Microlighters

Does anybody on this forum have any experience with aerial spraying from a microlight. I have a game farm with huge stands of wattle and it seems as if it would be more cost effective to spray it from my trike. Any comments?

Heya Alan

Just this morning i read an article on crop sprayers with microlights. I will get you all the info tomoorow and forward it to you. Saw a picture which looked like the ML had little motors with fans attached to the wings for crop spraying.

Will forward the detail to you tommorrow :D

Your's in Flying
CHAZ

Chat to Bluderturd guys. Think they have all the info. I think they even have CAA approval for a ML license to do it commercially with a boom equipped thunder bird.

Also check junkmail . There was a full spray rig for a windlass/Aquilla for sale some time back for less than R10K I think.

PS
Don't know what the implications are regarding licensing, but the guys at Xwinds will prob be able to put you on right track.

Hi Alan, I sprayed for about 50 hours and it works well. I left it because we started farming organicly and had no use for it after that.

Spraying wattle will be like shooting fish in a barrel.

The fuel goes into a 25l container on the back seat and the chem tank goes where you would normaly find the fuel tank.

It cost me about R100 per HA to spray, that would include a chem. You have to buy the ultra low application chem because you only spray like 15 liters P/HA

Hope this helps.

Jenya the wing guy also mentioned crop spraying to me the last time I saw him... Interesting concept, as I understand you use the ground effect to get best coverage!

Shout if you need a hand trying it out! I am keen!

Thanks Guy's

A bit more information about the spraying. It's mostly black wattle trees with some hakea and pine trees amongst them. It's along a ridge and down the valleys which makes for interesting flying unless it's calm. One would not want to spray if its windy anyway as the poison will drift all over the place. Altitude is about 2000' asl. I need some info on types of spray rigs, application methods & when to apply and types of poison that are systemic to things such as wattle. Tall order

Spraying can only be done very early in the morning realy but check out for dew on the plants, don't spray if there is dew because the poison just runs of the plants and you wasted your money. Try to spray with a high QNH, this is better for the a/craft and the poison tends not to drift as much. I would think Roundup is the best but maybe they have beter products these days, your nearest UAP would be able to tell you more.
You have to come in low in order to do a good cover, the ground effect does spread the poison beter, like DH pointed out. If you want to spray in valleys be very carefull, dangerous stuff on the flats and I can only think its much more dangerouse in valleys.

You might want to ask the Thunderbird guy's for the varios typs of rigs.

Good luck

If I am in ground effect that would probably mean I am going to have to fly around the big pine trees These are huge stands of trees that are very dense on steep slopes which makes it very difficult to get into with normal labour. I am hoping it's an easier solution to spray from the air.

alan wrote:If I am in ground effect that would probably mean I am going to have to fly around the big pine trees These are huge stands of trees that are very dense on steep slopes which makes it very difficult to get into with normal labour. I am hoping it's an easier solution to spray from the air.

GET Ballistic chute... he he he

jcvb wrote: GET Ballistic chute... he he he

Lets hope it's not one of those that only opens on impact, considering the close proximity to the ground :D

Ummmm somehow I think Roundup is a bit on the light side for big pine trees. Maybe the Working for Water people could give you an idea of what poison to use.

Better yet how about napalm? I would be up for that and I am sure DH will be there as well?

Me thinks DH will pay you okes just so he can do the naplm thing

Napalm? Where? When? How much?

But seriously this interests me...

Keep us informed and shout if I can assist with anything!

Does that mean I must move my wing to the fast setting on my trike to stay ahead of the napalm while bombing the trees
If it happens I will gladly invite you to try your flying skills

This has surely got to be the origin of the term "outsourcing".
At last a true spectator sport in the fashion of the Darwin awards

Watch out for the 'low and slow' part

Good luck guys and show us some pics.