There's never a dull moment in the Delta with ag planes around.
This Air Tractor is piloted by Richard (Junior) Estes of Belzoni. I saw him yesterday turning over some fields and found him spraying beans near the road. I love the sound of those old 600 horse Pratt and Whitney radial engines.
The yellow bar in front of the windshield is a wire cutter/guide, as is the wire from the top of the cockpit to the tail. If he hits a wire, it will help cut it or guide it over the top so it won't go through the cockpit or shear the tail off. The white thing right behind the motor on top of the cowling is the GPS lightbar. The little bitty propellor under the belly is the pump fan. When he gets ready to spray, he moves a handle in the cockpit and the fan starts to spin and pressurizes the booms.
The scoop on the right side of the cockpit is the fresh air for the cockpit and the black things on top are called turning windows. You look through these when in a turn so you can see where you want to go when you come out of the turn. It's hard to look through the roof when you're turned up 90 degrees (or more) to the horizon.
I saw this 2-seat turbine Thrush this morning down by Louise. Jody is the pilot's name, I think. He was also spraying soybeans. This white Thrush is the only white one around that I know of.
There is a little black screen under the nose on a Thrush that lets fresh air in for the engine. On Air Tractors, there is an air scoop instead of a scren and I have seen them come back with cotton leaves stuck in that thing. That means that prop, wheels and all were down in the cotton.
