Aerial Fertilising with Autair Helicopter
Photograph taken by Don MacCaskill and image courtesy of Bridget MacCaskill, Strathyre. Don was based as Head Forester at Inverinan from about 1960 through to about 1968 before transferring initially to Allean Forest and then Strathyre Forest in 1972.
The helicopter has landed to take on a new load of fertiliser. The writer recalls well the whole noisy, very dusty and exciting operation. Two railway sleepers were dug in to the ground and levelled off in a position to allow the helicopter to land on them. Phosphate fertiliser, in half hundred weight bags, was piled in low heaps on either side with a gap between them and the sleepers. Twelve empty 5 gallon oil drums had their tops cut off, edges rounded and each were filled with a riddled bag of fertiliser and 6 placed at either side next the sleeper. Riddling was essential to take any lumps and stones out for helicopter safety as one hopper remaining full would jeopardise the helicopter (also reduced the risk to the markers but cannot remember that ever coming up in any safety discussions!). All this was done while helicopter was spreading.
Each team is quickly pouring in the six ‘buckets’ into each hopper. The machine could take a little more when partially empty of fuel and if need to complete a particularly long spreading run. You can see that some bags of fertiliser have been set up with slit tops ready for refilling the ‘buckets’ which in this case seem to have come in a variety of shapes ands sizes and note Kraft on one and handles on others. The riddles were usually tins with rabbit wire on the bottom and the whole lot were pretty bashed at the end of a session. No polypropylene plastic then! Peter Nutting was the name of one memorable pilot.
Can anyone name the loaders and location circa 1969/70?
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Groups: Aircraft in Forestry Work, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people