Troy Built Models Official Blog Be in the know with TBM.

23Sep/111

Success Story: Gerald D Robison’s Scratch built AirTractor

Another TBM Customer Success Story!

"On the internet I go by Cropduster48. I am 63 years old. Have been a real pilot, but no longer fly the real planes. As long as I can remember, I have been in love with thangs that fly. There are no proper plans for the AirTractor I built. Most of the design work was done on the kitchen table. So any one wanting plans for this plane are just out of luck. You can pull up the offical AirTractor web site and get excellent three view drawings. There is nothing fancy about my airframe. 3 mm birch plywood, white foam insulating, and fiberglass. I have about $250.00 in the basic airframe. Many many hours of work though. All fiberglass parts were built in house. TNT built the custom aluminum landing gear. Just a interesting note. The width of the tail was dictated by the width of my pickup truck bed. I built this 132" Fantasy AirTractor 201 using hardware from TBM. It has been a most successival Airplane. Flying weight turned out at 55 LBS. Curent power is a DLE 170. This is a scratch built plane, and is just standoff scale. AirTractor never produced a model 201, or a plane with a flat engine in it. Hense,the fantasy. Every AirTractor pilot I have shown this to realy liked the idea. The plane would have been built in 1956, rated at 235 HP. with a 180 GAL hopper. About the same size plane as a Piper Pawnee, without the wing bracing.


This video was made when the plane was powered by a DLA 112. When I installed the DLE 170, the original round fake engine would no longer work. The easy fix was to make a flat engine cowling, so that is what I did. This plane only tuck 5 months to design and build."

-Mr Gerald D. Robison

7Sep/111

Monster Planes USA October 13th-15th 2011!

Monster Planes will take place at Paradise Field on Lakeland Linder Airport in Lakeland, Florida. All FTE events including Florida Jets, Top Gun, Monster Planes and 12 O’clock High are flown from this custom 800 foot long by 70 foot wide Bermuda Grass runway.

The “Over Fly” area is nothing short of HUGE, allowing plenty of room for wide turns. The surrounding surface is all grass making emergency landings very kind to the aircraft confronted with the emergency. Pilots face north while flying so the sun is never in their face! The site offers plenty of room for tents and vehicles, although we are limited a bit to the number and size of vehicles that may be parked at a participant’s tent.

This event is a Monster Plane get together, not a competition, although, there are several awards for “Best Of” categories. There is a Friday Evening Dinner where these Special Awards are given out. Depending on how many Sponsors participate, there may be as many as 14 different awards.

Monster Planes starts on Thursday but all day Wednesday is used as a set up day and many modelers come early to stake their claim to the prime “tent space” locations. The Registration Booth opens at 8am on Thursday and stays open til 2pm. Same for Friday and Saturday. The cost for Pre-Registration is $50 per pilot. On site Registration fee is $60. The registration covers Sanctioned flying Thursday thru Saturday starts at 9am daily and finishes at 5pm sharp on all days. The flight line will be available on Sunday until 2PM for those who are still in town Sunday morning.

If good weather prevails, something like 4,000 spectators will enjoy the 4 days of flying fun. There is an experienced Flight Line crew on hand all three event days to help insure against traffic problems both in the air and on the ground.The Flight Line features 8 stations spaced safely apart so that all pilots have a great view of the runway and their aircraft at all times. There is Overnight Security so that pilots may leave their tents and aircraft on site if they wish.

The Pilot tents will run the entire length of the field. There will be a separate area for manufacturers. There should be room for everyone in the first or second row of tents and plenty of parking for trailers.

There is parking available for Motor Homes. The fee for parking overnight-camping is $20 per night, dry, no hookups. All contestants and guests are obligated to pay the fee, only Vendors are exempt.

Paradise Field is located on a portion of Lakeland Airport property. The entrance to the site is at the intersection of West Pipkin Road and Air Show Road in Lakeland, Florida. This is on the opposite side of the airport from the terminal building.

GPS Coordinates: Longitude -82.0244 Latitude +27.9748

Actual address for GPS: 4997 Air Show Road

Source: http://franktiano.com/

   
Copyright © 2012 Troy Built Models Official Blog · Powered by WordPress
Go to top ↑