Aerial Applications

Crop dusting has been a vital part of agribusiness in Louisiana for generations. While this has provided much needed services to farmers, it has also created certain misconceptions that provide reasons for people to complain.
“One reason people complain is because we fly early in the morning,” said local crop duster Kyle Spears. “It’s not because I want to be out there that early. I have five kids, and I’d rather be in bed with my kids than be up there at 5:00 in the morning. The reason we go up there so early is the wind is down, and it does a much better job.”
For Spears, these complaints can also lead to challenges that make a dangerous job more dangerous. “We pilots have a way of keeping ourselves alive,” he said. “We know what we need to be watching for. When people start complaining, we start watching for what they want us to watch, and, then, somebody is going to end up getting hurt.”
“I had an instance one day when that happened,” he continued. “I was spraying fungicide, and it probably would have just helped this person’s trees. The property was cut across with wires. I went over wires and under wires. When I had finished the job, I was watching the house and cut a set of power lines. If the wire would have wrapped on the end of the wing, it could have killed me. What people do not understand is we’re not trying to hurt people. When they complain, it takes our attention off of what we’re supposed to be watching.”
Spears, who has been crop dusting for the past 18 years, grew up on the farm raising rice, beans, and cattle where his business Tri-Air Farms is located today north of Mamou at the intersection of Everton Road and Spears Lane.
“I remember as a kid being in the fields and looking up at the airplanes,” Spears said. “When the airplane would go back to get a load, I would say that they’re up there in the cool air and enjoying themselves. But, now that I’m in it, I was totally wrong. It’s like driving an old rice truck with no breaks and no reverse and with a helmet on your head. It gets pretty hot in those things.”
Originally, Spears wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps by farming land of his own, but, as he said, “I couldn’t find any land to get started farming.” He added, “So, I went to work at Cameron Iron Works and ended up getting laid off. I had already started taking flying lessons when I worked at Cameron, and, once I got laid off, I finished my lessons and ended up buying an old air plane.”
Spears started flying for Central Farmers Co-op before going to fly in Cheneyville in 2007. He then opened his flying service in 2011.
“We go as far as Cheneyville and Bunkie and all the way down to Hayes and around Big Lake (in Calcasieu Parish),” Spears explained.
To help cover this vast area, Spears has other offices in Mowata and in Kinder.
“We travel a pretty good radius. I’ll put my guys on the road at 3:00 in the morning to be down in Hayes at daylight. Then, I’ll leave here to get down there for daylight.”
He continued, “That’s what my farmers like, and it does a better job when you can start a job early in the morning. You’re going to do a better job, and it’s better for everybody. It’s not that I like going that early, but it’s better for everybody.”
To get the job done, Spears and his men fly five single-wing air tractor planes. “I run two 802s, which is the biggest air tractor that is made,” he explained. “I run two 502s, which is a 500-gallon air plane that is a very productive and very cost effective aircraft, and I run one 602 which is a 630-gallon aircraft. We also run a Bell 206 helicopter.”
When asked which one is the easiest to fly, Spears quipped, “For sure not the helicopter because it’s just very finicky.”
He added, “If I hadn’t been flying a little bit in the winter, it feels like somebody beat me with a bat when I start flying in the spring. My legs hurt and my back hurts. You can picture yourself sitting on a bucket and just moving your arms and kicking all day long. That’s more or less what I’m doing.”
The crop dusting work begins for Spears in the spring with the rice planting. “We’ll go in and plant the rice,” he said, “and we’ll come back with basic fertilizer. Then, we’ll come in and spray once the rice comes up and do the first shot of nitrogen fertilizer. Then, around the green ring stage of the rice, we’ll come in with the last application of fertilizer. And, there’s an application of fungicide after that when the rice starts to head.”
The process is then similar for crawfish. As Spears stated, “For the crawfish, the farmers seed the crawfish in the rice in July. What we’re doing now (in late September) is fertilizing the rice stubble for the crawfish to help give them food.”
Other services provided by Spears at Tri-Air Farms are planting rye grass for the cows and laser leveling.
Spears finds satisfaction in his work but knows that it is tough on him and his family, but he is thankful for the support of his understanding wife and family. He also knows that danger is around him at all times while up in the air.
“I know the times that I shouldn’t have come home and I did,” he expressed. “I talk to God a lot. Every time I leave this strip in the morning, I say a few prayers before going on my way. If it’s a field that is cut across with wires, then I say one last prayer before I go in.”
Even with all the toughness and dangers of the job, Spears shared what brings him the most joy out of crop dusting. He said it comes “when a child comes to that airplane and is curious. That’s what makes it fun for me.”
Spears also finds rewards in the connection he makes with the farmers and other crop dusters. “I meet a lot of farmers and know farmers from Cheneyville all the way to the Gulf of Mexico,” he stated. “I’ve made good friends in this business, and I’ve flown for grandfathers down to great-grandkids in the short time that I’ve been in it. On the pilot side, I’ve also met a lot of good people in this industry.”
He concluded, “I wanted to farm, but I couldn’t find the land. Now, it’s like I’m farming 30 or 40 thousand acres. When I plant a field, I might not cut and sell the rice, but it’s my rice until it’s cut. If I make a mistake, I’ll own up to it and make it right with my farmer because I don’t want to be the reason that his family suffers. I don’t want to be the reason that food is coming off of his table. I’ve lived by that in my business, and it’s been rewarding.”