Questions for Chuter (Michael)

[barnstorm2]

Michael,

I have some questions to pass on to you about your custom tractor.


What size tubing i/d or o/d and what wall thickness?


How many feet to build and what size tubing goes where?

Was the rotor head built or bought?

Would the air frame support a 0-320 Lycoming and still balance right as a 1 place or 2 place?

Thanks!

 

[chuter]

Hi Tim,

I’ll try and answer from memory; I didn’t document any of the tubing sizes, and sort of made it up as I went along.

The cabin part of the fuselage is ½ x .049 tubing. The top longerons on the rear part of the fuselage are ½ x .049, and the bottom longeron is 5/8 x .049.

The diagonal braces in the rear part of the fuselage are 3/8 x .035.

I’m not sure about how many feet of tubing it took; I was using tubing I had left over after I built my first fuselage (that I ended up selling), so I didn’t purchase this tubing just for this fuselage.

I bought my rotorhead from Ernie. His heads have extra fore/aft travel (I think it’s about 28 degrees) and this helps with a taildragger since the fuselage tilts back while on the ground and you need to be able to push the stick forward and get the blades close to level.

I’m not an engineer, but I wouldn’t put an engine that weighed much more than the 582 I’ve got on my fuselage. I think Ron says his Little Wing will support 200lbs of engine, and it has bigger tubing than mine.

Hope this helps!

 

[barnstorm2]

That helps greatly Michael thanks!

I will relay the info.

I have been hearing about alot of tractor projects in the works, sounds like there is a big comeback on the way.

 

[miner49er]

Hey Tim and Mike,
Thanks for the info. like your tractor Mike, have just about talked myself into
building one. Do you recommend the Little Wing prints?
You can e-mail me at [email protected].
Before I got into mining I was a cop and emt....HATED THEN BOTH!!!!
Carey Highfield
Vanceburg,Ky
P.S. I'm the guy Tim froze out in his A.C. a month ago.

 

[chuter]

Hi Carey,

Yes, I recommend Ron's Little Wing plans if you're thinking of building a Little Wing or something like it.

There's a lot of good info in there.

 

[miner49er]

Thanks Mike,
Carey