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It's never too late to considered getting back into flying...
If you contact a nearby EAA chapter, folks there are always friendly and helpful.
One of the strangest use of a plane for spraying I ever saw was a B-25.
Our family was visiting my parents on their anniversary in Daytona Beach, Florida, staying on Sanibel Island.
It was early morning and suddenly, out of nowhere, three planes came roaring past at treetop level, all spraying, one a B-25. These old restored warbirds are worth a fortune, hard to imagine one being used to spray chemicals!
I don't know if you've ever heard of Gene Soucy, the youngest pilot to ever win the World Aerobatic Championship many years ago.
He performed aerobatics at airshows in a Pawnee (Ag Cat?). During one airshow in Glendale, Arizona I was briefly introduced to him by a pilot fiend. My friend's son knew Gene, they had gone through training together to qualify as control tower operators.
At that time Gene was preparing for an aerobatic routine at a Glendale fly-in, and was up on a ladder fueling a large bi-plane. I don't recall the plane, but I'd seen him fly it at other airshows... looked something like a Stearman.
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Oh yeah - Mitchell B-25 medium bomber..that would’ve been awesome to see! There’s an air museum in Nowra NSW Australia (the spot on the planet where I’m at), and it’s full of decommissioned military planes and some of them they use to do fly-by’s over the runway on weekends to the delight of the crowds.
My friend used to teach in his Piper Pawnee, as it was retrofitted to have two seats (albeit squishy, and if you both had long legs, there was not full control ability of the ailerons in roll! Haha).
I used to watch him when he would take the Pawnee up and put it through it’s paces after a 100hourly, and it was amazing to watch what that thing can do..like taking a Porsche 911 and putting it to work towing a trailer!
The Ag Cat is a biplane, and much bigger in size than the Piper 🙂
My friend bought his from the States, and flew it back to Au in stages.
It’s always nice to meet a flight legend. Haven’t met one myself, but used to watch them a fair bit at air shows🙂