Mini-Dusty Promotes Ag Aviation Industry's, Wilbur-Ellis's 100th Anniversaries

摘要

Eric Klindt has gotten into the spirit of celebrating the 100th anniversaries of the agricultural aviation industry and his employer, Wilbur-Ellis, by paying homage to the lead character of Disney's Planes animated films. Klindt, a pilot with Wilbur-Ellis in Wahpeton, North Dakota, built a life-size replica version of Dusty Crophopper that he refers to as Mini-Dusty. Mini-Dusty's fuselage encases a Snapper riding lawnmower (with its grass-cutting blades removed) that Klindt can drive or tow. He unveiled the recently completed replica Dusty Crophopper to the public at the Blue Goose Days parade in Wahpeton on June 5. Mini-Dusty was towed by none other than his good buddy Chug, another Planes character Klindt recreated by painting an old fuel truck to look like Chug. The live-action version of Chug was born soon after the original Planes movie came out in 2013. However, Mini-Dusty wasn't completed until a few months ago when Klindt committed himself to completing a hobby project that he first initiated years earlier when he started retrofitting a lawnmower to look like a tail-dragger airplane.