It usually takes a drive down to Dumas or McGehee to get a glimpse of a crop duster, but for a couple of days this week, they were flying low over Pine Bluff.
Not to worry. They were not spraying anything in town — just passing through.
Doug Hale, airport manager at Pine Bluff Regional Airport, said the crop dusters — more formally known as aerial applicators — are working out of the airport as they travel to pine plantations in the vicinity where they are fertilizing the trees.
“It’s nothing unusual,” Hale said. “It’s a legit operation.”
The bright yellow planes — Air Tractor AT-802 models, to be exact — have been spotted flying low across sections of Pine Bluff, causing a few people to call Hale.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I called and let MECA know,” said Hale, referring to Jefferson County’s Metropolitan Emergency Communication Association. “Some guy is going to call them and say, ‘Hey, there are planes flying over my house.’ But they’re just working. The only thing unusual is that people in town are seeing them. We are more accustomed to seeing them spraying row crops.”
Hale said there are two planes crisscrossing the city, going to the airport to have the fertilizer loaded into their planes, making their way to various plots of trees in the area and returning for another load. The work is being done for Weyerhaeuser, which owns the tree plots, Hale said.
At Grider Field Airport, the operation appeared to be running smoothly. The planes would taxi to a nearby truck that had a boom that was used to pump the fertilizer pellets into the holding tanks. In just a few minutes, when the planes were full, the pilots would give a thumbs up, taxi to the runway and were quickly up into the sky and on their way to deliver another load.
Jon Schwartz stood nearby the busy and noisy operation on the tarmac with his dog Joni. Schwartz works for Standridge Flying Service in Lake Village, which was contracted to do the work.
“The pilots are making good progress,” he said, pausing to caution Joni not to get too close to the activity. “They started Monday and will probably finish up before the end of the day.”
Hale said modern technology helps make the work go quicker.
“They have GPS on board that tells the pilots if they’re on the right path,” he said, adding that such electronics take the guesswork out of the job.
A call to MECA revealed that so far, no one had called them to report the planes.
“Not yet,” a woman said when asked.