Big Muddy
09-12-2015, 09:39 AM
Yesterday at noon, my elderly neighbor decided to burn off a small field for a foodplot....he joins my property on the backside, and I happened to ride by, and saw the smoke, so I stopped to watch for a few minutes....it's been so dry here, I really didn't think it was a good idea, but he had disked around the field to contain the fire....however, only a turn-row separates his foodplot from his 160 acre WRP land.
A small rain front was to move thru our area, and suddenly the wind shifted out of the north....embers started flying upward, and set his WRP field on fire....I didn't even hesitate, and called my ag pilot buddy, who has rented my farm land, and he said he was on the way.
I quickly drove to my shop, and loaded up my Ranger, which already had a powered spray tank in the bed for spot-spraying weeds....the ag pilot and I got there about the same time....he had brought both of his ag planes loaded with water, and the fight was on.
He and his other pilot were precise with dumping the water, and quickly stopped the fire from spreading....all I had to do was put out the smoldering embers with my spray rig....in the heat of the battle, it never crossed my mind to snap any pics of their "aerial assault", but it looked like those fire-fighting planes that you see on tv.
Fortunately, a short time later we got a rain shower, and only about an acre or so got burned, but, left unattended, that fire could have been a disaster for my old neighbor....the gummint is VERY protective of the land that landowners have enrolled in the WRP program, and could have ended up with him being penalized thousands of dollars.
My ag pilot buddy owns two of these 802A/B aircraft....they are the world's largest single engine aircraft, and only cost about $1.2 million each, give or take a few bucks....those ag pilot cowboys earn every cent. ;)
This is sorta what it looked like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgATvV0Z7b8
A small rain front was to move thru our area, and suddenly the wind shifted out of the north....embers started flying upward, and set his WRP field on fire....I didn't even hesitate, and called my ag pilot buddy, who has rented my farm land, and he said he was on the way.
I quickly drove to my shop, and loaded up my Ranger, which already had a powered spray tank in the bed for spot-spraying weeds....the ag pilot and I got there about the same time....he had brought both of his ag planes loaded with water, and the fight was on.
He and his other pilot were precise with dumping the water, and quickly stopped the fire from spreading....all I had to do was put out the smoldering embers with my spray rig....in the heat of the battle, it never crossed my mind to snap any pics of their "aerial assault", but it looked like those fire-fighting planes that you see on tv.
Fortunately, a short time later we got a rain shower, and only about an acre or so got burned, but, left unattended, that fire could have been a disaster for my old neighbor....the gummint is VERY protective of the land that landowners have enrolled in the WRP program, and could have ended up with him being penalized thousands of dollars.
My ag pilot buddy owns two of these 802A/B aircraft....they are the world's largest single engine aircraft, and only cost about $1.2 million each, give or take a few bucks....those ag pilot cowboys earn every cent. ;)
This is sorta what it looked like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgATvV0Z7b8