I LOVE the Ag-Cat
I went to my birthplace Nw. Nickerie today. It’s a 3,5 hour drive from Paramaribo where I live now. It’s been more than 6 years since I last went there so it was about time. I stayed for about 5 hours and then came back to Paramaribo. I had to go for work related stuff. While I was there, I used the opportunity to visit the local airstrip in the afternoon. They have some Ag-Cats (agricultural aircraft first built by Grumman, now by Schweizer) there and I was planning to take some pictures. As we were nearing the airstrip, I saw one of the planes landing in the distance, and I got all excited. I didn’t expect them to be working at that time, but this meant I could take even better pictures.
You have to understand that I am crazy about the Ag-Cat. I grew up with some kind of obsession with them. I love airplanes and flying in general, but I have additional special feelings for the Ag-Cat. You probably know the feeling a kid in highschool gets when he sees the girl he has a crush on walk up to him. Multiply that by at least 10, and you have the feeling I get when I see a real Ag-Cat in front of me.
So seeing one of the planes land in the distance, I went absolutely crazy. As soon as we arrived I got out of the car, grabbed my camera and ran up to the plane. They were busy loading it up again with fertilizer or rice seeds (I didn’t really pay attention to what it was because I was too busy admiring the plane).
The design is just beautiful. You can see the pilot and the workers looking at me wondering who I am and why I’m acting so crazy. While it may not look that way in the pictures, the engine was on and idle all the time.
Busy loading up the plane.
Still loading. The pilot seems to be relaxing and enjoying the break.
A peek at the dashboard.
After about 10 minutes it was loaded up and ready to go. The pilot is looking around making sure all is clear and applies thrust. The sight and sound made my heart beat so much faster.
Turning around and heading for the runway.
Taxiing to the end of the runway. (I actually followed the plane on to the runway.)
Turned around and now applying full thrust.
Picking up speed quickly. The noise was incredible as I backed away from the runway.
Simply awesome.
Beginning to lift up from the ground.
And away he goes. Beeee-youtiful!
This alone made my trip worth it. For the next few minutes I was totally high from the experience; my driver must have thought I lost it. I want to go back soon and spend more time there and take more and better pictures.
Another one that’s being worked on in a hangar nearby.
Even more Ag-Cats with the most common colors (yellow/gray).
And that’s it. I’m still very high from all of this, so I think it’s best if I go lie down right now and take some rest.
Update: If anyone from Microsoft reads this, please get this plane into the next version of Flightsimulator!
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 8:14 pm by Karel Donk
and is filed under 
January 12th, 2007 at 10:53 am
As a fellow pilot I have to say you are one sick puppy if you love those BUF,s!
(I takes a gull wing Stinson to get my juices flowing like that
January 12th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Well I guess everyone has his own tastes…
Plus, my Ag-Cat could beat up your Gull Wing Stinson.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Ow man…… sweet memories…. Nickerie a long time a go…You described the feeling so well.. I was I was a student at the spangenberg primary school when I saw them roaring over…When I saw your pictures I was reliving those moments. In short I also have a major crush on the AG CAT!!! In fact it let me to my current residence in Evora Portugal… ( check my blog http://www.lossieboy.blogspot.com/…) Thx for this really nice post I will visit you\’re site more often!!! And I agree only a little with Rob… That i sno cockpit, it is a pit!!;;;) LOL Laters…
January 21st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Hey Michael,
I always ran out of the house in the early morning and afternoon when they would fly over my house. I knew some of the pilots so sometimes they’d wave to me with their hands or wings or fly around and I’d be in heaven!
Well the Ag-Cat cockpit certainly is far from the TB-20 you’re flying in Portugal. Doesn’t look very comfortable, I admit, but I still love the plane
April 1st, 2007 at 3:47 am
dag karel,
ken je me nog? alles goed met jouw
je hebt een leuke site
mijn nummer is 08811244..je kan me altijd bellen
groetjes
martin
November 27th, 2007 at 5:04 am
Hi Karel I stumbled on your site looking for pictures of the Ag Cat. I see you are plane crazy. LOL!
If you go to Avsim and do a search in that sites library for Leonidas Theofilopoulos and or AgCat G-164 you should find a nice AgCat. I have only seen about 3 different AgCats modeled for flightsim so far. The one modeled by Leonidas Theofilopoulos is the best one I have found so far. He modeled it very nicely.
I,m not sure if it will work in FSX but it does work in FS9 or FS2004 The visual model is excellent IMO. I did find I needed to tweak the power settings a little a bit though. I also aliased it’s sound to a nice radial engine sound I downloaded also. You can get better performance if you drastically reduce it’s weight in Flight Simulator.
Since you like the Agcat so much, I wanted to point you where you can find a nice one if you haven’t already seen this one.
Try this link to the avsim library and put the word AgCat into the search space. It should take you directly to the page so you can download it and put it into the game.
http://library.avsim.net/
Hope you find it and really enjoy it as I have. Dave
November 27th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Thanks Dave. I looked it up and the model is a bit old looking. But thanks for the info.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Hey Karl, I probably wouldn’t have checked back with you but a new AgCat just came out and I stumbled across your website again looking for drawings for a turbine AgCat.
So low and behold I found another one for you. It just came out. I believe it is for FS9 and FSX. There are three different downloads to choose from. Three different models.
One with floats
One with wheels
One a crop duster version.
One author did all three of the models. They are all red colored. I have put in a request that someone do a factory green and yellow factory paint for the cropduster. Have to wait and see if someone will do it though. To bring this cropduster to life it really needs a re-paint and needs a good radial engine sound file for it and it will be a perfect model of the AgCat.
The cropduster one is the best IMO. It really comes to life though if you know how to alias the sound to a good radial engine sound though. or even put a complete radial engine sound file in it. Having the right sounds for a model can really add life to a model.
You can find these new downloads for this newer AgCat at:
http://www.simviation.com/downloads.html
These AgCats are in both FSX and in FS9 list. You choose for the game you have.
The Cropduster model is the one with the cockpit canopy on it. Make sure the download title has Cropduster in it, because there are three, and you want to make sure to get that one at the least.
The model is by default set for heavy nose down trim, so when you get airborn make sure you trim it for hands off level flight, or else you may get the impression it doesn’t fly right.
Oh yes, That first model I gave you reference to the other week is a very good model, it is painted to look weathered. Thus it looks old. I do not use FSX so I don’t know if ithat one will work properly in FSX, but it flys real good in FS9.
I hope you enjoy this new red cropduster one that just came out for FS9 and FSX.
The author of the red cropduster says he will try to do a turbine agcat if someone can find three view and some measurements, so there might be one of these looking ahead.
Later, later. Have fun!
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
A pal of mine down flys an AG-CAT super-b high wing model. With a pratt. turbine. Dave if your pal needs info and pics tell him to contact me. We just pulled an anual on the plane getting ready for the season. Dolph
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
My e-mail is awawaw@wildblue.net
February 10th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I fly a Walter Turbine Super “B” AgCat in the midwest. They are toughest, safest, Ag plane in the business. I have the greatest job in the world. Where else can person work 4 months out of the year flying a plane 5 foot off the ground dodging trees, houses, and power lines…and on top of that make a good living. Aerial spraying is the only place I know where you can do this.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Wow, the memories….. I grew up in the duster community as my father was a cropduster and my uncle. They both flew Ag-cats (my uncle still owns one ). My father dies when his Cat went down in P.R. in 1971. I\’ve been looking for a good Ag-Cat ad on for FSX but so far the ones I\’ve found don\’t work very well with FSX.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hi mark here. My first love is the Stearman crop dusters. A 450 wrecked in my dads cotton field when I was 5yrs old (1966) in Oro loma CA. Ag Air had a bunch of them. The last one to work one was Spain Air in Dos Palos CA (super 600 with full cockpit cover) in 1980. All gone now. I’ll take a super 600 Ag Cat and work it right now. Hope to buy one to use to fight grass fires in Oklahoma soon.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:49 am
hey Karel, I live at an airport in Iowa, and my dad is putting metal on the wings on a AgCat. The owner has an ariel spraying buissness and has 6 or 7 AgCats. I’m just as crazy about them as you are. I hope to buy one and restore it. I’m looking for a paper model of one. Would you know where to get one?