Super Stearman
Posted by Al Lewis
As a relative newcomer to the world of gas RCs I decided early that I didn't have the patience, or the time, to build from kits. With that determined I entered into chancy world of ARFs. I had put together several very nice planes with great results and a lot of help from my neighbor and good friend Mike Everhart. I guess like everyone else in the sport I always had one plane in the back of my mind that I just had to have. I already owned a good trainer, the Nexstar, a great war bird P-51D Mustang, and a good stunt flyer the Sukhoi SU-31.
I continually browsed the web looking for my "dream plane" not quite sure what I was even looking for. Then I finally found it, the Great Planes Super Stearman. This was a plane that had everything I could possibly want. It was not only a large scale but had beautiful details and appointments that would impress any flyer. I set out to find and read every review on the plane I possibly could. The first was very positive but had two problems. The first was that the author had used a Zenoah G23 gas engine and I definitely wanted to stay away from gas. The second was that he had used the aileron connectors with two servos instead of four servos. That led me to a recent review in one of the monthly RC rags where the reviewer had both used four servos for the ailerons and an OS 1.20 four stroke engine. As I had planed to use a Magnum 1.2 I figured that this would be the closest thing I would get to the plane I wanted to build. I happened to be in San Diego at the time doing some work on the USS Ronald Reagan at North Island but thanks to the power of the internet I was not only able to order everything I would need but, also confer with my neighbor and good friend Mike Everhart about what all I would need and what extras would be good to have.
After all was said and done I purchased the plane, the magnum 1.20 four stroke engine, a Futaba PCM receiver with seven digital servos, the usual volt watch and beeper and, at Mike's insistence, an on-board glo driver. This later came in handier then I had thought thanks to the ingenuity of the second reviewer who had also used one. With everything on the way to the house I was set. All I had to do now was finish fixing an aircraft carrier and hop a plane for home to get started on my dream plane. As that wouldn't be for a few weeks I had Mike collect the packages from home and open everything to ensure nothing was broken or missing.