Crop dusting

Growing up in the 1980s my household always looked forward to the tennis season. After a long bleak winter, we would hunt for where we left our racquets, dusting them off in anticipation of play. We were always disappointed if it happened to rain on a Saturday or if the weather was expected to exceed 37 degrees because this meant play was not possible. As far as we were concerned, there was nothing that should stop us from playing. Unless, of course, our home game happened to coincide with a crop duster spraying the field next to the courts. When this happened, we would down racquets and head to the fence for a closer look, desperate to catch as close a look as possible at this aircraft which must surely have been flown by a madman. We would stare in awe as the plane went back and forth, wondering who in their right mind would want to fly that close to the ground! I am sure there were some players who watched, fearful that the pilot would get too low, an outcome that thankfully never happened. With the job done, the pilot would then fly off to the next location and we would resume the game, scratching our heads as we tried to remember what the score was. As far as I recall these instances of watching crop dusting were the first planes that I ever saw in operation and to the best of my recollection are best represented by this aircraft being flown at Narromine. To this day when I think back to playing tennis as a youngster, I fondly recall the memory of watching crop dusting. The two memories are intertwined.

Submitted by Chris Holden