Stereotypes aside, crop-dusters are special

There's the wild-eyed barnstormer in a biplane who buzzes in low over houses and onto the field — scattering chickens and other livestock — to deliver his payload of agricultural product.

Or take actor Randy Quaid's portrayal of the disheveled, drunken crop-duster who claimed to have once been abducted by spacemen in the alien-invasion movie "Independence Day."

Crazy? Well, maybe a little, said Matt Fieldgrove of Tri-Rotor Ag Services in Somerton.

"You have to be a little to do this," Fieldgrove said.

"It started out with barnstormers, but we've evolved much over the years," Fieldgrove said. "It's a big business."

And in places such as Yuma County, with acres upon acres of farmland that needs planting, fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides, it's an important one.

Fieldgrove said that without crop-dusters, farmers would have a hard time applying the chemicals necessary to keep crops healthy and abundant. Given the important role Yuma plays in providing vegetables and other crops for the nation, Fieldgrove said crop-dusters are integral to the country's strength, prosperity and national defense.

Tri-Rotor Ag Services has four single-engine airplanes and four helicopters to apply chemicals to the farms of Yuma County. But beyond the aircraft, the operation consists of chemical mixers, ground spotters, mechanics and office administrative personnel who keep the business going.

"We have to let them know what's across the street," spotter Cesar Jauregui said.

The aircraft spray in the late afternoon or after sundown after the teams of agricultural workers have left the fields for the day.

With 780-horsepower turboprop engines, the airplanes are specially designed for this type of work. The planes come in low over the fields and sometimes need to dive suddenly to clear power lines that border the farms, drop their payloads and then pull up at the last minute to avoid cables at the other end of the field — or buildings and traffic.

Fieldgrove says it's not aerobatics.

"All our techniques are crop-dusting," Fieldgrove said. "All the turns — it just comes from the experience of sitting in the seat."

The industry is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and state departments of agriculture.

To become a crop-duster, a pilot must get a private pilot's license, then a commercial and commercial chemical applicator aviator's license. But beyond that, they need agricultural experience, Fieldgrove said.

"I grew up on a farm in Nebraska," said Fieldgrove, who has been crop-dusting for 20 years. "It's hard to get into this business because of the level of experience you need. You need to know what chemicals to use, and you need to know farming."

It's a far cry from crop-dusting's infancy. Crop-dusting can be traced back to 1921, when U.S. Army pilots began using biplanes to apply pesticides to fields.

"They started out by just pouring it over the side," Fieldgrove said.

Even early on, farmers and pilots saw crop-dusting's advantages over common ways to apply agricultural chemicals and plant fields.

Fieldgrove said that sometimes the industry takes a bad rap because of the chemicals used. But he said Tri-Rotor and other companies take great pains to make sure nobody is in the fields when they spray. Also, consider that chemicals are mixed with water or other benign substances to dilute them, and they are often applied at a rate of 3 to 5 ounces per acre, he said.

Still, since people sometimes stop along U.S. Route 95 to watch an impromptu air show, Fieldgrove implores the public to do so at a distance.

It does take a special breed of pilot to handle the gut-wrenching maneuvers, timing and finesse it takes to be a crop-duster, Fieldgrove said.

"Everybody in this business is just a little bit different, and that helps," he said.