Season begins for wave of disease-fighting yellow planes



A yellow plane spraying a field in the distance entertained my kids during a summer afternoon walk last year. But the entertainment succumbed to motherly panic when the plane whizzed above the road we were strolling. I presumed the aerial applicator was starting to spray the cornfield we were walking past, so I lightly jogged with the stroller to the part of the road flanked by soybean fields. Then, the pilot began to fly straight at us, leaving a mist of pesticide on the soybean plants beneath him.

I quickly realized the plane would be spraying both sides of the road because the same farmer owned both soybean fields. We were in the middle, which seemed a likely space for an accidental, off-target spray. I waved with arms above my head. The pilot spotted us, pulled up and circled the field. Pushing a lengthy two-child stroller, I jogged, rather than walked, the next quarter mile in an attempt to show my appreciation and be courteous to his hectic schedule. I waved with a thumbs-up and mouthed “thank you” when we passed the fields. The pilot resumed. We never felt a drop or even smelled chemical, an indication the pilot applied on target.

The season has arrived for the yellow planes to chase damaging crop diseases and insects across the state. Spotting these planes seemed seldom for most of my life, but much easier now that aerial application of crop chemicals has become more common. Many farmers have found positive impacts in new products used to fight diseases later in the growing season, when application with ground vehicles can damage tall corn or maturing soybean plants. Spraying by plane also delivers speed and timeliness as the chemistry proves most effective when teamed with the appropriate stage of crop development. In other words, the plane that paused for me would need to cover thousands of acres in about a two-week window.

Most of us take interest in watching an agricultural pilot at work – flying low and swiftly in back-and-forth patterns. We watch the mist stop at the field edge before the plane ascends to avoid the power lines. I remember as a child when Dad took us in the pickup truck to watch an aerial application on one of his fields. When finished, the pilot rotated the plane’s wings in response to our waving, which seems to be my method of gaining a pilot’s attention.