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Old 11-29-2018, 02:32 PM   #365
woofa.express
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Tocumwal, NSW, Australia
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Default Re: tell a Model A related story

In answer to your questions 40Deluxe.

When a bull gets pellets in his backside he will run further. Sometimes still not far enough so one needs to assess just that before taking the time and going to the trouble of encouraging him. Sometimes cantankerous old cows need a hurry up too. Cows with calves at foot would bail up and I would leave them behind. Some years after my time mustering a drive was made to eliminate TB in the Northern Territory and everything that couldn’t be mustered was shot from helicopter.
How far could we run them. Depends on several factors.
Time of year. Longer into the dry season they lost condition so the less distance.
Ground surface under foot. Stony ground the shorter distance of course.
Temp of day.
And most importantly, if one chose the direction correctly they wanted to run. Tracks on the ground were a good indication.
What is better? Aeroplane or helicopter. Each has their place.
My correct aim of 12 gauge from aeroplane. Must have because it had an immediate effect.
Hessian wings to portable yard. Hang it from wire running between temporary steel posts. It works well unless rotor downwash blows hessian outwards and reveals vision on other side then they bust and it is almost impossible to hold them. Hessian can be pinned to a bottom wire.
Cattle mustered by aeroplane are run into coaches and by helicopter into temporary portable steel yards. Well designed and well built robust steel yards. They could be quite difficult to handle, the cattle that is.
What aeroplane is best? I used C172, Piper Cub and Mooney. Like ag work, low wing is preferable because the wing does not obscure vision in the turn. The Mooney wasn’t suitable because it needed good ground tomake a landing where as the other two could be landed on tracks, roads and other places where the surface was smooth. There was no ideal aeroplane. Spray planes had too high a fuel burn thus short endurance. Best helicopter. It doesn’t matter but the only one I have had experience on is the Bell 47.
Am I an authority on aerial mustering, well I haven’t done it since 1973. You be the judge.
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