Ed,
The Robart struts go through the wheel pants just by turning them the right way. The Robart instructions detailed this.

There's not a lot of room to spare for wheel clearance using the Robart struts. I tried several brands of wheels and they were all too wide, dragging on the struts. I ended up using the stock wheels, and even needed to sand the corners down a little.


My Ryan is flying as an electric and has excellent performance.


Lenny

Thanks for the reply Lenny. The problem I have is that the aft strut support does not lay down flat against the strut in order to slip it through the wheel pants. I thought about disassembling the strut but figured it would be difficult to reassemble once enclosed inside the pant. I am thinking about grinding down the brace that attaches the aft support to the strut but am concerned about weakening the assembly. The only other alternative is to tie down (i.e. forcing it to lay down) the aft support to the strut but once again I am concerned I will damage/bend the aft support in the process. I suppose a call to Robart is in order????

Thanks for the advice guys and Happy New Year to all!

Ed

I just got off the phone with Robart. They suggest removing the aft support strut and then reattaching it after passing the strut through the wheel pant......I'll give that a try.

Ed

Ed,
I think I remember taping the legs together in order to slip into the wheel pant. I know I didn't need to dissamble the struts to instal them.


Good luck,
Lenny

Thanks Lenny.......I will try what you suggest rather than disassembly. Regarding your question on mounting the cowl......one suggestion is to drill a hole in the cowl blocks and insert a small dowl to strengthen them. I will send you the link describing this when I get home tonight.

Ed

For anyone building the GP Ryan STA-M, there is a helpful article with good images at this link;

http://www.geocities.com/jbrundt2/ST-M.html

Ed

Has anyone connected both elevators together and how was it done? Seems simpler than using two servos. would appreciate any suggestions.

Hey there all.

I gotta put my bird in here too.

I put a RCS 1.40 on mine and it balanced out well. I only had to add 1/2oz to the tail end. I am using li-po's with regulators and made a hatch under the pilots seat where I mounted the receiver.

I wanted struts but just never was able to get them and I need to get this plane in the air after dinking with it for three years.

I also used an aluminium spinner.

I sure like that decal set I saw in these posts.

The RCS engine mounted inside the cowl with no modification. The only extra hole is for the muffler pipe underneath.

Have fun and great flying.

If any of you guys are still looking for the Ryan Civi I saw one as recently as early March in San Antonio Hobby, Ca. It was in the box!

Lost mine in the hurricane, but before that I had an OS 120 in mine, the robo struts, with four inch foam wheels from Dave Brown. I used just regular Futaba 3004`s with dual elevator servoes.. no problems, flew great. nice slow low fly by`s were fantastic.

Just noticed this evening Tower has some back in stock...limited quantities.


[link]http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXVK73&P=0[/link]

Note too the STA-M now shows discontinued.

Dick, thanks for the fast reply to my e-mail will be firing a ck to you soon , JIM

Great Jim. Send me an email or private message with your AMA number.

Thanks.

You could try a slice of fuel tubing between the wheel and the wheel collar.
The silicone will slip but add a little "stiction" to the wheels reducing run on after landing.
It slows down my planes but is overcome easily by full power for take-offs.

GUYS, my son is trying to find the magizine articles on the two that we know of reviews on the sta ryan and in one of the articles or even in the prior posts on rcu thiers and article on the tail wheel mod, what iam thinking of doing is a mod to set in a different tail wheel assy, Ive got a jerry cotters tail wheel assy that has leaf spings and fork for the tail wheel, dont like the idea of rudder controling the ground steering and transfering the shock to the rudder hindges, but in this article that person i think made a removable hatch, grooved out the area and installed a ply piece with t-nuts for mounting, just cant remember and son has not located the mags yet and ive looked thru the posting here and not found it. also theres an article on the exhaust os120 inverted and ordering from os a ninty degree elbow rhat allows the exhaust to stay inside the cowl. has any body tried slimlines inverted pitts style muffler? lots of questions for a old arf believe its around 3 years now, thanks JIM

I have just finished building the GP Ryan Sta M. On it the tailwheel is connected to the rudder servo through a pushrod of its own running through the plane. I will take a picture of it and send it to you if yoy would like to see it. Also, since I am using a Thunder Tiger 91 four stroke to power my plane, I inverted the engine and purchased a OS 90 degree exhaust extension. Used in conjuction with the one that comes with the engine and a short piece of 3/8 tubing I have the exhaust coming out of the cowl at the bottom and have no holes in it for the exhaust system. I will also send you pictures of that if you wish them. I will try to post them tommorrow. There is an excellant article on the construction at this link. http://www.geocities.com/jbrundt2/ST-M.html Try it, even though it is the M version they are pretty much the same.

LOCOLOBOT. thank you for the info, I have that elbow and the stock one and you are right, that will keep the exhaust in the cowl. read that in an article a couple of years ago just needed a confermation as the parts, the tailwheel leaves alot to be desired and a picture would be great but I havent the ability to post them myself, thanks again for taking the time to post your anwser. JIM

Hey guys, I put a Sulivan tail wheel on mine and I love it. It is clean and works very well. Take a look.

http://www.sullivanproducts.com/Land...rMainFrame.htm

I used a RCS 1.4 on my bird, inverted. The only hole I have is in the bottom of the cowl for the single exhaust pipe. Looks sweet.

I have posted a couple of pictures of the Ryan Sta M as finished by me. Feel free to enjoy them. They are posted under the photo gallery on RCU

Bumstead, did the fuel tubing on the outer axels thread locked the screws while adjusting the tighteness, made sure that both are equal. Dick t , mounted the pants using your method and thats a very good way, clean and functional. thank you, going to go with the jerry cotters tail wheel install need the weight, hopefully today.[:-] thanks all still cant believe the mfgs are discontinueing the planes. JIM

I flew my Ryan last weekend and was blown away at how well it flew. It was arrow straight on take off and flew like a trainer. Beautiful bird in the air. Unfortunately I found a bug in my transmitter and had a near fatal landing.

At about 4 minutes into the flight (no trim needed WOW) all control surfaces went crazy for about 1/2 second. I figured I better get it on the ground and made a couple passes to get the feel. ( this plane floats) As I was on approach and about 15ft up it happened again. The plane nosed down and started to roll right. I was able, somehow by the grace of god, and so fast it was scary got it almost straight and level. I was over a sandy area next to the runway and caught the right wing tip.

Here is where I find out the reality of ARF's. I will admit that the quality of the present day ARF is very good. But just not as good as kit built. When the wing tip caught the sand it of course pulled the nose down and around. Lost the prop (didn't have the cowl on) and got one little hole in the monokote. I was wheels down though and looked to be ok. I walked over and picked it up and found that the wing split down the middle. Not at the epoxy joint but inside the balsa doubler rib. Wow is all I can say about what type and the amount of the glue. Need less to say I should have gone with instinct and glassed the center section.

Hey guys if your putting one together or want to avoid a certain separation GLASS THE CENTER SECTION I wish I had. No other damage at all, other than the wheel pants, but we all know that a bad landing and the pants are trashed. Now I have to figure out how to cut the joiners out and replace them so I can get flying again.

I did find several bad glue joints inside the fuse as I was putting this together and had to CA some stuff. They use a water based glue and it looks like areas get to dry when they stick it together.

Anyway, I love the looks in the air and she is an awesome flyer.

when you talk about glassing it, are you referring to the centre front-to-back where the wing halves join? Not to just rely on the epoxy holding the halves together? Strip the covering off the part that is "hidden" by the fuse ("topside" of the wing)? I guess another way of saying it ("wing split down the middle"), you mean it split chordwise not span wise, right at the joint where left half butts up to right half. right?

Yes, cut the covering away chord length of span and glass. I would go out past where it meets the fuse. When ever we build a plane we do this. I found out the hard way that I should have done that with this plane also. I have read in several post's this problem with several ARF's. Even though the Ryan has plywood ribs where you join the wing and plywood joiners, it is not strong enough for the size of the plane. I will forever more glass the center section of an ARF if I do another one.

Actually after reading your question again I want to clarify one thing. The wing split between the balsa and plywood ribs (the balsa rib is glued just inside the plywood rib) and you could see where there was glue between them but did not adhear. The glue had dried before the parts had been assembled and only about 10% surface actually glued. The epoxy joint between the two wing halves held great.

Thanks. Maiden is next weekend so this is just in time.