AG spray plane shot near Bozeman, MT

gkainz

gkainz

Final Approach
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Greg Kainz
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Kelly O'Brien Folkvord

This morning one of our guys was spraying around Bozeman and he was SHOT at. His airplane was hit twice. One bullet hit the left wing and one hit under the cockpit.
I'm completely in shock that someone would shoot at a spray plane!
If anyone hears of anything or saw anything please report it to the authorities or let us know.

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Holy crap. Was the AG plane spraying at the time?
Or where they just flying really low?

Tim
 
Wow. That's obscene. Glad the pilot (presumably) is okay
 
I used to fly fire patrol in West Virginia. People would always tell me that "those people will shoot at you."

I would ask,

How far away is that plane? I don't know....

How high is that plane? I don' know.....

How fast is that plane going? I don't know....

So where would you aim if you were going to shot at it? I don't know....

How fast is you bullet going when it comes out of the barrel? 2300fps.....

That's why I was never worried.

But I was usually at 1500 agl most of the time.
 
Eep!
Glad the redneck missed the pilot and fuel tanks. And I hope they find out who it is and take away any toys he's got because that person is not exactly sane.
 
BigBadLou said:
Eep!
Glad the redneck missed the pilot and fuel tanks. And I hope they find out who it is and take away any toys he's got because that person is not exactly sane.
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That probably describes a large portion of the population of Montana.
 
One of my instructors found a bullet hole in the tail of a Skyhawk during pre-flight once. This unfortunately isn't anything new.

And then there's the laser idiots...
 
Well I admit when I was a kid, there was this driving range. It lined up nicely with small planes on final. Yes, we always tried... I think the planes were further away than they appeared.

That said, this is crazy stuff.
 
The guy who manages my home drome is an ag pilot. He was shot, not shot at, but shot while spraying. Thankfully he wasn't wounded badly, shooter got 10 years as I remember it.
 
Although it's not an everyday thing, planes get shot at all the time by folks that simply think it's funny. Fortunately, it's rare that they actually hit.

When I'm asked if it's dangerous where I fly at, I quite often reply that it's the same as flying in the States except that they don't shoot at me quite as much as where I'm at now.
 
Decades ago there were a/c flying regular routes in my parts; weather modification flights - can't recall if these were experiments or actually trying to bring more rain during a droughty period. Many locals were vigorously against such attempts and there were town hall hearings where the government would 'listen' to the agins. All well before my arrival. The story that was told many times after this was that one rancher had the floor and was being questioned about his opposition to the wx modification (many thought it would make things worse, or favor their neighbor etc etc). In the questioning, the rancher was asked by the govmint official things like where and when they flew, how the flights bothered his cattle, and one question was "Mr. Rancher, can you tell us what altitude these flights were conducted?"

Mr. Rancher said he really couldn't guess, but he knew it was higher than a 30.06 could shoot. The locals in the crowd thought it quite amusing.
 
In 1949, my Dad was flying a PA-11 on floats and someone shot a hole through the wing.
In 1969, I was flying the same plane, in the same area, and someone shot a hole through the fuselage, about halfway between the cockpit and the tail.
It turns out it was a common occurrence in that area. After a VERY intense investigation, it was determined that some of the young Kadets from West Point were at the range at Camp Smith, and were not particularly competent with the rifles.
After that, there would be an announcement in the paper whenever the cadets were using the firing range. Incidents decreased substantially.

Between 1971 and 1973 everybody was shooting at me. More often than not, successfully.
 
jsstevens said:
Nice. But it probably reduces the chemical capacity a bunch.;)
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This is the current state-of-the-art in the updated low altitude chemtrail program. The hardware is used either demonstratively, preemptively, or in a reaction mode to hardened pockets of resistance. It has been utilized to suppress agrarian reformers in both North and South America. It has been considered and declined for use in Syria.
 
Kinsman said:
Why, Clark.
What a bigoted thing to say.
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Yes it is. And it is based on living in Montana for awhile. I suppose that sanity might be redefined there since the norm is close to insane. Sorta like the south after the civil war...
 
SkyDog58 said:
Seeing one of those on final when waiting to take off always makes me wonder if he is on an attack run and if I should get the eff out of the way. They are badass looking.
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Back when I was the USAF I was jogging around the running track at Hurlburt AFB in Florida. An AC-130 gunship started doing 360 turns right over the track. I found myself worried that I'd made a smartass remark to the wrong Gunship guy.
 
Clark1961 said:
Yes it is. And it is based on living in Montana for awhile. I suppose that sanity might be redefined there since the norm is close to insane. Sorta like the south after the civil war...
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Shooting at airplanes is not the norm.
In my experience, which is more than a while, Montana is far from insane. In fact, life here in general is much more...well, normal compared with cities I have known. YMMV.
 
Kinsman said:
Shooting at airplanes is not the norm.
In my experience, which is more than a while, Montana is far from insane. In fact, life here in general is much more...well, normal compared with cities I have known. YMMV.
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Yep. Cities and city folk are typically more insane than small town or country folk. Country life is more normal in my mind as well.
 
Kinsman said:
Shooting at airplanes is not the norm.
In my experience, which is more than a while, Montana is far from insane. In fact, life here in general is much more...well, normal compared with cities I have known. YMMV.
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I've lived in 7 states and 4 countries. I'll keep my own counsel on what is normal thankyewverymuch.
 
If you look at most definitions of normal, it deals with what is the most common. What is most common is the city/suburban life.
However, for this discussion, you should really define normal. But I would think, what is normal, is like common sense. If everyone had it, it would not be called common sense.

Tim
 
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