Yes J. Until the cash is in my hands and the plane in the buyers I ALWAYS mark stuff pending. Too much can happen Lol.

You betcha.

~ J ~

How many Stearman owners are using CA hinges?
I'm thinking of using the Robart Super Steel Pin type hinges P/N: ROB 310
Anyone out there use these?

Pizman, I have used CA hinges in all three of the Super Stearman I have owned. The second one had one failure on an aileron, and I replaced the hinges with Du Bro flat hinges. I am now in the process of changing my hinges to the Robart hinge on No. 3. One word of advise. Do not use the CA hinges then decide to change them later ! What a PITA that turned out to be! Good thing I was going to have to recover the wings. If you have not seen it yet, go to youtube and look at the three part series by "Builder Jim" on installing the Robart hinges, very informative!

Wow, That's exactly what I was looking for, I just watched it and it made up my mind, I'm using Robart hinges for sure.
Thanks very much Jim. </p>

When I measure the Blind nut locations on the firewall they are not centered (left side has 1/2" more than right side), shouldn't the engine be centered on the firewall?

The designer is using the centerline offset to help reduce the effects of several aerodynamic factors that cause the plane to yaw left when applying power. Some designers offset the engine, some build an angle into the firewall and some do both - also, some do nothing.

Howard

Thanks Howard.
So can anyone tell me if the firewall is angled on the GP super Stearman? or do I need to compensate with the engine mount?
My wife won't let me take the plane out of the box anymore untill xmas as it's supposed to be my gift ha! ha!
I'm just trying to get all my parts ready so that I can assemble over xmas holiday's.

Pizman.

Ususally you can look at the firewall and see if it is angled with respect to the centerline axis of the plane. GP is a very respected designer of planes so if it is necessary to make any additional compensation it will be covered in the building instructions. My memory is that there is nothing additional required. You can go to the Tower website and download the manual. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Howard

The engine is off set to one side so that the end of the crankshaft will be centered in the cowl. If the plans/instructions show the engine mount set this way then it does have right thrust built in.

Pizman, right thrust is built into the firewall.

This is not entirely correct. The firewall angle and the centerline offset are both designed to provide a 'moment' (torque) to the right when power is applied to help offset the 'moment' to the left caused by the combined effects of the propeller P effect and the propeller slip stream acting on the vertical stab. If you did not include a center line offset then you would need a greater firewall angle. I do agree that the centerline offset lends itself to having the prop exit the center of the cowl. I have seen a number of open/no cowled planes that still have the center line offset. One other thought is that in Europe they use a right center line offset because they drive on the other side of the road.

Howard

I the UK .....<br type="_moz" />

Thanks Guys, great info.
How much ground clearence is there with a 20" prop?, I'm using a DLE-30 and I'm looking at getting either a XOAR 19x8 PJA, or a 20x8, but am concerned about ground clearance.
Any recommendations?

WOW! a DLE 30 will give you a pretty wild power to weight ratio. I have a 16" on mine and it looks pretty scale. A 20" might hit the daisys.

Well, I carefully unwrapped my xmas gift box to pull out the plane one more time while the wife was away, I can definetly see the angle in the firewall that I was wondering about, I held my DLE-30 engine with the Jtec wrap around pitts muffler up to it, looks like I may need about 1/8" spacer even with the standoffs that came with it so that the muffler will not be touching the firewall, I guess that will move the prop a bit past the recommended 6-1/4", it will end up being almost 6-1/2", hopefully this isn't a problem.  Since it has already snowed and I won't see grass till April, I bought a set of skis for the plane, I quickly checked how much ground clearence I would have (with skis) and 19" prop is tight, but I think it should work.  I'm thinking I am going to switch the nylon clevises with the Dubro Kwik Loc type - are they any good?</p>

I run an 18x6 Xoar on my rebuilt Super Stearman powered with a G26. It has 4-1/2 Dubro wheels. Setting 3 point, ground clearance is 5-1/2". Level it is 3-1/2".

Same prop I run on mine equipped with a 1.5 two-stroke glow engine. Good all-around flight performance.

airportbum,
Thanks for the pic's, I like the color scheme you have done with the plane, it looks awesome.

Thanks, after I wrecked it I looked for a scale color scheme that I could use the white fuselage, landing gear, and struts. I bought the PT-17 cowl and wheel coverers and painted them white and used some old Williams Bros cylinders I had from an older project. I also bought a PT-17 top wing and rebuilt / recovered the bottom wing. I plan on building a much better ( correct size ) dummy radial for it this winter. Here are before and after pics. Thanks again, Jeff.

Hilarious! we are like kids all over again, love it

I have my DLE 30 mounted with the standoffs that came with the engine (rear carb) and the JTEC pitts extends too far aft and hits the firewall just like you thought it would. I talked to JTEC (very helpful) and after some back and forth discussion I decided to add about 12 mm extension from the firewall by using a 1 inch diameter oak dowel cut to 9 mm thick and a hole drilled in the middle and sandwiched between two #10 fender washers. The way the cowl is glued to a retaining ring allows you to make up some of that distance and according JTEC giving the prop a little more room in front of the big round cowl improves the propeller efficiency. I did a trial fit and it looks just fine. It takes about 12 mm (1/2") to get the needed room for the muffler and a little clearance between it and the firewall. Also, you are going to need some longer M5 shcs to go through the firewall and the extension I think it is going to be about an M5x30mm. Getting the shcs on the other side of the firewall tight is a tricky affair. Note that the end of the standoff (next to the engine) has two flats so I held the shcs in place with my hand inside the plane, using an allen wrench and rotated the standoff with an open end wrench using the provided flats. Happy flying, and Merry Chrismas.

Howard

Thanks for the advice howard, I think that I will do the same.

I ordered a kwik-fill DUB335 fueling valve, but now I wonder if I should have got the larger one, the DUB611 large scale for my DLE-30.  I plan on using medium size neoprene fuel line.  Anyone else use this setup?

The standard Dubro fuel valve will be fine on your DLE-30.