I’ve had some phone calls with Ag operators. I mostly found they wanted a long term commitment involving at least a year on the ground loading to learn how it all works. Just not at the point in my life that I’m willing to burn a year doing that, but if you know of folks who don’t require that I’m interested for sure!
Be careful what you wish for. The ag world is not too much different than any other flying vocation in some ways, and a world different in others. And by the same token the same can be said about prospective employees.
You are at a fortunate point in your life where dancing with anything with wings and moving from seat to seat is fun and pays the bills. A reputable flying service has commitments itself, and therefore must hire folks that are committed. There are operators, and seasons that will be the exception to this rule, learning which of those is reasonable and prudent can make the difference between having a good run, being safe and making a buck or two..... or.... not. and the 'not' may not end well.
To really be fair, when someone offers you a flying job, you might just ask yourself why he did that?
If your skill and knowledge levels are commensurate with the position, then you were probably the best candidate he had available. That's pretty simple. OTOH, If your skill set or knowledge was not, and he offered the position anyhow then there has to be more to the story. Maybe you came across as an outstanding individual, and he is willing to invest
his time in to you to build those skills or knowledge. In return he is hoping for some sort of commitment to recoup on his investment. That's fair for the both of you, and a thought to consider.
But maybe that wasn't the case at all, maybe he just had a fleet of clapped out junk that a seasoned veteran of the field wouldn't stand under if it was in the air? Or maybe his back was against the wall to fill the seat and he felt forced in to rolling the dice on an experienced or unskilled applicator. Neither of these scenarios is where you want to find yourself, but unfortunately for most of us this is where we find our break.
Which brings me to my next point, perhaps more than most flying careers (careers, because that's what the good seats are) flying good ag seats are really not flying jobs. They are pesticide application positions, and your tool of the trade happens to be an airplane. That sounds like a game of semantics, but it really is not. What a grower wants is results. He doesn't care what your turn looks like, what the ride is like in the cockpit, or what the airplane looks tastes or feels like. He simply wants a kill (or the opposite)... And all the pieces that fit that bill are foreign to someone simply bringing a pilot certificate to the table as their 'qualifications'. Many of the skill sets can be compensated for or offset by the presence of another relevant one, but if there's not much to begin with, then it's probably not a fair expectation to hope to just jump right in a ship and go to work. Every location will be treating a a handful of crops for a handful of pests, in a handful of typical flying circumstances. Do you know those crops, pests, or the pesticides, or flying regimes involved? Are you even licensed as an applicator? Are you insurable in the operators aircraft type?
But it's not all gloom and doom. There are ag seats, and there are ag careers. There are multi million dollar turbine rocket ships, and there are (clean and safe) entry level ships. There are highly technical ag seas that task you with caring for critical crop, or technical flying circumstances, and there are simple 'corn run' type seats that charge you with spraying chemicals that are very low on the risk level of you being able to hurt the wrong thing, with flying that occurs on wide open expanses, and low population densities.
The key to success in the ag industry is matching an operator whose flying service most closely fits your current knowledge and skill level. You can always work your way up the ladder, landing a job that is too far above where your at (by whatever means it took took to get you there) is a recipe for failure, in a business is too small to be able to get away with too many of those.
In the end, there are ag operators who are willing to invest a little time in answering questions or sharing ideas. But again, be careful what you wish for, this type of flying is either in your blood, or it's not... and if it turns out that it is, nothing is going to keep you away from it. Certainly not a request for an investment of time on your part.
Take care, Rob
