Becoming an agricultural pilot wasn’t something Emily Daniel envisioned for herself. As she tells it, she always wanted to be a meteorologist—even today, as she and her husband, Austin, run Wings Aerial Applicators, a crop-dusting business based in New Jersey—so this wasn’t part of the script, or was it?
“Long story short, I’m a third-generation pilot, and my grandfather was actually a crop duster,” Daniel tells FLYING from her office in New Jersey. At the time, she says they’re harvesting cranberries, and she’s waiting for the next available dump truck, so she has an hour to talk. Speaking of her familial history, aviation has always been in her bloodline. In his time, her grandfather used Piper J-3 Cubs and Boeing Stearman biplanes.
