I found this company while searching for homemade plane ideas. I've always the "rugged" look of agri-planes so the planes on this site really caught my eye. The cool part is they are built with foam board and are very stable slow-flyer planes. I've included another link to a guy's vimeo site who's big into FPV. He uses Mud Duck inspired planes and tosses up HD video camera. He's got some really nice video posted.Mud Duck Aviation hereMud Duck video here
I'm glad you commented on the "Quack"; I am not sure what most people think of it. I think about how many people are checking the site out for the first time from work and get that quacking, LOL. I don't want to get anyone in trouble :). When I check stats occasionally, it's interesting to see how many corporate IP's I see.
Yep, I'll be contacting you. I'll need to figure out just how big is too big and then get you to scale to just big enough! But then again, some of the kits really look good too... I like the "quack" when you load up the page too!
I print the plans on my own wide format laser plotter so I can scale to any size you wish. They scale very simply too, very little to change in most cases. You can probably tell from teh images teh simplicity of the design, that they can be easily modified to accomodate your personal needs. The wings are seperate and attach to the fuselage on each side and the struts are completely functional and necessary. This allows the plane to be transported and stored in a surprisingly small area. You can further redue the fuselage footprint by making it two-piece; the forward and aft sections are seperate but joined permanently (in most cases) during assembly. (You can see the seam from teh trailing edge of the wing sweeping forward to the nose.) The manual points out the option to do sao at that juncture of the assembly, although it doesn't spell out exactly how to do it.
Just as an example the Duck you posted (I refer to it as the "Warbird Duck") is a Mud Duck Sport (smaller than the MkII) at 81" wing span, I fit it easily in my 1998 Toyota Camry passenger compartment. I just lay the wings, struts, and wheels on the back seat, I remove the headrest and recline the Passenger seat and place the whole fuselage on the seat (facing forward). Tom Chipley (the original owner of Mud Duck Aviation) designed the original Mud Duck (108" MkI) to fit in his Honda civic hatchback, which is the reason for the "T" tail. The fuse was put into the hatch backwards and the 36" wide horizontal stab rested against the headliner above his head.
With a little ingenuity, you could make the entire Duck collapsible. I don't really have a need to myself and I doubt, many people would be interested in building it since it would be more complex than the super-simple design it is now.
The CricKit is tons of fun on electric power and lighter materials. The original foamboard version on glow power was tricky at times, but we have been playing with FFF and Depron and cheapy electric power setups and having a ball. I plan on reintroducing new kits of that this coming year.
Greg, I think the planes are all awsome! The DIY/simplicity behind them is what makes them so great. Like Gary said, they look fun too. I think I'll be contacting you for some Agri-Duck plans, although it may be a little bigger than I can easily transport. Do they break-down easy for getting into support vehicles? The CricKit looks very fun too.
Thanks for the appreciation of my planes. Here is a video of one of my customers with a Plane Talk system over 10 yeas ago: http://www.mudduckaviation.com/video/Dan%20Thompson's%20coverage%20... In addition to my planes being stable platforms they are also capable of very slow flight which allow for a a higher quality video as well as fitting more frames in and making the ability to take a "cleaner" "still shot" or "frame" from a video.
Comments
I'm glad you commented on the "Quack"; I am not sure what most people think of it. I think about how many people are checking the site out for the first time from work and get that quacking, LOL. I don't want to get anyone in trouble :). When I check stats occasionally, it's interesting to see how many corporate IP's I see.
Greg
Here are converted (although low quality) versions:
AGRI-DUCK
MUD DUCK MkII
MUD DUCK SPORT (kit version)
http://www.mudduckaviation.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10001/005.jpgGreg
Just as an example the Duck you posted (I refer to it as the "Warbird Duck") is a Mud Duck Sport (smaller than the MkII) at 81" wing span, I fit it easily in my 1998 Toyota Camry passenger compartment. I just lay the wings, struts, and wheels on the back seat, I remove the headrest and recline the Passenger seat and place the whole fuselage on the seat (facing forward). Tom Chipley (the original owner of Mud Duck Aviation) designed the original Mud Duck (108" MkI) to fit in his Honda civic hatchback, which is the reason for the "T" tail. The fuse was put into the hatch backwards and the 36" wide horizontal stab rested against the headliner above his head.
With a little ingenuity, you could make the entire Duck collapsible. I don't really have a need to myself and I doubt, many people would be interested in building it since it would be more complex than the super-simple design it is now.
The CricKit is tons of fun on electric power and lighter materials. The original foamboard version on glow power was tricky at times, but we have been playing with FFF and Depron and cheapy electric power setups and having a ball. I plan on reintroducing new kits of that this coming year.
Greg
Greg
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