Stearman build

Dave Bright wrote: Regardless of height, I smile when I get a hand on the control column

I was half expecting Mr Rogers to respond to that statement.:lol:

Dave Bright wrote: Regardless of height, I smile when I get a hand on the control column

Hope your smile is more enthusiastic than this

Progressed an instrument panel today so trying to get some level of scale. Pics of Full size and scaled drawings.

Had to adjust the size slightly to match this kit

Trial fit to fuselage

The joystick is K & S alloy tube, some rubber bushes mounted with a coil spring. (it wont move with the controls )

The seat mounting is loosely based on the full size but more importantly will easily remove with its backplate for servo access.

Most super Stearmans have a turtle deck. I made the formers then John Jacobs to cut me a foam core which I wrapped with light balsa. I'll need to apply the covering before final blending with the fuselage.

The last few days has required more thinking than doing and now my brain hurts, so made a start on the .8mm ply decking and Initial shaping of rear windscreen .

Been busy prepping ITRO 200 parts which i have to convert into 4 wings. Due to the kits age, some parts have warpage so in order to pull everything square when the glue sets i've used this alloy extrusion left over from a previous project to make a building jig.

The standard build is for basic Stearman which only has lower wing ailerons. I'm converting to a Super Stearman with 4 ailerons so modifying some upper wing ribs.

with all that complete ive grouped all the ribs for final sanding / shaping to match the spar cutouts and notches - Now all 76 main ribs assembled dry on my jig to verify they all align. Then there are 30 lower aileron ribs and will have to make another 20 for the upper wing. (so the part count soon adds up)

There's an amusing chapter in Jack Currie's book Wings over Georgia, where Jack goes low flying in a Stearman, he reckoned he was looking for alligators, got caught by the CFI and nearly got booted off the course. Makes very good reading.