chasrb

I agree, I have some 1/4 x 1' basswood stock I have made a prototype of last month. I'll post a pic.

Also, on the engine mounting issue. I was thinking of the 1/2" aircaft ply instead of the tube and then using engins standoffs to clear the engine shroud. I do not know if they will hold the torque if the standoff's are 6" long.

chasrb

Hey moderator, Admin or someone...what is up with the pic posting? Can someone resolve this?

riph

My Feedback: (26)

Mike's (the largest hobby shop in Tex. or maybe the USA ) is still open but may close in about 2 years because of the rebuild of I-35. I saw you struts.

chasrb

Too bad if he closes, he moved once he can agin I am sure.

Cybertom

Chasrb,

SEIDEL THRUST ANGLES?
I would be interested in seeing some close-ups of the Seidel engine mount. What are you planning to use for thrust angles? I designed my mounting ring with 3 degrees down thrust and 3 degrees to the right as recommended by Flair (if you’re planning on using much more power). If you measure against the plane the engine is mounted on (created by 3 degrees down and 3 degrees right) the actual angle turns out to be around 4.25 degrees. Well when I had a local machine shop make my ring they made the resultant engine mounting plane 3 degrees instead of the 4.25 it should have been. This is why I had issues landing early on because the airplane came in with a nose up attitude. I was able to fix this by putting some spacers in which gave me back my missing 1.25 degrees. 3 degrees right and 3 degrees down (or 4.25 degrees resultant plane) works very well. You will also have to offset the engine mounting location so that your propeller ends up on the centerline.

FULL SCALE INCIDENCE
Did you notice that the full scale Stearman had +4 degrees incidence on the upper-wing and +3 on the bottom? It also had +3 degrees on the tail. Looks like they wanted to have the upper-wing stall first. I am considering setting the upper-wing on my next Flair Stearman to +4 degrees as they did on the full scale version.

FLAIR KIT INCIDENCE
The Flair kit has +3.5 degrees built into the bottom-wing and they want you to set the upper-wing to +3.5 degrees incidence. In the plans they tell you set the tail incidence to +3 degrees. After receiving feedback from many of their customers they changed that to anything between +3 to +3.5. I can tell you that I would most definitely set the tail incidence to +3.5 degrees. I have to carry way too much down trim as it is.

NEXT FLAIR KIT BUILD
I'm telling you I can't wait to start building the Flair Stearman again. Adding another ½ degree incidence to the tail and making her 2lbs lighter by going with a Seidel Radial engine (that produces a much more appropriate 4HP) should really make her a sweet heart to fly!!!

PS,
As far as adding the info you sent me to the DVD its to late for this latest batch. I will most definitely add it to the DVD in the future. This DVD is really becoming a treasure trove of information for the scale Stearman enthusiast. I plan to place a text file in the root of the folder with your credit. In fact you can send me any comments you would like placed in the text file.

chasrb

Okay, lazy build question....since the Flair is just less that 25% I was thinking that a 1/5 scale cockpit might fit better than the 1/4. Ther is a Dively kit cockpit in both sizes.

Comments>?

Cybertom

Did you see the cockpit that was made when this kit was reviewed by model airplane news. It looked really nice and didn't look to complex to make.

chasrb

I'll go back and look for that article, thanks Tom.

JUGFLIER

Hey guys, ive been reading thru the thread. It would interest me seeing that i have a flair stearman kit my wife bought fo me for my birthday. The kit is impressive with a lot of hardware and the ability to scale it out. I am a ww2 nut and especially a fighter jock. I have a p-47 1/5 scale and found a kit cheap for a mustang im thinking of building. I have the same poblem as many people, limited space. Therefore i am going to sell it. I think i was reading in the thread about possible not getting this kit. I dunno but when she bought it she paid 475.00. Don't know if that is high, but if anyone is interested send me a pm.

thanks curtis.

outacontrol41

My Feedback: (9)

You're selling your Flair Stearman NIB for $475? Have you sold it yet?

JUGFLIER

No i haven't sold it. Ijust posted this yesterday. Yes to help my buddy rcers out i will let it go for what i got in it. Not trying to make any money. This is an impressive kit. It has fiberglass dummy radial engine, Fiberglass cowl and firewall. I have a guy locally here who has the balsa usa 1/3. It is ready to fly and he is trying to get me to take it off his hands. The real problem for me is i dont have the means to haul either of them.

Cybertom

That's a great price. I just paid $527.00 for another Flair Stearman kit from a RCU member in Michigan. I gave him exactly what he paid for it from Radical RC.

Errol Levin

Hi Jugflier

Have been looking all over for a flair stearman kit. Is yours available Will buy it

Cybertom

Chasrb,

I was home sick today and I took advantage of the time off and added the "Full Scale" Stearman manual and the "Full Scale" restoration photos to the "1st Flight" DVD. After working with all of that stuff I have to say the following:

YOU DA MAN!!![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

The ARMY / NAVY Stearman manual is absolutely astounding!!! It's an absolute "must have" for Stearman nuts. Anyone could create a "hyper scale" Stearman with all of this information provided they had the talent.

Here's what I did...
1. I color corrected each photo.
2. The file names of the scanned images now correspond to the page number in the manual.
3. I cropped each restoration photo individually.

Best Contribution YET!!!

PS,
(I was almost afraid to type this because of the requests I'll probably be getting)

chasrb

Thanks! It was awe inspiring to have the real doc in my hand and to think of the real WWII pilots that used it. I hear you brother! There was a time when some contributor was selling the info on the build in this forum, but I do not think it went well for him. I have seen that info I sent you for 35 USD and up. Those I sent you are even more exclusive since they are from the original declassified document and from the re-issue manual. There were two manuals I sent.

I was going to do the work you did and create a PDF but never got around to it due to work. so thank you for doing that. The work you did justifies the days it took to scan all that in.

You are absolutely right in saying it is a must have for any Stearman builder who wants to get it right! I will be very pleased to have my name associated with this set of documentation you have assembled and developed.

Cybertom

If you want credit for this contribution in the root of that section of the DVD please send me a little text message that I can slap in. If not I understand, some prefer to be unsung heroes!

PS,
I'll be sending you the new DVD with all of your goodies on disk!

chasrb

Interesting link... These guys in Japan are building a...Flair kit

[link]http://www.sannoh.co.jp/radio/year2005/raven5.2/newpage5.htm[/link]

Yes it has a Raven on the link but it has the Flair build in it, just amusing...

chasrb

I know there has been talk about the mounting system for a radial and the need to have something close to scale, I found a couple of photos that show a engine mount that could be the basis for the Steaman. I have not figured out it they custom made it or is it avaliable from some mfg. of course it'll be a smaller version for the Stearman.

riph

My Feedback: (26)

Please send a copy of your Stearman DVD to:

I.H. "Rip" Holdridge
1927 Chesham Dr.
Carrollton, TX 75007

I am working on an ARF AW 78" Stearman w/Magnum 400 radial and a 96" Jack Strickland Plans Stearman w/150cc radial. I need all the help I can get.

chasrb

riph, I used to live in Grapevine a few years back, miss the fields down there... anyway do you have the Strickland Plans in hand now? If so, do me a favor and look at how they call out the build of the inner cabanes that mount the center section onto the fuse. What I am looking for is the mounting setup top and bottom and cabane diamentions, so I can fabricate more scale looking ones than the ones that came in the Flair kit. The Flair kit (if you did not know) uses pre bent aluminum bar stock. Not to scale.. Post pic if your setup is different.

thanks

Cybertom

Riph,

I only ship to Flair kit builders in exchange for their contribution to this thread. ARF's are for another thread.

Cybertom

Chasrb,

Heres some other ideas for the cabanes.:

1. Buy some more aluminum stock or use what came in the kit and cut the ends off. Shape it like the real thing and slot and drill each end. Now make some brackets out of steel similar to what you had in an earlier posting. The aluminum cabanes will slide right over your brackets and you simply slide a bolt through. If they ever get bent or damaged you can replace them. In fact you can have another pair with a different length and experiment with changing the incidence of the upper wing. Something I wish I could have done. It's not quite as cool as a flexible composite cabane but it will do and there's no stopping you from making another pair our of fiberglass and wood down the road once we get that configuration sorted out.

2. Make the cabanes out of threaded rod and then attach wood or the airfoil shaped aluminum to it. The 40% Team Genesis WACO is done in this fashion. If that will work with a 40% WACO it's more than strong enough for a 1/4th scale Stearman:

chasrb

Tom, great ideas! Where did you find the photos? I did not even think about using a 4-40 rod and sheath it with the Alum tube from lilke that from Sea Comannder. I could hide the attach point inside the tube so it di not show too... very cool!

The center wires were also an area of interest on how to mount.

Once of these days I am going to have to drive up there and fly with you, of couse I'd bring my Stearman!

Great info. once again Tom!

chasrb

Tom, I am gioing with the Sea Comander 1"x5/16 T6 airfoil tubing for the intter cabanes. I'll run a hardwood dowl down the tube for that extra bit of strenght, and I'll use the hardware they send to do the mounting. To that end...flying wires. Sea Commanderalso has the airfoil flying wires that I want to use. The only probl;em I see is that they are pre-made and threaded on the ends whereas the nelson flying wire is a custom cut to fit as the builder sees fit.

Also and this may seem like a duh question, but did you run the front wires thru the airframe and out the other side or did you terminated them at the entry point?

Thanks

Cybertom

I am considering building the Team Genesis WACO as a future project. I bought their CD & DVD which they send to customers which are interested in building their WACO. Before I can even think of building the WACO I need to:

1. Finish the Flair Tiger Moth
2. Build the Flair Stearman II
3. Scratch build a Gloster Gladiator (which is looking more and more like it's going to be 1/3rd scale).

PS,
I'm glad you found the information valuable. That's what will keep this thread going strong.