Wed 3 Sep 2008
Hi everyone …
Wow, that was intense! After Gustav and the flurry of posts to this blog, its been a nice few days to take it easy and focus on my job, not a looming hurricane. Thanks again for all the messages that i received and posts to this blog. It was great to hears from so many of you.
Hurricane looming eh? Well, it just so happens that Hurricane Ike just became a Category 3 in the Atlantic. It does not look as if it will come to Cayman, however, 5-day forecasts have it possibly giving us rain this week-end. Great, another week-end indoors 🙁 Oh well, life in the Caribbean. I was supposed to do my open-water diving certification last week-end, that was canceled. Lets hope I can do it this week-end.
In one of my posts early in the Gustave episode, I showed a picture (see “Hurricane Gustav – Update 8”) of a mosquito plane that is used here in Grand Cayman. These planes distribute mosquito stuff to control the populations. Here is a video that shows just how low they fly. They only fly at night (when the mosquitoes are out), but it still gives you an idea of how low they fly. On one occasion, the plane flew so low and directly above our house that it light up our whole living room.
I am no aviation specialist, but I would be very surprised if he was flying a lot above 100ft. At one point on them movie, you can see that when he is on the second pass, he flies behind a 2-story house and disappears. That’s low!
That guy does have a cool job 🙂
Allo,
J’ai trouvé ceci :
Why does the mosquito plane fly so low?
Adult mosquito control product labels require that we apply them at 100-300 feet above ground level.
http://www.tetonmosquito.org/faq.html
C’est le site du comté de Teton, au Wyoming.
Pour les agriculteurs qui font arroser leur champ par avion, je dirais que c’est pas mal moins que 100 pieds d’altitude, mais ils font ça le jour. Dans un quartier résidentiel, la nuit, il faut s’assurer de passer au-dessus des maisons et des fils électriques 😉
Sur un autre site ils parlaient de Mosquito Helicopter à 150 pieds, à Naples en Floride.
Yves
Hoping you are able to get your certification soon. When we were there 2 weeks ago, my 10 yr/old was able to finish her open water certification – very exciting! Good friend in Charleston SC is dreading Hannah and even moreso Ike. In her resort biz, hurricanes don’t bode well for business overall. Loved the video.. but in the visits to Cayman, I’ve yet to see the planes, and have the memories of the bites to show for it. 🙂 I have enjoyed meals at Calypso Grills sans the squeeters, must be the planes.
Lisa