The three signals
- Declined acres exceed what a second setup could fly (with margin for weather days).
- Your ground station is no longer the bottleneck (fix that first — it's far cheaper than an aircraft).
- You have booked commitments, not hopes, for next season.
What a hired pilot must have
Legally: their own Part 107. Your Part 137 certificate covers the operation, and your exemption sets conditions on who may fly under it — read it carefully. For chemical work they must be a licensed applicator, or work under your certified applicator's direct supervision per your state's rules. Safe pattern: the person flying holds the applicator license.
Pay structures that work
- Seasonal hourly — simplest; fine for a loader/second pilot in year one.
- Per-acre bonus on top of a base — aligns incentives without encouraging corner-cutting.
- Salary + season bonus — for a lead pilot you want back next year.
Beware pure per-acre pay: it quietly rewards skipping calibration checks and flying in marginal wind.
Train in this order
- Loader/ground crew for a full season — they learn chemical, records, and your standards.
- Supervised flying on simple, low-risk fields.
- Independent flying on easy fields; you review every record.
- Complex fields (wires, tight buffers, sensitive neighbors) only after demonstrated judgment.
Systematize before you scale
Write down: pre-flight checklist, calibration procedure, record process, drift decision rules, the abort call. Quality problems don't scale linearly — they multiply. Leave it in your head and your second pilot invents their own version. Start with our pre-flight checklist and crew roles.
Confirm pilot/supervision requirements against your exemption and state rules. Multi-aircraft legality: swarm operations.
Want it flown for you?
FAA Part 107 licensed. Applicator licence and Part 137 in progress — we fly the moment we’re cleared. Lock in a price now, or keep learning.