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How much motor to fly this?

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How much motor to fly this?

Old 05-05-2013, 01:07 PM
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krashkart
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Default How much motor to fly this?

I am looking long distance at what appears to be a Sterling model from a few years back of a Stearman. It's about 100 miles away. The guy that has it says it's a 5' wingspan and I can see in the pix that it has a a black valve covered OS motor and he says it's a 4 stroke. He does not fly himself but is into RC cars/trucks. He says he can see no model number on the motor at all. I am not sure he knows for sure it's a 4 stroke or not but he says that the motor turns and has good compression. So in a newer FS model motor, what would a Stearman bi plane reasonable need to fly well? A 95, a 120 or higher?
Old 05-05-2013, 01:26 PM
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carrellh
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

It will really depend on the weight. The GP Skybolt ARF is 57 inches and recommends a 91FS. The kit version was reportedly a pound heavier so it might have needed a 1.20
Old 05-05-2013, 01:33 PM
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krashkart
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

OK, thanks. He just sent me a pix of the single valve cover of the OS motor and it clearly says 4 stroke right on the cover.He says the plane does not look like it's ever been flown.It sure looks like this plane with slightly different details and this is a sterling model. This is not the actual plane but his pix in his ad are not all that good. jpgI may have to drive up and take a look at this, he is asking $175 for it.http://www.rcgroups.com/articles/ezo...tower/DCP02223.
Old 05-05-2013, 01:47 PM
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JohnBuckner
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

If the wingspan is 64.5 inchs or close then the airplane pictured in your other thread is most likely the Sterling. What is pictured is definitely a Stearman and of that there is no doubt.

Its likely if the gentleman selling runs glow powered cars then it probably is a four stroke as that would be to hard to miss and because the engine is mounted its just to much trouble for him to remove it to see exactly what engine it is.

Ok I do have a hard working Stearman that earns its living pulling gliders aloft on a tow line (heaviest tow to date was a glider just over 7.5 pounds. This is the Great Planes Stearman PT-17 that is a larger ship with almost ten inchs greater wingspan on the top. For that ship I use an OS .120SE (A current model).

For that Airplane I would use no more than a 91 in a four stroke (even that may be a bit much) and to be honest my preference for that ship would not be a fourstroke at all but the current OS .75AX two stroke.

If it is a Sterling then I would not trouble yourself looking for original Sterling CG suggestions and such as this ship is from a time that modelers were expected to make their own decisions and I doubt there is much info there and even may be in doubt.

Instead use one of the online biplane programs for finding a reasonable CG or the collective averaging technique that has served well before computers. Definitely would not use a CG any further back than 25% MAC and I would take a conservative approach to throws.

John
Old 05-05-2013, 01:58 PM
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krashkart
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?



OK, thanks.



I am not a gas/glow flyer and I was thinking of this as a possible conversion to electric which is my preference.



If the fuse is nice maybe I can buy if and sell the OS that's in it and help pay for the model and some of the conversion.



He is saying that he thinks the man that had it had it built for him and never flew it. I have run into a few of those.



I am going to run up and take a look at the thing anyway.

Old 05-05-2013, 02:19 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

Oh Boy all bets are off, I missed it if you you mentioned the "conversion" word. This is beginning to sound like another those great buys that just somehow does not seem practical after you bought the thing. I am betting this one may end up with a completion cost maybe three times what you are planning.

I,ve done a few Conversions Electric to Glow but no interest in the other way around at all, Sorry.

John
Old 05-05-2013, 03:20 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

I had two Sterling Stearmans. The first one I flew with a glow HP61. The second one I flew with an Enya 120 4 stroke. The extra power did not seem to make much difference but it used a lot more fuel. Between the 2 I would guess I had about 1000 flights Be careful to set the wing incidences correct. The plans are wrong.
I am currently flying a 11lb, 62 in Lazy ace witch is about the same size and is also a biplane. I power it with 9 A123 cells,a 60 amp ESC and 40 size Scorpion motor. It will fly about 6 minutes on a charge and take about 15 minutes to recharce. I have been flying for about 5 years.
The batteries are arranged to resemble a 5 cylinder motor. see the picture
Old 05-05-2013, 03:23 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

I didn't get the pic uploaded
Old 05-05-2013, 03:27 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?


ORIGINAL: dirtybird

I didn't get the pic uploaded
They say the file is too large. If you can't load a picture what good is it? PM me if you want to see the picture
Old 05-05-2013, 05:19 PM
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krashkart
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

Well as it turned out it was an OS FS 91 on the plane but it was an older build and pretty sloppy at that.I passed on the deal.
Old 05-05-2013, 06:03 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

Too bad that was a good flying A/C
The kit wasn't all that to shout about though.
Old 05-05-2013, 06:21 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

It was sure beginning to smell that way Krashkart from the desciptions. These kinds of deals often seem great on the surface but when you really look the dreams can be shattered but do not despair in this economy the super deals are coming out of the woodwork and they mostly will not be in anykind of listing but ya gotta be able to, whats the expression? Pop when they end up staring you in the face.

I have made many, many great buys and sometimes right in the parking lot on the way to a club meeting. You start circulating in your club and that's where many of the great deals are and Heck, think about it no shipping.

Dirtybird for most any site posting ya gotta downsize your pictures and some sites that allow excessively large picture files it makes the thread almost impossible to read as well as a real irritation. The are many programs that you can use to resize your pictures I do it automatically when loading pictures from my camera to my computer. Perhaps you can get someone local to help you with that. Picture sizing was also an early problem for me when learning to take advantage of this wonderful communication medium.

When you do get it figured out I would love to see your Lazy Ace. We have used two different Cunningham LA's as glider tugs in the past one had a magnum .91 and the better of the two had a G-23.

Now my GP Stearman is carrying the load and working quite well with the OS 120SE.


John
Old 05-05-2013, 07:01 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?


ORIGINAL: JohnBuckner

It was sure beginning to smell that way Krashkart from the desciptions. These kinds of deals often seem great on the surface but when you really look the dreams can be shattered but do not despair in this economy the super deals are coming out of the woodwork and they mostly will not be in anykind of listing but ya gotta be able to, whats the expression? Pop when they end up staring you in the face.

I have made many, many great buys and sometimes right in the parking lot on the way to a club meeting. You start circulating in your club and that's where many of the great deals are and Heck, think about it no shipping.

Dirtybird for most any site posting ya gotta downsize your pictures and some sites that allow excessively large picture files it makes the thread almost impossible to read as well as a real irritation. The are many programs that you can use to resize your pictures I do it automatically when loading pictures from my camera to my computer. Perhaps you can get someone local to help you with that. Picture sizing was also an early problem for me when learning to take advantage of this wonderful communication medium.

When you do get it figured out I would love to see your Lazy Ace. We have used two different Cunningham LA's as glider tugs in the past one had a magnum .91 and the better of the two had a G-23.

Now my GP Stearman is carrying the load and working quite well with the OS 120SE.


John
I have a picture downsizing tool but I am not going to use it to satisfy these new operators. My pictures used to upload and they did not clutter up the forum. They would show up downsized in the post that could be enlarged. The new operators apparently dont know how to do that.
Old 05-05-2013, 08:51 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?


ORIGINAL: dirtybird

I have a picture downsizing tool but I am not going to use it to satisfy these new operators.

Hmm, well too bad so for the folks who don,t know what the Chuck Cunningham Lazy Ace was here is our old glider tug and it was owned by the young fellow holding the big bipe We lost a good tug and tug pilot when he moved away to college. Started life with a Magnum .91 but became a really good tug when it was changed out for an OS 1.08.

John
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Old 05-06-2013, 06:23 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

The picture I was attempting to upload was of the simulated radial motor I have made using A123 batteries. Not the lazy ace. downsizing would lose too much detail.
Old 05-06-2013, 07:02 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

3W 150
Old 05-06-2013, 07:48 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?


ORIGINAL: JohnBuckner

Oh Boy all bets are off, I missed it if you you mentioned the ''conversion'' word. This is beginning to sound like another those great buys that just somehow does not seem practical after you bought the thing. I am betting this one may end up with a completion cost maybe three times what you are planning.

I,ve done a few Conversions Electric to Glow but no interest in the other way around at all, Sorry.

John
You must've mistyped. I'm sure that what you meant to say is......."I'm really excited and focused on Conversions from Glow to Electric". lol
Old 05-07-2013, 06:22 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

ORIGINAL: oliveDrab

You must've mistyped. I'm sure that what you meant to say is.......''I'm really excited and focused on Conversions from Glow to Electric''. lol

No. there is no mistake or typo and it is exciting with the plethora of exciting selections of new electric liteweight arfs that are just crying out for conversion to glow from electric.

And yet another 'Conversion' that I certainly have been guilty of and that I get a lot of grief over from folks with no imagination, is RC to Controlline and no they are not flown with strings they are flown with wires[8D]

John
Old 05-07-2013, 07:30 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?


ORIGINAL: JohnBuckner

ORIGINAL: oliveDrab

You must've mistyped. I'm sure that what you meant to say is.......''I'm really excited and focused on Conversions from Glow to Electric''. lol

No. there is no mistake or typo and it is exciting with the plethora of exciting selections of new electric liteweight arfs that are just crying out for conversion to glow from electric.

And yet another 'Conversion' that I certainly have been guilty of and that I get a lot of grief over from folks with no imagination, is RC to Controlline and no they are not flown with strings they are flown with wires[8D]

John
I think you will find converting from electric to glow is not a good idea. Electric A/C are not built to withstand the vibration levels you get from a glow motor. Going to controline might be a good idea when you get old and dont see well.
Old 05-07-2013, 08:40 AM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

Like I said "folks with no imagination"! Yes of course it can be done and is being done by many. Its even being done commercially with products out there that the power source is users choice.

Actually the structural density of many of our modern glow and gas powered RC aircraft has indeed shrunk dramatically in more recent years. One only needs to examine the modern sport scale aircraft even the large gasers. Even these large gas types have far lighter structures than what was typical in Rc structures of perhaps just a few years ago.

This may be due in part to the tendency the not design aircraft to crash at least to the degree that was done in the past but however while yes the standard canned answer is you cannot do it but that is wrong, the more appropriate answer is you must do it right.

John
Old 05-07-2013, 01:48 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

If a commercial A/C is sold as convertible, it has been designed to withstand the vibration level of a glow motor. But that is not what I would define as electric to glow conversion.
LASER cutting tools have permitted cutting out much material that is not needed for strength. But as you say they are not very crash proof. My lazy Ace is 11 years old. It has been repowered 4 times and crashed many times. But all I had to do was glue the pieces back together.
Old 05-07-2013, 02:06 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

Like I said folks with no imagination! But that is not even the subject of this thread anymore.

John
Old 05-08-2013, 07:25 AM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

It never was the subject of this thread. Have you looked at the title lately? You are the one that started the idea of converting electric to glow. Why?
Old 05-08-2013, 12:31 PM
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

ORIGINAL: dirtybird

It never was the subject of this thread. Have you looked at the title lately? You are the one that started the idea of converting electric to glow. Why?


Negative Sir. Try rereading the thread. The Original poster is who brought up the idea of a conversion to electric and I mearly indicated my preference at that point for the other way around and dropped it until you sir decided to deliberately pick a fight. Well enjoy it and wallow in your own bad attitude. You can slam me all you want I,ve no further interest and have tired of the need to defend myself from you. You are not worth my time.

John
Old 05-08-2013, 06:14 PM
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dirtybird
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Default RE: How much motor to fly this?

One more post and I quit.
A lot of the new electric models are foam based. I don't think they would like glow fuel.
In fact most of them are foam of the type Multiplex uses.

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