Your favourite Ag Aircraft?
I just flew a -11 garrett powered drom a few days ago. Coming from a plain A model with a -45R to that one was an eye opener. It's got the vortex generators and flap gap seals and so on. I only had a couple of days to play with it, but 500 gallon loads were nothing in there. The most interesting feature was the propeller. Pull the power back and that airplane slows down going straight down. Speed control coming down a hillside is a no brainer in that airplane. Landing felt like landing a helicopter, it felt so slow, and go-arounds and slow work was a lot slower and a lot more solid than the A model with the pratt on it. They advertise slightly less horsepower and similiar torque (derated for the airframe), but the performance and feel is night and day.
The ability to have instant power instead of a delay was nice. And the discussions about landing high idle vs. not are a non-issue because the prop in the normal range is such as effective brake. I forgot to lock the tail on the first landing and didn't need or use reverse, and didn't know the difference as a result.
Compared to other ag aircraft, perhaps or perhaps not such a stellar improvement...but compared to other dromaders, the performance capabilities are really something. For the cost, too...hard to beat. That's my two-day impression. I guess a full season will tell.
The ability to have instant power instead of a delay was nice. And the discussions about landing high idle vs. not are a non-issue because the prop in the normal range is such as effective brake. I forgot to lock the tail on the first landing and didn't need or use reverse, and didn't know the difference as a result.
Compared to other ag aircraft, perhaps or perhaps not such a stellar improvement...but compared to other dromaders, the performance capabilities are really something. For the cost, too...hard to beat. That's my two-day impression. I guess a full season will tell.
