David P Williams

Hi all - I'm (slowly) building a Flair 1/4 scale Stearman, intermittently documented in another thread. The fuselage is entirely made up of formers and stringers or longerons as here - I've never built a fuselage this big the doesn't have some sheeting somewhere and although it seems quite stiff and resistant to bending it seems worryingly floppy in torsion. It is built exactly as the plan and instructions, but I have this mental image of the tail shaking itself to pieces. Do you think the intended Solartex covering will impart enough strength to resist this? If not, how should I go about bracing to improve the torsional stiffness? What is the experience of other Flair Stearman owner/builders? All opinions and advice welcomed

I have built two kits recently, a SLEC Chipmunk (the old Apache Aviation kit updated by SLEC) and a Flair Stearman. Both excellent kits, with clear parts identification, accurately cut parts, quality accessories and clear and comprehensive instructions. Both were let down by the plan printing. Both plans differed from the cut parts and stated dimensions by over an inch over the length of the fuselage and a similar percentage on the wings. This was only over the length of the plan, not the width, and as a percentage would probably not have been a problem on smaller models but on models of this size it made quite a difference. I chose to recalculate former and rib positions etc to restore the correct sizes but it was a bit of a faff.

Owned by an Italian investment group ?

There was a thread on here looking for the exact same thing last year, which is where I picked up the link to printedpartsfactory.

Try Andy Meade on this very forum Danny. He's on ebay as 'printedpartsfactory'

Thanks for the info and warnings Djay. I guess the delicacy of the parts is the price you pay for its lightness.I'll keep a note of your advice above, but it will be this coming winter before I get round to this I think.

Thanks again. It's an old kit, white box. I bought it second hand years ago with all the accessories including pilot and gunner figures. Someone had bought it all then decided it was too complex for his first build! I must have had it for maybe 15 years - it's moved house with me 3 times. I'm a reasonably experienced builder, so not too daunted by this one. Might get onto it later this year after I finish the Stearman.

Thank Djay. Is the RCV OK in this model? The club sages suck their teeth and tell me to put a 120fs in it. I have the recommended SpringAir retract set, plus the correctly angled oleo set from Shindin Machine in the US, but I was going to use a set of JP electric retracts that I have and do away with the air tank etc. It looks like you glassed it as I intend to do. What paint and fuel proofer did you use?

That's excellent - I have one of those kits in the loft, and a BNIB RCV91CD to go in it. It may move up the build list after seeing this.

Looking good Colin. Makes a big difference having the right space to work in doesn't it?

Not just you Colin. I used to do maintenance and restoration work on Austers, and had to frequently check the pivot bolts on the undercarriage. They are quite small diameter and the port side (pilot's side) ones would often be bent like a banana, sometimes making them almost impossible to remove.

I've had them compress over time making the bolts loosen and I've never managed to completely fuel proof them (like down the bolt holes) so the fuel mist/spatter from the carb always seems to penetrate them eventually. Maybe just my bad workmanship though.

Bit late I know, but I don't like wooden beam engine mounts. I would have modified it to have a normal ply firewall and used a standard glass filled nylon engine mount.

The Graupner/Heim helis used the rear exhaust OS61s

Not unusual here, probably once every couple of months around 10 or 11 pm. Sounds like they're about to take the chimney off.

Not much progress unfortunately. Been fitting wing servos and linkages. I was going to 3D print some mounts for the HS645MGs, but then I found these on Ebay - super lightweight and made to fit these servos. A few mounting blocks and the are hatches fitted. I'll replace the Pozi screws with slotted ones to look a bit more in keeping. Just got to wrap the wing joiner boxes in glass cloth and epoxy to reinforce them and fix the wing retention straps, then the wings are ready for covering.

Yes I was the same, but my new number arrived in an email from the CAA at 2am this morning.

Problem is, a lot of engine mounts have a tapered lower surface so you have to file flats for the nuts/washers to seat properly

You could use #6-40 UNF or #6=32 UNC, both of which have a diameter over threads of 3.505mm, and both are in stock at Modelfixings.

That's lovely Cliff, well done. Get the rusty thumbs loosened on something else first though

As pointed out in earlier posts, 3.5mm fixings are easily available so why not just use them?

Martin beat me to it, I had to find my hard copy photos in the loft, then my printer/scanner went on the blink, so I had to photograph the photographs. These are in red, but it may be what your markings are

Full size have a fibre disk between the wires that is stitched to them, not to add strength but to stop fretting.

Thanks Flight. Yes I know the tiny RX are OK. People have range checked them out to 2.5km+, so circuits at my club patch should be fine. I might use one tucked down the back of the fuselage with the main RX up front I'll go with the redundancy bus as it will give telemetry on the battery states just for additional comfort. It will be fed by two LiFes with two good switches, not the Powerbox one. No engine ignition as it's a glow engine, but it does have a glow driver with it's own (NiMh) battery

Yes, excellent work David. I'm enjoying following this build.