just wanted to point out something about this airplane and using a 1.20 four stroke..............there was one at my field this last Sunday, it had an older style OS 1.20 on it. this engine powered this thing like it was a typical sport plane............had more than enough power even at 1/2 throttle.
i can't imagine why anyone would put a big gas motor on it and spoil the characteristics of the bird by adding all the extra wieght, not to mention the vibration.

To each his own.

Since the SS, powered with a 1,20 foure stroke, requires added nose weight, I'd prefer to add the this weight in the form of the addittional power that a gasser provides.

I have a G26 on mine and it's perfect. No added extra weight, and flys very realistic.

this is totally untrue....................mine has a FT1.60 twin on it and it came out nose heavy........had to move both batteries well behind the wing.
2 others i've seen with 1.20's have balanced perfectly. several people here and 1 reviewer who used 1.20's also did not need added nose wieght. there was a post somewhere that pointed out that the added nose wieght came from using a .91 four stroke.........mainly a carry over from the manual for the military version.

the point i am trying to make is that if someone that doesn't know any better reads this thread, they'll end up putting a monster of an engine in this plane when they don't need to.
i too was having doubts about the engine size as well, but after seeing this plane fly with an "OLDER" version of the OS 1.20 swinging a 16x6, and no nose wieght added, i can honestly say to those thinking about this plane, to go ahead with a 1.20 and be prepared to have a blast................

Point well taken, summerwind.

I'm making a little progress on my SS. Modelling time is hard to come by, as I'm in the process of remodeling my bathroom. I now have the wings mounted. Hope to find a little time to work on the Stearman over the long holiday weekend.

I put a G-20 in mine and I don't need to use the weght box.I hope to maiden it sat. if the weather holds out........

I have a question for anyone who has a Saito, or other metric motor on this thing. I'm having trouble putting the spinner on. I bought a spinner adaptor, but it's too long to let the spinner seat aganst the backplate. Anyone know where I can get a short (1/2" to 5/8") adaptor for my Saito? it's 8mmx1.25. the one i bought was about 7/8" to 1" long with the split cone end as a jam nut. I would have cut it down, but there are only 1/8" of threads for the spinner bot, and I would need to cut off 3/8" minimum.

did some one have the military version? how it do it?

Would a Zenoah G20ei work well in the Stearman ?

Dave Brown spinners also has prop nut adaptors in long or short versions, I needed one for my Saito 125 arrangement. I would imagine any hobby store would stock this item.

My g20 works just fine.It has more than enough power although not enough for unlimited vertical it will do loops and hamerhead stalls just fine.It probably flys pretty close to scale.

I have the G26 in mine and it's perfect. I have a smoke system hooked up to it as well. I flys very realistic, so I'm sure the G20ei would be a perfect choice.

I finaly got mine finished, havent flown it yet due to weather. 14 pounds 6oz with skywriter pump and Brillelli 26.

It can be a little touchy on take off, bring the power up steady until it gets rolling 20 feet or so, then bring the power up and the tail will pop right up. Just be ready to use the rudder and also be ready to abort the take off. Landing you have to keep the power up a little since it is a heavy airplane, but it lands real nice, it does like to bounce if you don't have the right airspeed on landing, but it's easy to get the hang of it. It is really a cool looking airplane in the sky!

I put the 4.5" pnumatic wheels on it to help keep the bounce down. The ones that came in the kit seemed a little hard.

I did the same thing, it does help.

Thanks for the info on the G20ei. Any feedback on the ARF quality would also be welcome.... positive and negative ! Are the rinkles as bad as many seem to indicate ?

Thank-you

Some spots are kind of bad. The trick is to let the air out when you reshrink the covering. I took a needle and poked a small hole through the wood part and into the open area of the part that was rinkled, shrunk it and it's perfect now.

Someone was looking for one of these a while back if I remember right. Anyway, I just put mine up for sale here in the classifieds. It's new in the box. Selling it because I have too many other projects I want to build and the sale will help pay for those.

Regards

Kurt

I now have the Saito 325 radial and I am looking for a suitable plane. For me the GP Stearman looks about to be right.

Does anybody fly this combination?

What is the size (dia.) of the cowling? Does the 325 engine fit?

@Tbatt what about balancing the Stearman with your 170 radial, did you need some extra weight in the nose?

Any comment is welcome.

Stefan64, The cowling on the SS is to small in diameter for the 325, the 170 fits quite nicely though. I believe someone earlier spoke of a GP pt17 using the 325, but in my opinion the engine weights to much for this airframe. I too have a 325, but I installed the 170 in my SS, it balances very nicely without added nose weights. Check out post 943,944.

Have to agree with rcten, the 3.25 in addition to being to big it's also way to much motor. I also have a 170 in mine and the performance is just about right. Mine also balanced without any additional weight in the front.

I recently got a GPSS, and I put an SV26 gas engine on it. Spinning an 18x8 Master Airscrew classic at 7100 restrained. I love the way it flies, and it lands like a dream. It's the easiest plane to fly that I have ever owned. I hope they never discontinue this plane...
By the way, with the SV26, it balanced perfectly, and flys for penny's...

Here you can find an article about the Stearman powered by a 40cc seidel radial. I think it must approx weigh very similar like mine.

http://www.vth.de/archiv/texte/fmt2006_05_022.pdf

There currently is a Jamara stearman with 1.96m available from www.modellhobby.de

but there are two things I don't know/ dislike.

The decal scheme is horrible.

I nver heard good things about jamaras planes. Does anyone know about the jamara stearman?

Rgds from Germany.

Stefan

I've always had wonderful luck with Great Planes.