mike early

I have a saito .40 looking for a home. I've never had a biplane.
The firewall on the Great Plane Stearman looks pretty solid, but not a big deal to add a plywood firewall.
Seems the e-flite Pitts is a bigger plane. 550 sq inches vs 365. over 4lbs vs less than 3 for the Stearman.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAVGV&P=0



http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...550#quickSpecs


Any advice?

mike early

Oof. Just read the reviews on Horizon for the Pitts. Not a very strong plane. Maybe not a good candidate for glow. Not many reviews available for the GP Stearman yet.

bulldog319

The problem with this aircraft's strength came from a defective batch of wings.

The defect is easy to discover if you can examine the package pre-purchase.
Look inside the wing where the servo bay is.
Look through the rib to the next bay looking toward the wing root.
This bay should have shear web going from the top of the spar to the bottom of the spar, the defective wings only have top and bottom stringers (spar caps) in this section and no shear web.

The set of wings I had for this aircraft broke after just a couple of flights, not complete failure, I was able to land but I noticed the failure when I was handling the aircraft.
These wings were replaced by Horizon and the second set worked very well until I managed to cartwheel the aircraft so I ordered a third set of wings.
The third set of wings I inspected when I received them and found them to have the same manufacturing flaw as the first set so I sent them back without flying them.
The fourth set of wings did not have the flaw and worked perfectly right up until the point that I did an inverted flat spin to low and did not have enough battery left to do a hovering recovery.

This was honestly a very fun airplane and with the good wing it seemed plenty strong for my 600 watt setup. I did not replace this aircraft with another because I did not like the battery tray position and access, but that would be no factor on a glow airplane. I would use an alternate means to secure the battery hatch than the stock system because that also worked poorly in the retention of the hatch role it served.

I honestly think I might consider giving this a go in glow myself, haven't thought about this plane in a while, and it was very fun.

mike early

I'd love to see you convert the E-Flite Pitts. I went ahead and ordered the Stearman. It's a new plane and that's exciting and with a 10 dollar coupon code it was only 139 delivered. It will have a higher power-to weight ratio and we'll see how it handles the vibration of a 4-stroke. I will see if I can keep the hatch from flying off in high speed high G maneuvers. I'll have to address the cowl mounting method. Seems it only uses magnets. Probably cannot tolerate the vibrations.

mike early

The Electrifly Stearman arrives today.

airraptor

My Feedback: (66)

i already looked at this one to put the saito 40 on and seemed a bit small but should fly well. If i was to do this one i would go with 20-25% nitro and a XOAR wood electric 11x6 prop. dont worry about it being an electric prop. I fly with the 12x6 XOAR wood E prop on 35% and no issues.

mike early

The firewall is the same as most electric planes. Will need to reinforce with ply. Great looking plane though.
I usually use a MA 10x9 prop on 15% nitro. Have not seen a need for more power. I have used 12x4 APC prop when I had the Saito .40 on the Eflite PT-17. I imagine the old Saito .30 would be a better match for this plane.

airraptor

My Feedback: (66)

The MA 10x9 is very close to the APC 10x7. MA pitch is lower than stated, just compare with simular APC prop.

Anyway should be a good combo on 15%

RipG

As parts are extremely difficult to buy for the E-flite Pitts Model 12, wondered if anyone has some used or new that they would like to sell me.  Here is the list of items I need to complete a kit:

acdii

Give your fuse a twist or two and see how stiff it is.  You might want to consider some stiffening ply in the fuse too.  Reason I say this, I had planned to put an OS .52 Surpass 4 stroke on my Eflite T-34, but after giving the fuse a very close look I discovered the fuse wouldn't hold up to the motor without basically rebuilding the forward half of the fuse, and putting the additional weight on it for the ply, and redesigning the floor for a tank, I decided not to do it.    I'm afraid the torque and vibrations of the 4 stroke would twist and shake the fuse too much.   With the Emotor in it. I can hear the vibrations in the fuse from that motor, and those are just from the magnets. It also resonates the whine from the motor, which actually makes it sound like a T-34C turbo prop.