Great Planes Super Stearman with a 50cc

[pitviper51]

video!

[ken crane]

have not forgot. waiting for the transfer from the tape to cd. my camera does not have video out sorry... shes a beauty

[shawrowe]

Thanks for your help so far Ken. I'm still in the process of ordering all the "extras" for my Super Stearman and I had a question for you. You installed an opto kill switch. How exactly does this work? I was just going to use a switch like the one you use to turn your receiver on/off in order to turn the ignition battery on/off for the CDI. Why did you choose a different kill switch and would you recommend I go with the opto kill switch as well? Thanks for any help you can provide! -Shaw

[ken crane]

	Quote: Originally Posted by shawrowe
	Thanks for your help so far Ken. I'm still in the process of ordering all the "extras" for my Super Stearman and I had a question for you. You installed an opto kill switch. How exactly does this work? I was just going to use a switch like the one you use to turn your receiver on/off in order to turn the ignition battery on/off for the CDI. Why did you choose a different kill switch and would you recommend I go with the opto kill switch as well? Thanks for any help you can provide! -Shaw

opto kill switch is the way it should be set up. i do believe you still should have a mechanical switch as well. here is a how to link on what it does and how it works.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=375
http://www.42-percent-products.com/gas-accessories.htm

all gasoline engines should have one. i confess i have not done so but will on all my planes in the next few weeks. heres a perfect example why. let me first set this up. i have a patty wagstaff with a crrc 50 as well. i fly fast as it will go. upline downline rolling banking. i break all the rules and the speed limits. last weekend we had the holiday and we flew for 3 solid days. i must of flown that plane 30 times. during this time i started noticing tracking problems on hard over cuban 8s over the top. it wouldnt come out in the same plane it went in. then i noticed it was pulling hard to the right under hard aceleration. i brought it down and it was at 1/3rd throttle and was a bitch to try and land. i then while flying i went into the sub trim to try and trim it lower just to land. i managed to get it on the ground. at this point i should havd shut it down and pushed it in to the pits. nope i chose to taxi it. guess what? down the taxi way when i accelerated to move it it went back to 1/3 throttle and i had to turn it into the high grass to keep it from going into the pits. what had happened is i flew it so hard i pulled the front half of the firewall off. the moral to this story is if i had an ignition cut off not radio trim i could have landed dead stick and not risked hurting someone or my favorite plane.

[2robinhood]

any video yet?

[ken crane]

	Quote: Originally Posted by 2robinhood
	any video yet?

i know i know its no good without video.... we have not been able to fly for 3 weeks. i am like a drug addict jonesing. its hunting season here and we can only use our field on sundays until thanksgiving.its been too windy or raining for the last 3 sundays. sucks big time. bought a new video camera and sunday looks awesome here. more to follow.

[drbyrnes]

Hey, Ken.

I didn't think Barney Frank would allow you guys to hunt in the great state of Massachusetts?!?!
Looking forward to your video. It must be pretty windy at your field most of the time, right?

[Mainer_Jim]

	Quote: Originally Posted by ken crane
	bingo. from now on it will say bottom. thats what happens when you work upside down

That has happened to me a few times now. I decided to put a "Happy Face" on the bottom (or the installer's side) instead of the word 'bottom', which my brain has somehow found a way to ignore. When the happy face is smiling at me, the tank is in the right way!

Jim

[Mainer_Jim]

	Quote: Originally Posted by shawrowe
	Hi, I am buying materials to build my Super Stearman and I was wondering why you chose the Robart pin hinges as apposed to something like the Great Planes nylon hinges? Also, could you tell me how many pin hinges you used for each of the follow: each aileron surface: each elevator surface: each rudder surface: I appreciate your help and I'm looking forward to seeing video of your bird!

I used small pin hinges, and used 5 on each aileron. I used 4 on each side of the elevator.
I used 3 on the rudder, but could have used 4. The Stearman won't hold a knife-edge without a lot of work, so I didn't go overboard on rudder.

I didn't use the center cabane screws, I hate little phillips-head screws stripping all the time. Those are big, heavy hardwood blocks in there, so I drilled out the cabanes one step larger, same with the wood, and got some 3/4" stainless 6-32 Allen heads and screwed them in with a nice allen wrench. Soaked the hole with CA, tapped it out (did this twice), and rethreaded the screw a few times. Nice tight fit, comes out and goes in the way you'd like it to. If you're going to have to assemble and reassemble every trip to the field, the model should be built to take it. ALL cabane screws going into the wings are to be loctited. Use the 4-40 screws with locking nuts to disassemble and reassemble, and keep a good supply of fresh 4-40 self-locking nuts handy. VERY cheap insurance to keep your plane happy and healthy. I only remove the bottom screws when breaking her down. I disconnect the center cabanes at the fuse (with the retapped, larger screws above). By doing this, I use my top wing as the "Keeper" - it holds all the cabanes, struts, and aileron interlock struts - and hangs from the ceiling.
I changed out my stock inside tubings with a set of 2-into-1 linkage from Central hobbies. It took removing the belly of the plane and doing some surgery, but it's a setup I trust now, and I got rid of some extra weight into the back while I had it opened up. That's because I had to ADD some while I was there. I removed the tail-end balsa block and carved it out some, that a HUGE block of balsa, unecessarily so. On it's bottom, at the tail, I epoxied in a ply block to hold my Sullivan steerable tail gear. I also used carbon fiber rod linkages throughout. Once that surgery was done, I replaced the stringers and covered the belly. The biggest complaint I have so far is that the plane came so wrinkled that I have had to recover a number of pieces, due to the extreme wrinkling. Also, the recovered pieces look WAY better than the existing ones. This winter, I'm tearing her down and doing a total recovering on her. I can't stand crappy covering jobs, and this plane is too nice not to have a nice covering job. On the tail surfaces, I used the DuBro adjustable servo arms, which go through the surface and copme out as a screw on the other side. It's THE horn to use, and you won't lose a plane to a torn-out horn ever again. Very user-friendly and adaptable in places like this, where the horns/clevises can strike one another, as pointed out by Ken in his post.
I installed a Syssa SAP 180 gasser - a 30CC powerhouse that's light and has tons of power. You can order the supplied standoffs for the 6.25", so you need do nothing but mount it up. Additionally, it comes stock with a great pitts muffler, which looks beautiful on this bird, as the exhaust pipes don't stick out far, just a bit beyond the bottom, but inobtrusive. If you ignore the dummy radial and look at it from the bottom, it looks "Bipe-correct". The Syssa's weight also just happens to be a perfect match to the recommended 1.20 motor combined with the extra 18 or 19 ounces of lead they recommend. I have this engine in a Giant Super Sportster. You'll never regret getting one. There's a waiting list, so order early if you want one of these works of art and power.
I had to grind out the included nose-cone (nice cone!) to fit my 18 X 6 Xoar prop. I had to do some carving on the wood braces inside and outside the firewall to make the mount standoffs fit flush, and that was some hard work, because I couldn't see inside. I finally cut "view windows", and later epoxied wood back in. Do this first - you'll save time and pull out less hair.
I typically throw out whatever wheel pant mounting method an ARF uses, and go directly to the SIG wheel pant brackets. But their method of installing wheel pants is really very good. Two things, though. The 1/2" hole you drill in the side of the pant to clear the axle should be located at least 5/8' up from the bottom of the pant, perhaps even a tad more. Two, you should round the edges of the ply you're laying into the hole, as the pant inside clearly is rounded in that area. They tell you to mix microballoons with your epoxy, and don't leave that part out. The microballoons thicken up the epoxy considerably, which helps. Just make sure you mix your expoxy vigorously first, and then add the microballoons, or they'll increase the user time too much, and you'll be wiping for a half-hour! (Don't ask!) Isopropyl alcohol is great for wiping up still-damp epoxy. without a fuss. Set epoxy takes longer, and the Iso will do it (sort of), but I recommend denatured alcohol for epoxy that's set. Remember to re-clear your 1/2" hole afterward, as the epoxy can scale down that hole some, even though it doesn't look like it. You'll be wondering why the pant won't go onto the axle very well. If you can find some, use Allen-head screws to secure the pant. Those little phillips-heads strip too easily.

Hope this is of some help.

I'm presently researching the optimum CG, but there seems to be some disagreements on the best location. I'll start at 5-1/2" and see where we go from there.

I am really looking forward to flying this bird.


Jim