Has anyone build and flown one yet. Looks good in the photos and the price is right. Have a Saito 65 looking for a home

JimO

It's a nice little plane. I have the Blue and White one.

A good flyer.

The Saito should fit it well.

How was the building, any problems? Suggestions or hints.

Thanks,

Jim

As always with any ARF, check and re-check what the factory has done... you never know if the builder was having a bad day!

Anyway... I would advise a re-inforcement block of hard wood at the gear mount.

I'd also suggest installing a CF support "strut" to the bottom of the stab to the fuselage. It's cheap insurance and REALLY stiffens the tail plane.


For safety I tend to apply expoxy on any available joints, e.g. the firewall mount if reachable.

I expoxied the wing interplane strut mount tabs in place... a good idea IMHO... just put them all in and make sure that the circle for the screw hole is at the same height above the wing, then remove them, put in a bit of 30 min epoxy and re-insert.

I believe I used the holes first to leach CA into the underlying areas.

The rest is the pretty usual stuff.

Insert wood screws ( such as for the servos ) remove and CA to harden. Fuel proof where ever possible. etc.

My single complaint with this plane were the wheel pants. They are plastic instead of fiberglass. Many times I don't use wheel pants, but I prefer the look of the fiberglass ones. That said, plastic holds up better... sigh...

There is ample space for the engine.

I just opened my .52 4c Stearman and love the quality. I am about to but a Magna .52 4 cycle engine from Tower Hobbies. I did some measuring and the .70 size magnum is too long for the plane. Has anyone put a .70 4c engine in this model and if so how? Also any feedback on Magnum 4 c engines. They are much cheaper than the new .56 OS 4c engines. [8D]

I got the blue and white one also it flies great .I have a magnum .46 on it .I flew it for the first time today WoW what a great flight loved every minute of it. But I cant find a site to get repair parts (cowling had to chop it to get the .46 to fit ). Anyone got an Idea where to get them nitro planes has no site to get repair parts for the Red Baron stearman 44''

You could try PM'ing John here about replacement parts... ( Nitrostaff1 ).

Consider supporting the existing cowling off the plane with some clamps so it holds it's shape...

Then covering the outside with fiberglass cloth, and applying epoxy...

Do this twice, then sand the other cowl, finish and repaint.

You also could try cowls from some of the aftermarket RC places, such as fiberglassspecialtiesinc.com

[link=http://www.fiberglassspecialtiesinc.com/newprod.htm]Click[/link]

Another great suggestion from someone else here...

Make a similiar shape out of foam... glass the shape and clear out the foam...

There is also covering over foam, or building a new cowl out of balsa.... FlyRC and SportFlyer Magazines both have had articles on how to do this for cowls and wheel pants.