I received Two of the new E-Flite Air Tractors on Tuesday. added a little more color and pin stripping. I finished most of what I am going to add to this Plane. The weather was sorta nice 36 degrees and 10 mph winds so this afternoon I loaded the Air Tractor in the truck and put the First test flights on it flew out 3, 4 cell 2200 batteries and had a total time of just over 24 minutes of flying time on the new Air Tractor. All it needed to trim it was three clicks of up elevator, right out of the box. I did not have to change any of the linkage other than to make sure all linkage was tight. Now back to the work shop. My flying buddy and I are designing a spray system for this one.
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I added some more blue paint to the top rear of the fuselage and had my brother do a little video of this one. We didn't get a shot of the perfect landing though he touched the screen on my I Phone X and shut of the video. LOL!!!!!
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Went out today and flew the E-Flite Air Tractor another One hour or more the Aluminum gear is very light and to springy for my liking and if not greased in on landing the gear spreads and starts the plane porpoising, made a spreader bar on the bottom of the gear. Also kept moving the Admiral 4 cell battery back until I got the CG where I like it, now flies inverted hands off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YEL3aEVOHEComment
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Went out again today and played with the flaps flying in a 10 to 15 mph gust wind, Actually put another hour flying time on it a little cold though 28 degrees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6EmqJMrVLU&t=35sComment
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Nice flying!
I've got one awaiting assembly and a chance to make to the airfield for a maiden.Comment
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Thank you. I love flying figure eights close to the ground. You will love how nice the Air Tractor flies and has great power with a 4 cell 2200. I am currently painting the floats to go fly it off the snow we are going to get in the next two days here in the Black Hills weather was dropping off yesterday and in the high 20's today. they are guessing around 3 to 6 inches of the white stuff. Also just got in the new UMX Timber I painted last night and am mounting now to fly off the snow tomorrow if the winds go down
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Just finished the right side float for the Air Tractor, and the Left one is painted and drying. Then I can do the pin stripping on it. Should have them finished and installed to night so I can fly the Air Tractor off the 12" of new soft snow, still snowing today. Nice soft fluffy stuff great to use my float plane for. Ski's just sink and flip the planes
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Finished painting and and adding trim and pin stripping last night. Wanted to mount the floats and fly it off the snow today, but thanks to the poor quality control of new options the brackets and mounting srew package was not in the float fit had to call Horizon so they can get the installation package out to me so I can fly it off the snow if we have any left by the time I receive it. Thanks Horizon
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That's a good looking Ag Wagon! I like the colors, especially. Where is your adjusted CG now?Live Q&A every Tuesday and Friday at 9pm EST on my Twitch Livestream
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I haven't checked the Cg yet with the floats on the E-Flite Air Tractor 402 When I finally decided to paint and put the floats on I discovered that all the supposedly supplied brackets and installation self tapping screw package was not in with the floats. So I am still waiting for those from Horizon. I also am waiting for four new Admiral 4 cell 3000 batteries for the Air Tractor that are on their way with my new Havoc Racer. I ordered Monday. The floats came out better than I expected then to. The Rust-Oleum 2X gloss Marigold was a close match but not perfect. I also Added rivets high lighted the panel lines and painted all the tips on the tail and wing in Apple Red, and Added red on the bottom of fuse and floats, and the Blue on the top. The Air Tractor was just to plane Jane right out of the box. Now it is quite the Eye catcher when I take it out. I will have to check the CG with the 4 cell 3000's when I get them. I kept moving the 4 cell 2200's rearward until it would climb at a 45 degree just over 1/2 throttle and not drop the nose. I had moved the battery back over 1 1/2 from recommended position may more. PS thank you for the nice comment AlphaComment
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After finishing the Floats. and finding enough self tapping screws plus a couple washers due to Horizons poor quality control. non of this was in the Optional float kit to mount the floats 2. Secure the back section of the fl oats to the fuselage using the included bracket (F) and two 3mm x 10mm self tapping screws (G). 3. Secure the front section of the fl oats using the two included 3mm x 12mm self tapping screws (H) to secure the front support members to the bottom of the fuselage. So I went done to Ace Hardware and picked up everything I needed to mount the Optional float Set (Ace is the place for the RC Modeler to find the hardware We need LOL!!!! ) As far as the CG with the floats installed I had to push the
4 cell Admiral 2200 as far forward as possible to balance it in the recommended 65 to 70 mm actual came out at 68mm
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While assembling the Turbo Otter I took a short break to add this to my Air Tractor. Seems like every time I get back from flying it I add some more scale features. just added the windshield wiper so I can see where I'm going. LOL!!!!
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Seems like after flying the new E-Flite 1.5 m Air-Tractor 402. I get home and add more scale Items to the plane LOL!!!. just got this in to add on top of the Canopy, just like on the Full scale 402, it plugs into the receiver. A rotating Beacon. Now back to making the Spray bars and nozzles for it.
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Whent out flying this Bird in the April Snow storm we just got the other day, 8 to 12" of the White stuff. The E-Flite Air Tractor flies much better off floats then the conventional gear.
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Can you please post a picture of the brace mod that you made to the gear? I just got one of these and want to reinforce the gear.Comment
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I have been rather busy working lately. Reddog15 here is what I did to make the gear stronger. I did not like the light gear, this came with . That being said I thought of how I wanted to take care of the weak gear causing this plane to bounce badly even when making a decent landing. I had some Air foiled aluminum that I make struts with so I used a piece of it and the ends off another gear set I cut the bottom ends off of and install the ends into the air foiled piece about an inch. tapped the axle ends from the other gear, tapped the two holes in the Air Tractor gear and mounted the spreader bar between the legs of the Air tractor gear to fit. Then I disassembled and epoxied the two gear ends in the air foiled aluminum spreader bar to finish then painted to match now I can make a not so nice a landing with out all the bouncing and resulting in a porpoising condtinon PROBLEM SOLVED
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I finally got tired of the spring actuated tail wheel assembly and modified it with solid linkage. WOW what a difference. I also finished installing the strobe light on top of the canopy and used a Y harness to connect it with the existing lighting. The main gear modification I made also works great and got rid of the weak springy action also changed the axles with Klett 1/8 axles. The original wheels fit just right on the 1/8 inch axles
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On the last flight I made with my Air Tractor last night I good see one of the tail struts dangling under the plane. When I got home I good Why , bad glue joint so I pulled the other side loose which had a bad glue joint to and pulled loose very easy I missed up 15 minute epoxy and glued bothe left and right tail struts back in
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Good looking plane!
I've always had a soft spot for those air tractors. Looks like a great flier also.Roy MayoralComment
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