Raising cane in South Florida
Some of the many machines that facilitate the growing and harvesting of sugar cane in South Central Florida come together (ever so briefly) to pose for a portrait in a cane field half a mile southeast of the hamlet of Lake Harbor. Facilitated by the fine folks at United States Sugar, this portrait includes US Sugar's Light Pacific Steam Locomotive #148 in FEC livery, with a cut of empty cane cars, a 1955 John Deere Model 50LP Farm Tractor, also owned by US Sugar, and an Air Tractor AT-502B aerial application aircraft (meaning a crop duster), which is owned by a private contractor. The latter machine is probably the world's most popular Ag-plane, which is powered by a variant of the super-reliable, 750 Shaft Horsepower, Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turbo-prop engine. It has a Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight of 9,400 lbs, which is a lot for an aircraft of its size, and it can carry up to 500 gallons of whatever it is you want to spray on your cane. It can can get airborne at max gross weight in under 1,200 ft of runway and can certainly operate off of unpaved airstrips. Doing its normal spray operations, an aircraft like this will typically fly at speeds ranging from 100 to 125 knots. While normal category, fixed-wing aircraft are not typically permitted to fly this low, especially near people, agricultural application aircraft are operated under a different set of Federal Air Regulations, which allow them to fly below 500 feet above ground level, and closer than 500 ft. to persons or structures, as long as such operations are not conducted over congested areas and do not pose an undue hazard to people or property. And yes, flying one of these machines requires more focus and discipline than you'll find in the average driver on our highways.
Raising cane in South Florida
Some of the many machines that facilitate the growing and harvesting of sugar cane in South Central Florida come together (ever so briefly) to pose for a portrait in a cane field half a mile southeast of the hamlet of Lake Harbor. Facilitated by the fine folks at United States Sugar, this portrait includes US Sugar's Light Pacific Steam Locomotive #148 in FEC livery, with a cut of empty cane cars, a 1955 John Deere Model 50LP Farm Tractor, also owned by US Sugar, and an Air Tractor AT-502B aerial application aircraft (meaning a crop duster), which is owned by a private contractor. The latter machine is probably the world's most popular Ag-plane, which is powered by a variant of the super-reliable, 750 Shaft Horsepower, Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turbo-prop engine. It has a Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight of 9,400 lbs, which is a lot for an aircraft of its size, and it can carry up to 500 gallons of whatever it is you want to spray on your cane. It can can get airborne at max gross weight in under 1,200 ft of runway and can certainly operate off of unpaved airstrips. Doing its normal spray operations, an aircraft like this will typically fly at speeds ranging from 100 to 125 knots. While normal category, fixed-wing aircraft are not typically permitted to fly this low, especially near people, agricultural application aircraft are operated under a different set of Federal Air Regulations, which allow them to fly below 500 feet above ground level, and closer than 500 ft. to persons or structures, as long as such operations are not conducted over congested areas and do not pose an undue hazard to people or property. And yes, flying one of these machines requires more focus and discipline than you'll find in the average driver on our highways.