RE: GP Super Stearman
I've been following this thread from its beginning. I purchased mine at the end of April and finished building and setting it up last weekend. I built it with an OS 160 FX, Bisson muffler, Tru-Turn 2-3/4 120 spinner, Master Airscrew 16x10 prop, Futaba S3010 servos everywhere except throttle, slaved ailerons.
Mine had the problem where the wing aileron hinge slots were slightly off center. I'm new to building, this is my fourth ARF plane. I didn't know this was much of a problem until after I had already glued them in and read about it in one of the posts. The ailerons moved with a little resistance in one direction on some of them, but it worked out after moving them back and forth several times.
The plane balanced near perfect at 5-1/2, I set all of the throws as noted in the manual. I broke in the engine with 4 tanks before putting it in the plane and once at the house when assembled for setup. The OS 160 FX would run at 9,500 rpm with the 16x10 prop ( this is the middle of the recommended props for this engine).
I took it out to the field yesterday morning rechecked all of the throws after assembling. It took off perfectly about 100ft, half throttle, straight down the runway, turned great flying fantastic, a little down elevator to fly level at half throttle.
About five minutes into the flight it rolled unexpectedly, I gave it up elevator, when it was level it rolled again then went down into heavy ( about 7ft high) weeds.
I was very disappointed, I knew it was a mechanical failure. I took me about 30 minuted to get in the truck and drive out then track down the crash site using the controller and wiggling the sticks. I was happy to find it by hearing all of the controls responding. When I actually made to the plane it was mostly intact landing gear ripped off, one of the nylon clevises on the right aileron had come off, the top wing cracked in the center, the hinges pullout on the top aileron where the slaved clevis had torn, cowl ring broken, and prop shattered.
Everything is completely repairable!!
I will be replacing all of the clevises with metal ones and a lock nut.
I also realized after reading some other post that this could have been caused by binding of the aileron either because of the offset hinge slots or slaved aileron setup.
Also, no parts are currently available from Tower
I'm looking forward to your comments,
Lmnorthga