Crop-dusters ready to return to skies, preparing equipment

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Residents can expect to once again see yellow planes swooping low over fields as another season of crop-dusting kicks off.

"I realize the general public is afraid of us," said Dennis McGarity of McGarity Flying Service. But McGarity, a 27-year crop-dusting veteran, said he and his fellow crop-dusters have been doing their best to keep the public informed about what they do after Sept. 11.

While air security is tighter all around, the FBI does not consider crop-dusters to be a threat, McGarity said. Experts have said the spreaders used by crop-dusters would be poor distributors of anthrax. Also, most crop-dusting planes today are turboprop tail-draggers with the torque of a World War II fighter plane.

"The average guy is not capable of flying these airplanes," McGarity said. He compared it to an average car driver trying to operate an 18-wheeler.

McGarity and his peers have tried to downplay the old "barnstormer" image of crop-dusting that has followed them over the years. While more aerobatic than most other flying, the tight turns and low passes executed by crop-dusters are all necessary for the job and are routine.

"We don't consider it to be any more dangerous than any other way of making a living," said McGarity, although "it's not for someone who's weak at heart."

McGarity and about a dozen pilots will check and calibrate their dry-spreading equipment Saturday at Malden. Pilots will gather again to set their liquid spreaders April 13, when there is no risk of lines freezing up.