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Need Some Air
There's no point now to wipe the sweat pouring down his forehead. Just feet from the green growth below, John Bunn pulls up on the control stick and the nose of the plane lifts. He reaches for the chemical lever and pesticide rains down. It's 125 degrees in the cockpit but the cotton needs spraying. The Midville crop duster spends most of his summer days in the sweltering seat of an Air Tractor 402. He loves it. Never mind that he'll sweat off 20 pounds by October and won't get rich doing it; he can't see doing anything else. Bunn just bought an aerial application outfit owned by the late Byron Burt, a veteran pilot out of Louisville who passed away last year. Bunn's not new to flying but ownership is a first. He finds himself getting into a business while many are getting out. "I had to make a decision, and I decided to give ownership a try," he says, his sign freshly taped in the window of his cluttered office at the Louisville airport. Computer equipment shares space on a desk with piles of papers and magazines. A recliner, where he sometimes sleeps, sits in the corner and a Springer spaniel named Rooster clamors for attention.
Bunn caught the flying bug on a slow day working as a paramedic about 12 years ago. Flipping through an aviation magazine, he came across an ad that read, "Learn to be a crop duster." "I used to watch them as a kid and thought it couldn't be that hard," he recalled with a shrug and a laugh that comes easy and often. Five days later he was in a southwest Kansas town no bigger than Midville learning to fly a plane. Within six months, he was spraying crops with an agricultural aviation group out of Statesboro. Since then, flying has become his passion, second only to music. Two years ago, he started flying for Burt. Bunn kept his name in the business, Burt and Bunn Flying Service, as a tribute. He joins the ranks of Burke County pilot Robbie McMillan, a veteran crop duster who started his business in Waynesboro some 30 years ago. They are the only two Burke County residents left who own ag flying operations. When McMillan started, there were three others operating out of the Burke County Airport. Now he's the only one. Crop dusters are a dying breed, McMillan and Bunn agree. Not many pilots are going into the business these days since demand has started lagging. The job has its fair share of challenges already. They both keep at it because they can't get enough of the blue sky. "It's not a get rich business. You have to love it," McMillan said. "Passions drive a lot more people than you think." It's not the safest job in the world either. McMillan says he's only had a few accidents. "I consider myself lucky." Bunn recalls a run when he clipped a tree limb and peeled his wing back. "I finished the field though," he said with a nod and then grinned. "I flew the rest of the season with duct tape and silicone." They both know pilots who never made it back to the hanger. Now they're not just battling power lines and cell phone towers in the sky - they're competing with sophisticated equipment and genetic technology for spraying business on the ground. But McMillan and Bunn say aerial application is still a deal for farmers. "For six dollars an acre, give or take, you get a licensed, skilled application. The machinery and fuel to apply the chemical are all in one deal," McMillan said. He added that without crop dusters, feats such as the eradication of the boll weevil wouldn't have been possible, because they can cover so much ground in such a short period of time. If conditions are right, Bunn said he can unload on 100 acres in as little as 15 minutes, but he usually averages about 100 acres per hour due to varying field sizes. They hope farmers continue to see the benefit as well because good years are what help them hang on. If business booms this growing season, Bunn already has plans for improvements. His first priority: air conditioning. |
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