Crop-dusting pilot finally decides it’s time to retire
LOUISVILLE — After 46 seasons of dive-bombing insects, weeds and fungi that threaten the livelihoods of area farmers, Pierre Smith is coming in for a landing.
Smith will be 73 this July, and has decided it’s time to retire from crop dusting, The Augusta Chronicle reported.
It’s a demanding career that every year costs several experienced pilots their lives.
Smith’s near half-century view from the cockpit has afforded him a unique perspective on both the profession and the evolution of farming in east central Georgia.
In his bumblebee-yellow Air Tractor, he circles his contracted field, scoping out hazards, towers, power lines, dead trees with their leafless limbs — harder to see and able to snatch a plane out of the sky.
“You’ve got to look for power lines, look for towers, dodge deer. They lay down in the rows and then jump up in front of you. Talk about (messing) your pants,” Smith said.
Smith guesses that he must have sprayed 1.5 million to 2 million acres, mostly within a 30-mile radius of his hangar at the Louisville airport. Louisville is about 45 miles southwest of Augusta.
Smith is proud of the fact that he has never wrecked an airplane and never gotten hurt in one. He’s known far too many other agriculture pilots who have not been as fortunate.