Single Engine Air Tanker (SLURRY BOMBER)

[GPutt33]

Ok Guys - Here was my first semi-scale kit build. It started out as a Sig Four Star 120. I tried to scale it after an AirTractor 802F-SEAT and I call it the 'Fire Boss'. We lost a couple of the older convereted military slurry bombers a few years back (real life Full Scale - Hawkins and Power, Greybull, WY), and the gov't grounded the whole bunch of them. Well, fires still needed to be fought, so AirTractor scaled up their largest crop duster and created the worlds largest single engine turbo prop. I decided I wanted to do something different, and I wanted to do something in the memory of the pilots and aircrews who lost their lives and their families. I think I may have built the first RC Slurry Bomber that actually has a functioning hopper. I can drop about 2 cups of baby powder or flour. It actaully looks pretty good low and slow with full flaps. Water was just to heavy to try I thought. A picture of it actually got posted in MAN, along with a video clip of it on their website (click trips - July 2005). These pics are of a slurry drop to put out a fire after a 100+" Cub augered in during a Fly In and the pilot asked us to put the fire out Since then other guys are building them and one guy in Montana is even getting ready to kit one out, he already has a 100" AT502 cropduster that is amazing. I guess the only thing I've change since these pics were taken is I installed a scale tail wheel and a custom main gear from TnT. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it

"We Fly Where The Devil Dances" - is the motto on my wings.

Well, just thought I'd share it. I guess I'll come out of the closet, and let you all know that I am also wanting to get into a big warbird, and the new H9 150 Mustang looks just like the ticket

[SleepyC]

Ok dude.

1) thats really a very sweet job. Congrats!

2) Are you "putting out" the Crashed Cub?!?!

if so... THATS IS AWESOME.... OMG... I want to build one of these keep it in the van, and when someone goes in... BAM out she comes to the rescue!!

Nice job!!

[GPutt33]

Hi SleepyC - Glad you like it. It's been a lot of fun and folks seem to enjoy seeing it. This particular Fly In just happened to have me and the Cub up at the same time. We were getting ready to just do a Slurry Drop in front of the crowd when the Cub went in. The pilot walked over and said that since we were going to drop a load anyhow, we might as well give the crown a little bit more excitement and do it over the Cub. So we did, and the crowd loved it, but I felt bad for the Cub pilot, it was an awesome plane. It is however flying again. The foks here in Wyoming like it, but I haven't got to take it over the mountains and do a tribute flight to the guys at H&P yet. Even though they went under, most of the guys are still there with the new company. Hopefully next summer

[SleepyC]

Very very cool!

Unique planes are always a pleasure to see modeled.

Good luck with it, hope you have many many flights!

[rede2fly]

that is a very nice looking plane. great job. can you dye or put coloring in the powder? i saw some fire planes droping retardent that was orange when i lived in montana. just a stones throw from you. Billings

[rcflyguy]

Hey! Greg!!

I remember that day!!!
I'm glad to see it's still flying. Who ever was at the sticks, has some skills!!!

Scott

[GPutt33]

I tried mixing in a bunch of red carpenters chalk with the baby powder ONE TIME With the Saito 150 inverted and the pitts muffler letting a little oil ooze down the bottom, it made a heck of a mess to clean up So now I just stick to the straight baby powder or flour and simulate a straight water drop versus the slurry. The slurry is used not only as an extra fire retardant but it also helps in marking previous drops in the full scale world. Glad you liked it. And Yep, you were close before headed south

[rede2fly]

i'll bet it did. do you use coolpower 30% in the 4 stroke?? if so i know what a mess it could have been.

[RappyMan]

I was going to ask about how much of a mess the flour makes on the plane. I tried "bombs" with a bomb bay door on a plane. The bomb was a empty yogurt cup that had been filled to the top with ashes out of the fireplace. Looked pretty cool with "smoke" trailing the cup on the way down. Then I did a roll and upset the cup and had ashes through the inside of the plane & then noticed it was stuck all over the place on the outside too. No more ash bombs. Wadded up paper is fun to see how close you can get to someone.

[LawnJockey]

The THRUSH planes are way cool. We had 4 of them flying around our place last year when a fire got a little close. I wanted to convert a AG WAGON to one. Looks great. .
My new plane is a DR-1 with a Quadra 35. Should fall like a ton-o-bricks

Bruce

[wizard]

Very nice. I saw an article once on a scale flying boat water bomber. It had functional water tanks with scoops. It worked just like the full scale. A high speed taxi across the water forced the water into the scoop up into the tanks. It had 4 separate tanks and each tank could be dropped individually or in any combination. I will have to see if I can find the article again. It will take a day or two to dig through my stack of mags to find it.

[GPutt33]

Hi Guys - Thanks for the comments. The Thrush planes are nice, but AirTractor is actually another company out of Texas. The owners of the Thrush and AirTractor use to be partners, and then went seperate ways from what I understand. You can certainly see the comparison.

Hi Scott I'm glad you were there to fly those first maiden flights for me What's wierd is those are still the best (and only) shots it acutally flying that I have. This year the new video camera is going to be used to get some new shots of it as well as still shots. Still flys great and is STILL a floater trying to land. Our club here is paved, and I usually use all 550 ft getting it to settle in and slow down enough to get it turned around. ABout the only thing I've changed on the AirTractor is to install a scale tail wheel and few more things in the cockpit I still don't fly it as must as I should.

I still love flying that little Ultra Stick 40 I had before I left as well as the Twist 3D. What I've really been flying the dog snot out of late this year are the Twist 60 with an OS 91 in it and an Ultra Stick Lite 120 with an OS 160 in it. This coming season will be the year I plan on getting into a gasser. Am trying to decided on one of the YAK's, just don't know which one yet.

Hope you guys are doing great out there, think of you often. Drop me a PM one of these days and catch me up on who is left and what you guys have been up to