Ok guys, here we go. Ever since I saw Dave Blum’s Air Tractor I thought it was the cutest little ugly plane or ugliest little cute plane I ever saw. It’s kind of like a frog, ugly but you got to love’em. I promised myself once I finished the Duchess I would try to build one. This is what I have so far.

Thanks Dave for letting me build this plane.

-LL

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Wow you are now my new scratch building hero! I love your work!! lol




Jon

Very cool! Keep the pics coming as you build.

-Brad

and i thought i was the only one

Hey Robbie d, and I thought I was the only one interested in the Air Tractor. Welcome abroad, maybe we can share some ideas along the way. I see you have already cut your ribs but just for show I stacked mine and cut them all at once.

For the dihedral brace I substituted 1/32 ply for two 1/64 ply to make a box beam.

Have fun...

-LL

Maybe i can talk Dave into letting me kit the Air tractor too.

Mike

lefty,
i'm all outa thin plywood so i think i'll just use some this carbon sheet i've got lying around, same idea, dihedral brace front and back of spar.
I saw a good idea to use instead of the usual torque rods. a carbon rod runs into the side of the aileron and just has a vertical riser glued to the other end to connect to the servo. no precision bending needed.

Mike,
i can see Dblum bouncing off the walls if you decide to kit the airtractor.

Nope, you two aren't the only ones. I have a closet fantasy to have one, myself. LL, are you going to link the ailerons and rudder to one servo, or independant? I'm curious how effective the scale aileron section will be

Martin

Well Martin, come out of the closet and come on in. I'm going to set mine up with pull-pulls and mix rudder with aileron with my JRX-347. I'm doing mine as close to Dave's as I can but red trim instead of blue. I don't know how well I'll do but I'm going to give it a try. You may as well build one with us. You'll need something to do while … well did you here the news about the Duchess?

Lefty,
are you building your as a crop duster??????
I'm gonna be different and make a water bomber.
Those are the only versions i see around here, not too often thankfully.
Although their turbine sounds nice up close, absolutely nothing compares to the kidney thumping sound of the radial powered ones. well, maybe a merlin mkII without exhaust stubs, now That is a sound i'll never forget.

That looks neat!

Is there a thread on this plane somewhere that I missed?

Matthew

Another beauty Lefty and Leroy

The AirTractor is my fav plane too

Josh