The
Duck was built over a four year span (was a lot of dead time in there) from Louis Pancoast plans with many of the parts cut
by Precision Cut Kits. It has a wing span of 96” am is 75” long. Many of the parts were modified choosing
to do things differently than shown on the plans. One of the biggest changes was getting rid of four pounds in the wings
by not using solid plywood spars both fore and aft as called out. Square 3/8” hardwood was used top and bottom
with shear webs between the ribs. The drawings called for plywood ribs which were replaced with balsa ribs. The
accuracy of the drawings left a lot to be desired therefore degrading the accuracy of some of the laser cut parts. Many
required modification. The power is a Zenoah GT-80 with a Biella three blade 22 X 10 composite propeller. There
are 12 servos in the bird controlled with a Futaba 12Z transmitter and a R6014HS receiver utilizing 13 channels (one
for the ignition cutoff). Flying wires and fittings are from Procter. Durant Direct Drive servo mods
were used on the elevators and rudder. The decals were provided by Custom Cut Graphics. The air retractable landing
gear was designed and built by Century Jet Models and is now listed by them as an available landing gear. The fuselage
sheeting was covered with ½ oz fiberglass and the surfaces all covered with Super Coverite (no longer available) and
painted with Nelson water soluble polyurethane. The finished weight is 37 pounds.
It is really great to taxi the airplane into
the water, pull up the gear, go fly, land, extend the gear and taxi out of the water. It has only flown off a runway
once – the maiden flight – and what is read about the full scale Duck is also true with the model. It is
a much better water airplane than a land airplane! But it does fly great.
