Orient helicopter pilot flies in to talk to students

Orient-Macksburg elementary school students Calvin and Louise Petter got the ride of their life to school last Wednesday when their dad, Kris, flew them in on a helicopter.

Kris Petter flies helicopters as an occupation, mostly using them to spray and apply seed for various clients.

The entire school stood outside the baseball field fence to watch Petter land, then groups got to see the chopper up close and ask him questions about what he does.

He showed students the different parts of the helicopter and a few of these make his unique to others, like the spray utilities that stretch out from both sides of the bottom of the aircraft. He explained that the two types of jobs he is hired for include crop dusting and utility work.

Petter receives contracts from local co-ops, ag retail businesses and directly from farmers on the crop dusting side.

He said utility work isn’t just power line work specifically. It can also include helping place an AC unit on top of a skyscraper or trimming trees with a special saw that hangs from the chopper. Firefighting also falls into the category of utility work.

Students asked Petter many quality questions during his visit.

Petter showed the blades on the top of the helicopter, saying the number of blades mainly has to do with how each model of helicopter was designed. More blades often means each individual blade is shorter. Those aircraft can carry more weight for the speed they’re flying. A new set of blades can cost $200,000.

Maintenance is performed a regular intervals on the helicopters. General ongoing maintenance of the helicopter is estimated at approximately $500 per hour. Many parts of the helicopter have a number of hours they’re good for before they have to be overhauled or replaced.

While Petter is a certified mechanic for the helicopters, another person is certified to check-off on his work either during or after the work is completed.

“I specifically chose an aircraft with two [blades]. It fits in my hangar easier and it’s easier to work on that way,” Petter said. “Aircraft that have, say, five can be a lot harder to work on.”

Fuel economy is calculated in hours, and Petter’s aircraft consumes 31 gallons per hour, which is more than four times that of a Cessna, which is a popular small airplane. Because the total weight of his loaded helicopter can’t exceed a certain amount, the more chemical he carries limits the amount of fuel he can have on board, leading him to have to refuel a lot more often. He refuels and reloads chemicals by landing on top of a truck.

“I maybe get two loads of chemical and then have to refuel. I wouldn’t want to run out of fuel when I’m spraying. I have a buddy who has done it and he said it wasn’t fun. He just put it down in a field. He got really lucky he didn’t damage anything,” Petter said. “He wasn’t going very fast, but if you’re going fast while you’re spraying and were to have a power failure, it’s easily survivable but typically, because of the corn that’ll drag on the booms, the aircraft is destroyed.”

A teacher joked and asked Petter if he even makes any money doing this, knowing the high cost of maintaining a helicopter.

“Not a lot,” Petter responded. “If I didn’t love doing this I sure wouldn’t do it. It doesn’t pay so well that if I wasn’t having fun I would still do it. Helicopters are more a career passion than for making money. The people who make a lot of money flying are the people who work for the airlines. I could quit tomorrow and go get a job for an airline and make quadruple what I make.”