It's dark and quiet and there's a stillness that shocks the system nearly every time. So early in the morning that even the birds aren't up yet and in a quick instant, the silence is gone. Turbine exhaust fills the air and if the stillness didn't wake you, the sound of the turbine engine is sure to. Soon after pushing the airplane out, the blackness begins to turn bluer and your eyes can make out the shapes of trees, nearby grain bins, and any farm equipment left in the field from the night before. The wheat crop that surrounds us looks pillow-soft until Tyson taxis his plane onto the runway and lifts off next to it. The plane transforms the stands of wheat into a wavy sea that's hard to imagine unless you're there, watching.

Tyson takes off for his first load before the sun is up, his eyes work hard to adjust to both depth and height perception and he searches for wires and other possible hazards. When operating out of our home base, it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes to reach most of the fields he'll be spraying in a typical day.

The morning is our favorite time of day and we get a lot done before most people begin their workday. It's quiet and the phone rings less often than it does throughout the rest of the day. The office is quiet and I can hear Tyson approaching a minute or two before he touches down on his return. I can make it to the load site and be ready to reload the plane before he lands so it's less hectic and hurried than later when there is more activity.

Each spray operation works a little differently, depending upon where they are located across the country (or world!). For us, based in Northern Minnesota, the season spans June-September and we have certain "runs" throughout the season that determine our work load. We are a 911 service and farmers will only rely on us if they have to. Most of the growers we service own their own ground rigs and will spray their own crops if they can, with only a few exceptions. During wet conditions, we get more requests to spray because growers are unable to get in the fields with their ground equipment. For certain crops, like wheat, some growers will choose aerial application to prevent driving over the crop. We are largely a Plan B for growers, so we hope for rain and bugs that will bring their calls for our service. We certainly don't fly from sun up to sundown every single day June to September but there are periods throughout the season when we do fly virtually from dawn to dusk for multiple days in a row. We live at the hangar and getting our work done for a farmer is our number one priority for the four months that we are operating each summer. Some spraying operations fly year round, but in the far north of Minnesota, the growing season is relatively short.

As our ground crew, I will prepare everything needed for the next morning so Tyson is not waiting to get in the air and begin the day's schedule. In order for me to be as efficient as possible, I always have to be a step ahead of him. The less time he has to spend on the ground, the more time he can be in the air and servicing our clients. If I cut off a couple of minutes of each load, by the end of the day that's equivalent to an entire extra load that we can spray.

Most of the work we do is applied at 5 gallons per acre and the Air Tractor 502 that Tyson flies has a 500 gallon hopper (where the chemical and water mixture is housed in the plane). With a full load, he can cover 100 acres. But farm fields are not so precise and sometimes the spray area might be 87 acres and sometimes 99. It's typically never a perfectly even number, fields are never exact. Again, speaking to efficiency, if he can take 4-100 acre loads instead of 5-80 acre loads, at the end of the day we are going to be able to get more coverage. It's better for us and also better for our farmers!

Busy days have a tendency to fly by without incident, but sometimes the day can't seem to go as planned no matter how hard you try. When the plane breaks down or another big issue arises, we're at the mercy of the local mechanic and his schedule.

By mid morning, after 5 hours or so and maybe 600 acres completed (this of course changes as field distance, type, and conditions vary), Tyson is usually ready to be on the ground and out of the airplane for a quick swig of water and a stretch of the legs. He's typically back in the plane and ready for more after just a few minutes. Each time he lands, I have the next load mixed and ready to go. I load the airplane with fuel, chemical and water, wash the windshield, while he remains in the plane, and he's on his way again in minutes. While he's waiting for everything to load he usually does a bit of paper work, checks his phone, or the weather conditions or both. Each stop on the ground he's only there for 3-5 minutes.

This process - land, load, take off, spray - it continues throughout the day and becomes relatively routine. Some days we're forced to shut down for wind or weather and others we'll complete our work early and park the plane until a farmer might call or stop by with fields to be sprayed. There's always something to fix or clean or maintain and so when those down times come, we're always ready to catch up elsewhere. Sometimes they're more welcome than others, for instance, one recent period when we sprayed sun up to sun down for 10 days straight without a bit of bad weather or wind. After several days of this, we would wake up hoping for rain or fog or wind and it just continued to be ideal weather and the ground work continued to pile up. Finally on day 11, the rain came and we felt like we could catch up and breath again. Tyson took a well-deserved nap.

Not only do many ag pilots work long hours on back to back days, their job requires extreme attention to detail. Their lives depend on it and if they lose focus, they may not get a second chance. They're flying at 150+ miles per hour, 7-12 feet off of the ground and applying restricted agricultural fluids. There's not really a margin for error, and there are no "off days" possible.

I'll have lunch ready for Tyson when he lands around noon. He never shuts the plane off, and I'll usually load it for the next flight while he's eating so the plane is ready to go when he is. He'll scarf his lunch down, drink some water, have a quick break and then jump back in the airplane. We may have a few minutes to chat but often I'll be too busy with chemical deliveries or farmers while he's eating and we will hardly have time to say anything to each other.

As the afternoon continues and Tyson works away to finish the day's work load, sometimes he'll have to go back to a field a second time to finish it. There are times when he will start spraying a field and the residents living nearby will be outside with family, having a picnic or other activity. On these occasions he'll have to leave that field and go work on something else, then return later when no one is around. There are many variables throughout the day that must continually be taken into account and he's always ready to change course as required.

It seems that many days are over as quickly as they started, and the sun starts making its way down towards the horizon. Some days go by very quickly while others drag on endlessly. Golden hour, when the sun is setting, is always an enjoyable time. The late afternoon light sets the land on fire and it's the time of day when you can appreciate all you've accomplished since that early quiet beginning. Blue hour approaches fast and Tyson lands. Exhausted, he's ready for dinner that I typically will have prepared while he was spraying the day's last load. Some evenings he will be putting the airplane away as late as 9:30 or 10. He's been sitting all day and I've been on my feet most of the day so I flop onto the couch and he stands while he eats.

We eat quickly, knowing that every minute wasted cuts into the sleep that we'll get that night before we wake to do it all again the next day. Occasionally a farmer will walk in after a long day to put in some orders. They know we live there and if the hangar door is open, we're there and open for business. The whole building shakes as we shut the large hangar doors. We've showered and head to the camper for a restful night's sleep. The quiet returns to the country in the night, embraced by more stars than you can imagine, and is a calming sight after a long, busy day.