The Little World

I was fascinated with the instruction sheet for this Czech model as it detailed the service life of the Z-37A agricultural aircraft.

It would appear that they are used for crop dusting and spraying in equal measure in middle Europe and are in some areas of the west as well. The planes are working for agricultural companies and their services paid for by the farmers.

The opportunities to fly and dust or spray are going to be limited by wind and weather, and when these are right the customers want the maximum result for their money. Thus they sometimes want more flights than the law allows – there is a maximum number of take-offs per day set by the Czech air authorities and these are sometimes exceeded by 20%.

One can only hope for the planes and pilots – especially as the landing sites and refuelling facilities may be quite primitive. The two wing tanks are apparently not carried on the spray flights but are ferried full of fuel to the outlying landing strip and used to refill the internal tanks.

A little calculation on the legal max of take-offs and landings ( 80 ) against a working summer day shows a max of 9 minutes per cycle. That is a hard slog. and given that there has to be time in there for a cuppa and a wee.*

I have lost my ambition to be a crop duster.

* That may explain the small window on the port side of the canopy. I mean, the plane’s yellow anyway…and when you gotta go…