertilizer, we can seed with the aircraft--we can do just about anything that can be done on the ground with the aircraft,” Miccar Aerial flight instructor Devan Yahelnitsky said.
Yahelnitsky said he puts his students through a lot of safety training. On Tuesday they practiced dumping their cargo shortly after take-off, should it ever be necessary to divert disaster.
“It's kind of like 'huh?’ I can't believe they trust me to do this,” student pilot Brady Bradeau said. “It’s kind of a weird feeling, that’s for sure.”
The course requires 40 hours of instruction and flight time. With the recent good weather Yahelnitsky said the pilots will graduate in a few days.
Some of the pilots have jobs lined up after they graduate. The ones who don’t are hoping to land one soon.
