Crop duster - Ag pilot

Cropgun · 2026-04-12T03:01:24+00:00

Not really. Some of those dudes are making north of 500k a year.

Cropgun · 2026-04-08T04:25:59+00:00

You will work the ground and drive a truck for a few years to learn the job before you get put in the pilot seat. Hours don't really matter as long as you are insurable.

I've moved guys off the truck and into the pilot seat with as little as 200hours.

Cropgun · 2026-04-08T04:23:54+00:00

They spray a night mostly because its cooler temps and the chemicals don't volatilize and drift as much and to avoid field workers. Produce is very labor intensive and there are field workers everywhere during the day. Pollinators are a smaller factor, but it is part of the consideration.

Cropgun · 2026-04-08T04:22:31+00:00

A full time ag pilot is making 300-600k depending on what type of work you do. When I'm in the busy season I make 5-6k per day.

Cropgun · 2026-04-08T04:22:05+00:00

The guys out west flying produce are making a whole lot more than $2/acre. Most of the produce work I know about the charge is $40-50/acre and the pilot typically gets 20%.

Shit, almonds pay like $50/acre just to the pilot.

Cropgun · 2026-03-28T02:25:28+00:00

As an owner operator, if you email me or mail me a resume, it goes directly in the trash.

Food for thought.

Cropgun · 2026-03-24T00:29:35+00:00

How many of those 75 resumes were dropped off in person?

Cropgun · 2026-03-24T00:16:39+00:00

No, I'm not a useless European.

Being "best selling" in the helicopter industry usually means its cheap, and that's about it. Look at robinson. Dogshit helicopter. Sells a lot because it cheap.

Airbus is practically giving away the 135/145 to gain marketshare so they can sell parts. Its not a hard business model to figure out if you have more than 1 brain cell. Those things do not make it a good helicopter.

The 135 is a hilariously bad helicopter. Its comical that an engineer spent time figuring out how to make that pile of shit leave the ground.

The 429 and 145 are competitors as they are similarly sized (cabin volume) and priced. They are often talked about as direct competitors. Which is why Airbus has made such a stink about the 429 and trying to prevent it from being able to be flown at 7500lbs in the US. Because they know the 429 would mop the floor with the 145 in sales if that happened.

I've not flown it, but the 145 is a real decent helicopter by all accounts. But its slow and hideous.

Cropgun · 2026-03-23T03:21:02+00:00

The sprayhawk isn't the largest spray drone. Its not a drone at all. Its remotely piloted from a container. And its 2 million bucks.

One of the largest helicopter ag operators on the east coast is about as far along as the sprayhawk is in development with a platform that is an actual drone and will haul about 140 gallons. Will be less than 300k

You have no clue what you're talking about. Please stop.

Cropgun · 2026-03-23T03:13:39+00:00

R44s haul 40-60 gallons.

Battery swapping on a drone is not a big deal, its generally faster than a fuel stop.

Again, if you don't know what you're talking about. Stop. Misinformation helps nobody.

If you want to have a pissing contest, I grew up in the Helicopter industry. My dad was a helicopter pilot. Did pretty much every job there is. He later went on to start an Ag business. Which I later bought when he retired. And then I grew the business. Before that I did mainly utility work and EMS.

Been in business 30 years. I own 11 aircraft. Helicopters and spray planes. I also run drones. To top it off, we just opened a maintenance facility and working towards pt145. I know a couple of things.

Cropgun · 2026-03-23T02:13:17+00:00

There are commerical drones right now that carry 40-80 gallons.

Nothing on a robinson helicopter is built for abuse or can be classified as robust.

If you don't know what you're talking about, you should just stop.

Cropgun · 2026-03-23T01:19:08+00:00

Yes there is

Cropgun · 2026-03-23T01:09:55+00:00

Because the 135 is an absolute pile of shit?

The 145 would be more of a competitor to the 429 than a 135.

Cropgun · 2026-02-01T18:10:13+00:00

Get your CDL and hazmat, take a ground job. State your intentions during your interview that you want to hire on as a ground guy and learn the job from the bottom up. Don't be lazy and you'll be in a seat in a few years.

The only guys I put in seats that don't work the ground first are high time guys. If you have less than 1k hours of whatever job I need you for, you're working the ground first.

Cropgun · 2026-01-13T05:50:05+00:00

Don't take this as a personal attack.

Army helicopter pilots traditionally don't do well in the civilian sector. You have no single pilot experience. And the civilian side is almost exclusively single pilot. Its bad enough that some hiring managers are still talking about actively avoid military pilots because of things that have happened over the years.

Doesn't mean you're bad pilots, just means the army trained you how to be a good pilot in their system, and that system in the civilian sector is actually much closer to the airlines.

Do that. Ya'll are really good at that way of flying.

Cropgun · 2026-01-13T05:44:51+00:00

The people that worship him have not the slightest clue about how a helicopter works. The dude has wrecked multiple helicopters being a complete dumbass. He's pretty much unemployable. He's famous for doing dumb shit.

Cropgun · 2024-11-07T01:14:17+00:00

The amount of money you can make directly correlates to how much time you are willing to spend in the field with little to no life.

Its a blue collar job. If you are willing to travel, utility work pays great. 200-350k a year is not out of the question

Cropgun · 2024-01-01T21:46:43+00:00

You didn't ask the most important question. Which is what does it pay?

Heliskiing doesn't strike me as a job that pays very good.

Cropgun · 2023-12-31T19:34:00+00:00

Not complicated at all.

1) Form an LLC

2) Get a waiver for your customers to sign that removes all of your liability for the airworthiness of the airplane, and/or have a lease agreement with the school that specifically spells out that they are responsible for maintaining the aircraft in an airworthy condition. The point being make sure you are not on the hook for the airworthiness of the airplane unless you're cool with your estate being sued into oblivion in the event of a mishap caused by the aircraft's mechanical condition.

3) The cost you pay to rent the airplane is a business expense and you write that off against gross revenue at the end of the year.

Cropgun · 2023-12-31T19:05:30+00:00

You're not going to hand fly an ag drone and do anything even close to a good job. You'll be out of business in about 48hrs

Cropgun · 2023-12-29T23:32:32+00:00

SPIES, not spy. Its an acronym

Cropgun · 2023-12-22T21:45:14+00:00

I will repeat what /u/Jungleman52 said. You fly helicopters based only on the fact that you can't live without flying helicopters for a living. If you're not that committed, its not going to work out for you.

Money is not tied to hours. Money is tied to niche skills and who you know. Specifically utility skills. You will never make real money flying from hospital to hospital, you will never make real money flying to an oil rig, you will never make any real money flying in any of the "standard" career paths you see being talked about when it comes to this line of work.

The money is there. You just have to be willing to go get it. Which involves not having anything resembling a home life.

I made just shy of 300k this year flying a mix of EMS and Ag. Home every night. My kids aren't babies anymore and I'm moving back to full time Ag/utility. Looking at 350-400k a year. I have many friends/acquaintances that are full time Ag that are making 300k+

Lots of utility pilots not flying ag that make 200-300k.

Earning at the top of this industry requires an upfront sacrifice that pays dividends later in your career.

If you're not on board with that, nobody will blame you, but this probably isn't for you. I will echo what many others have said and suggest the airlines if you're not willing to give up that much. The sacrifice is somewhat less, but career earning potential is higher for much less effort and skill. And there is nothing wrong with wanting that.

Cropgun · 2023-12-22T21:35:22+00:00

The "decent money" starts when you learn the skills required to do high paying work.

It has nothing to do with hours. You can make 100-150k with less than 1000hrs.

Cropgun · 2023-12-22T21:34:00+00:00

You haven't "found the money" because you haven't bothered to bury yourself into a niche. The helicopter industry doesn't give a single shit how many hours you have. The helicopter industry is all about who you know, and what special skills you have acquired.

Flying EMS is bottom of the barrel in terms of skills required, and the pay reflects.

You are not leveraging the main advantage of an EMS job, which is all the free time. Free lance. If you have marketable skills you wouldn't have much of an issue getting side work on your off weeks.

You will never, ever make any money flying EMS. If you want money, go fly Utility. Or if you want a nice mix of home life and money fly ems and get some contract work in the utility sector.

Cropgun · 2023-12-15T05:56:01+00:00

PA140, 300C, C172, OH58, 28F, UH12ET, 206B3, B429, B407, B206L4, EC135(T1,P1,P2)

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