mclina

A few months ago, I built this Bel Air 40 biplane and flew it a couple of times. I had a rough landing that took the upper wing off, and I have been too busy to fix it these past months. Now that I have it ready to go back together, I am wondering if there is not a better way to attach the upper wing.

This picture was actually taken before the plane was completed, and before I soldered the cross braces onto the wire cabane. The way this plane is designed, the wire cabane is secured to the top wing by small straps, screwed into hardwood rails, and the bottom of the wires are just friction-fit into small brass tubes set into reinforced plates on the fuselage.

I was never really happy about this set-up. In order to remove the top wing, you either had to pull the wires out of the brass tubes, and risk bending the wires or tearing up the covering, or you had to unscrew all of the straps holding the cabane to the wing. I always just transported the plane with the wings on.

I am now considering fabricating a new cabane out of flat aluminum, and bolting it to the fuse sides, maybe with some blind nuts.

Does this seem like a good idea? Could there possible by a pre-made cabane from another model that might work here?

Thanks for the input.

PS - If you look at the photo at the top of "My Models" page, you'll see the cabane after it was soldered together:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...s&memid=309449

dalolyn

My Feedback: (7)

Flat alum. will work. One thing to consider though if you came in rough and have to rebuild the struts, not the wing, that is not a bad thing. if you bolt the upper wing using stronger methods then you can risk tearing the wing up instead of the mounts. I forgot to add in my experience the upper wing is a pain to remove and put on I kept mine on all the time also . Global tecate

corrigan

I have a Kyosho Super Stearman that has aluminum cabanes that fasten to the fuse sides with wood screws into basswood blocks and the same into the upper wing.

corrigan

When first learning to fly my Stearman, I had quite a few rough landings. I fact the second one found the landing gear mount plate separated from the plane. That was when I started mounting the gear with nylon screws instead of metal ones....ha ha ha. However even after that plus a few cartwheels down the runway, I never tore up the strut mounts until it went straight in from 100' full bore.I still had to remove most of the strut screws by hand.

corrigan

I should mention I bought another stearman from Kyosho. really like that plane. lands like a dream. Had smoke on the one that went in,(the crash was due to battery negligence on my part)smoke was on all the way down. all things considered...it looked pretty cool all the way in. Nothing left but the upper right wing panel. Won't make the same mistake again.