PT-17 Stearman von Kyosho

Hi,
hat schon jemand Bau- und Flugerfahrungen mit der Maschine gesammelt?

Für die alle Tipps und Infos, danke im Voraus...

Gruß Piotr
 

djlyon

User
Hello Piotr
Here are some previous write ups. Unfortunately in English.

I really enjoy my Kyosho Stearman. It's a lot of fun to fly and is quite aerobatic. It is easy to assemble. The decals were easy to apply and they have stayed on through 100+ flights. It is not a beginners plane to fly. It's not squirrelly but it demands your full attention. When people ask me how it flies I tell them it flies like a biplane. It has no bad stall characteristics like snapping and is easy to land. It will float in like a trainer, which is unusual for a bipe with a radial front end. It also handles well in wind or cross wind. This is probably because it is so light. Mine weights 5.25 lbs. The construction is very very good and strong except for the tail feathers. The covering on mine was good but a little loose. This was easily corrected with a heat gun.
I use a YS53 for power and an 11/7 APC prop.. It's a bit much and I normally fly at half to 2/3rds power. It balanced right at the aft balance point recommended in the addendum, with no weight required. The first flights were quite tail heavy but manageable. I put a brass spinner nut on it and that got it where I like it, still a little tail heavy.
Ground handling is real handful with mine unlike the experience of others that posted on the rivanna thread. And I haven't flown anything but tail draggers in years. It takes a fine touch on takeoff to keep it from swerving and a fine touch after landing to keep it from ground looping. maybe I got something in the landing gear screwed up. With a little concentration though it will go straight down the middle.
I didn't like a lot of the hardware (low quality) although I used most of it and haven't had any problems in a 100+ flights. I did throw away the threaded bolts for the landing gear and put in Dubro axels. I used their bolt and nuts for the struts and eventually replaced them with 4-alen screws and lock nuts. The wood screws holding the cabane struts to the fuselage kept coming loose so I replaced them with threaded 4/40 brass inserts in the fuselage and 4/40 alen screws. Putting hardwood blocks in the fuselage to accept the brass inserts was kind of a pain because of the double wall fuselage. I didn't use the heat shrink for the control rods, instead I bound and glued them, like I always do.
Make sure you get the "N" struts in the right way.
Follow the addendum for CG and control throws. I did wind up putting in more aileron throw on high rates and the recommended on low rates. The high rates turned out about right. I increased the rudder throw after a few flights and this was a mistake. Too much rudder throw causes sever pitching toward the gear and rotation in the opposite direction. It's called rudder stall.
My wheel pants were fiber glass. Don't put them on until you've made enough flights to be comfortable you will make a smooth landing every time.
On your flight questions. It will knife edge nicely with only moderate rudder input. It snap rolls easily either inside or outside. I have only been able to get a flat spin to the left and it's pretty but not real flat. I haven't been able to get it to flat spin to the right or inverted. I suspect that's because I haven't got the application of power and aileron quite right, (timing and coordination). Stall turns are good. Loop tracking is a little iffy. This is far from a pattern or IMAC plane. It's not a precession aerobat.
Now for the bad. The horizontal stab broke twice during flight. I thought is kind of weak when I built the plane but I didn't do anything about it. I only do snaps at low speed and I have avoided any other high speed violent maneuvers but it broke anyway. Both times I managed to land the plane smoothly and taxi back to the pits. God is my co-pilot. The first time the break was about 2 inches out from the fuselage and through both the leading and trailing edges on the left stab. I fixed it with carbon fiber sheet through the leading and trailing spars, both sides naturally. The second time it broke at the fuselage and took nearly full down elevator to land. Again I think the good lord was driving and I made smooth landing and taxed back in. More carbon fiber and I haven't had a problem since. I strongly recommend wire braces if you build one.
Denis

I sent another individual a response to a similar question regarding this Bipe.
Please see below on my experience:
The Kyosho Super Stearman is a very Quality kit. I was very amazed with the
Hardware that was included and the construction of all of the plywood and
balsa parts. I read a review in the Airplane Model News prior to buying mine
which helped in the decision making. I agreed with alot of their comments.
The manual is a little cryptic and they provide a supplement to the manual.
Make sure you read the supplement a couple of times over to make sure you
understand everything. I made notes in the manual from the insert. I guess
the Japanese translation didn't come out to clear. The assembly I would say
is Easy, not real easy but anyone that has experience building ARF's can
build this model.
The covering is a bit wrinkled and loose in many areas. I used a sealing iron
on all the covered parts prior to starting any assembly. I think they used
Ultracote on this model. The covering on it is very Professional and Scale
like.
The decals are pretty much a stick on, very nice easy to apply. The STARS are
the iron on type. The don't give you enough of the Big Stars to apply as
illustrated in the picture. I made some additional stars out of Missile Red
self adhesive type covering.
The kind you would use to patch your planes with.
As far as hardware with the kit. Although all the parts were good quality I
did replace some of them. they are as follows:
1. Cabane and wing struts screws and nuts - These would probably come lose
during flight - I replaced them with 3mm hex screws and locking nuts.
2. Tail wheel - I don't like wire tail wheel, I replaced it with a spring
rudder control tail wheel assembly.
3.Engine Mount Bolts - Again, would vibrate loose, I used locking nuts and
hex bolts.
4. Foam Tires, some people replace these, they can become warped from sitting
long periods of time.
Other than that I used all the other parts.

Construction, I recall having a problem with the Joining wire that connect
the two elevators. Because I cannot drill straight enough to make sure they
are even. If I could have done this over again I would have, laid the
elevators of a flat table, put the joiner wire on top and made a mark. Cut a
notch in each of the elevators then, inserted the joiner wire into the notch
and filled the slots with epoxy.
The Aileron Servo Bays in the wings are a tight fit for Standard size Servos.
I did use Standard Futaba S3003 servos, but it was a very close fit. I would
have used mini servos for the wing Bays for the Ailerons.
The wheel pants are made of an ABS plastic, they are not fiberglass, at least
in my Kit. As far as the cowl. I thought the cowl was pretty easy to work
with. Big cowl, easy to make marks for the engine head and needle Valve. The
engine I am using is a Thunder Tiger Pro .46 with a Pitts Muffler. Good fit
in this plane. I did start with a OS FX .46 but for some reason I could not
get this motor to run stable enough in this plane. I think it had something
to do with how the fuel tank was positioned in relationship to the needle
valve of this OS FX Motor. I have read a OS .52 FS Surpass works really well
in this plane.
Overall the model fit together like a puzzle. Everything fit really well.
Even the struts are pre bent and perfectly fit. Pilot holes are already
drilled in the wings and fuse for this alignment as well.
The Balancing question. I thought this was pretty straight forward. The
INSERT again makes a correction from the manual 4 inches from the leading
edge on the Upper wing. I balanced it according to this and I thought it was
on the money. My plane was very tail heavy and had to add quite a bit of nose
weight, like 3 ounces...
Flying the model, Ground handling is very nice for this Bipe. Very stable not
squirly at all. The take offs were really nice. Gently breaking the ground
and no surprises going airborne. Landings have a bounce to this plane. The
manual also indicates this. Its mainly just getting used to the landing on
this plane because its approach is fast like a sport model with very little
drag.
On turns and rolls and loops the plane tracks very nicely. Its fun to fly. I
have not done any hammer heads with this plane yet. On inverted flights the
plane wants to climb a bit. I didn't make any adjustments, but did read that
the upper wing needed to be shimmed with a washer to increase the incidence
to correct this. To me it not that big of deal...
As I said before, this is a great model. Its constructed very well and very
light but Sturdy. Really Sturdy... Its a pricey ARF but well worth the money.
If this one dies I will certainly buy another!
Good Luck
Frank
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@ Schorsch:
Danke für die Infos. Ich habe die neue PT 17 Stearman-Version auf der Messe in Dortmund recht günstig ergattert. Nächste Woche gehts an den Bau.

@ Denis:
Thank you for that excellent report. It will surely help me to avoid any "future crashs" while building the plane.

@ all:
Weitere Informationen sind weiterhin sehr willkommen :cool:

Gruß Piotr
www.piotrp.de

[ 13. April 2003, 20:41: Beitrag editiert von: Piotr ]
 
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