Tailwheel:

Maidened the Stearman Saturday ... WOW factor 100%.

Got the field about 11 and put the Stearman together flying wires and everything. Nothing but unsolicited favorable comments from everyone who saw it. It is definitely an attention getter. The downside was that everyone stuck around until I maidened it. Thankfully the maiden went great. I needed about ten clicks of down and about three clicks of left and it was flying great. I could probably add a few ounces of weight up front but it really handled great as is. I have the inflatable tires and had all the air out of them, landing was a piece of cake with no bounce on a grass field. After a round of applause and a quick change of my underwear my brother maidened his.

His flight also went great. It was a nice feeling for us to both maiden new planes and go home with them both intact and not in a bag.


The only problem I had was when setting up the engine the sullivan head lock crapped out, what a piece of junk. One of our members gave me an O.S. head lock that is fantastic. The sullivan was a pain because the saito 150 plug is recessed and it's very hard to put that connector on and lock it, and even harder to remove. The O.S. head lock is 1500% better. Easy to put on and easy to remove.


All in all I REALLY like this plane.

Ed