Review: Great Planes Super Stearman EP ARF - 2012/03

www.ModelAviation.com March 2012 Model Aviation 77
Originally designed as a military trainer in the 1930s, the Stearman’s fl ight
characteristics and ruggedness have made it a mainstay of air shows and
barnstomers for decades. The aircraft is so popular that you would be hardpressed
to attend an airshow where one didn’t appear.
The Super Stearman was an evolution of the original design that doubled the
horsepower and added an extra set of ailerons to improve the roll performance.
Great Planes has created a 36-inch span, electric-powered ARF Super Stearman.
Let’s see what this semiscale (fun-scale) model has to offer.
First Impressions
The Super Stearman comes in one small box and when I opened it, I found
everything polybagged and taped into position. Nothing was damaged or missing.
After the parts photo was fi nished, I took a few minutes to note the construction.
The entire airframe is built-up from balsa and laser-cut, light plywood. All of the
pushrods, control linkages, main gear, and even a steerable tail wheel are in the box.
It appeared to be a complete kit.
I needed to reshrink the covering on most of the model and spent extra time on
each of the ailerons.
Construction
I’m not going to quote the manual. Instead, I’ll go over the build and focus on
steps where more attention is needed.
The wings are straightforward because both the top and bottom wings come
completely built as one-piece units. The ailerons are already installed and glued in, so
all that’s left to do is install the servos and the aileron linkages in the bottom wing.
The top wing’s ailerons move in tandem with the bottom ailerons using a pushrod.
The bottom wing takes a couple of other steps such as gluing in the wing dowels
and the doublers around the wing bolt holes.
The fuselage assembly isn’t much more involved. The tail surfaces are installed, and
the design of the rudder locks into the horizontal stabilizer. Everything aligns nicely.
A compact
aerobat that’s
built for
performance
Tom Sullivan
[email protected] REVIEWGREAT PLANES SUPER STEARMAN EP ARF
Photos by the author
It looks good, doesn’t it? For a small, electric-powered model, it presents much
larger than it really is. The great color scheme doesn’t hurt, either!78 Model Aviation March 2012 www.ModelAviation.com
After using thin CA glue to attach
the elevator halves, install the tail wheel
strut, glue in the rudder, and your control
linkages are installed. The pushrods
slide through preinstalled tubes in the
fuselage, and the control horns glue into
precut slots in the tail surfaces.
The landing gear bolts on and there
are two vacuum-formed fairings glued
into position. One note here: I’ve built a
number of kits and most vacuum-formed
parts need much work and caressing to
fi t properly. However, these two fairings
are some of the best-fi tting, vacuumformed
parts I’ve seen. They fi t perfectly
and snugly, and look quite nice! Finishing
out the landing gear are the axles, wheels,
and wheel pants. No surprises here.
The Super Stearman’s power system
was the ElectriFly RimFire .10 motor
and a matching ESC. The laser-cut
motor-mount box was a perfect match
for the motor’s mount and the ESC
attaches slightly aft of the fi rewall using
Velcro that was included.
The servos and receiver mount
internally on the aft portion of the
battery shelf. After you’re hooked
everything up, carefully attach the motor
battery and determine which way the
motor rotates. It’s much easier to swap
the wires at this point instead of after
everything is in place!
The cabane strut installation comes
next. Study the manual’s photos
REVIEW
Notice the amount of work done for you (one-piece wings, painted cowl, pilots installed, etc.) before assembly begins.
It’s rare to fi nd a kit that includes pilots.
Great Planes not only includes them, they
come preinstalled with the other cockpit
details shown.www.ModelAviation.com March 2012 Model Aviation 79
three-cell battery or larger. However, the
Super Stearman has no provisions to do
this, nor is it mentioned in the manual.
The small fuselage and tight battery
installation required me to have my arm
and fi ngers in the arc of the propeller.
If you use the SS-35 brushless ESC as
I did, it sort of skirts the problem of a
live propeller because it requires you to
move to full throttle then back to zero
throttle to arm the motor. Using other
ESCs could make the battery installation
and removal tricky.
Be safe, because I don’t know about
you, but I’m pretty sure my fi ngers don’t
grow back!
Unsure of the Super Stearman’s
speed, I decided to make the trip to
my local fi eld for the fi rst fl ights rather
than the small fi eld where I normally fl y
small electrics. Taxi tests showed nothing
surprising, other than the tail wheel
seemed slightly light, bouncing under
quicker taxis.
On the fi rst fl ight, I found the
Stearman slightly touchy to keep
SPECIFICATIONS
Model type Semiscale ARF
Skill level Intermediate builder; intermediate pilot
Wingspan 36 inches
Wing area 365 square inches
Airfoil Semisymmetrical
Length 29.5 inches
Weight 2.25 to 2.76 pounds
Power system 300 to 400 watts
Radio Four channels with four servos
Construction Balsa and light plywood
Price $149.97
TEST-MODEL DETAILS
Power ElectriFly RimFire 35-30-1250 outrunner brushless
motor; ElectriFly 35 amp ESC
Battery ElectriFly three-cell, 2200 mAh LiPo
Propeller APC 10 x 7E
Radio system Futaba 8FG FASST transmitter; Futaba R617FS 2.4 GHz
receiver; four Futaba S3114 micro servos; three 6-inch
servo extensions; one 6-inch Y harness
Ready-to-fl y 2 pounds, 5 ounces
weight
Flight duration 8 to 12 minutes depending on fl ying style
PLUSES
• Airframe construction is 100% plywood and balsa.
• Model is covered with MonoKote in an attractive color scheme.
• Included fi berglass cowl and wheel pants are prepainted to match
covering.
• Assembly is quick considering the complexity of biplane designs.
• Preinstalled magnets are used to attach cowl and battery hatch.
• Two pilot fi gures are preinstalled.
• Decals (including N-number) are not preapplied, giving you the option
to customize the Stearman to your liking.
• Using the recommended power system, there is plenty of power for
extreme aerobatics.
• Its small size makes it a great grab-and-go airplane.
MINUSES
• There are no provisions for an arming plug, nor is it mentioned in the
manual. (More about this and why you might want to install one is in
the text.)
• It is highly aerobatic with plenty of power; however, it does not fl y at a
scalelike speed.
AT A GLANCE....
carefully to determine where all the
struts go. There are right and left, as well
as fore and aft struts.
Note the top and bottom of the outer
wing struts. Although interchangeable
port and starboard, they only line up one
way to the hole of the mounting tabs.
After the inter-wing pushrods are
attached, attach the vacuum-formed
turtledeck and the bottom wing fairing.
All that remains is to snap on the cowl
and attach your propeller of choice.
The completed Super Stearman can
be disassembled if needed, but its small
size and the use of a bit of thread-locking
compound throughout makes it easy to
leave assembled, including the wings.
The completed kit came in at 21
ounces ready-to-fl y, and assembly took
roughly fi ve hours (not including the
time needed for the RC-56 glue to dry).
The CG was right on the money when I
moved the battery all the way forward.
Flying
Before I get into the fl ying portion,
let me note a possible problem. I’m a
huge fan of installing arming plugs in
any electric-powered model that uses a
You need to drill the mounting holes
to mount the motor, so a wide range
of motors and mounts can be used.80 Model Aviation March 2012 www.ModelAviation.com
REVIEW
down-elevator to hold level,
but that’s expected. Rolls and
point rolls are effortless, but
take some cross controls to
keep things straight.
Throttling down to a
reasonable, scalelike speed
is a not something that the
Stearman likes. I had a hard
time fl ying at any sort of
a prototypical speed and
maintaining height in the
straight; however, its power was
awesome. With a bit of back stick, the
aircraft leaped into the air and was easily
climbing out at a 45° angle.
I needed some height to trim things
out, so I let it climb under full power.
After reaching altitude and trimming it
out for the photo passes, I explored the
fl ight envelope.
Under full power, the Super
Stearman reminds me of the fl ight
performance of an Extra, Edge, or other
air show performers. It screams across
the sky and, because of its small shape,
it is able to aggressively snap and spin
on command.
Loops from level fl ight are no
problem. Inverted fl ight requires slight
Top: The Stearman’s landing gear fi t and fi nish
was one of many of its highlights. All holes are
predrilled and everything fi t together well.
Bottom: Incorporating a design feature normally
found in larger models, the aileron servos are
mounted inside the wing halves.
To change the batteries quickly, pop
off the top hatch that’s held in with
a locking tab in the front and
magnets in the rear.
The wing struts have a subtle difference between the top and
bottom, so use care to ensure they are positioned correctly.
The supplied Futaba fl ight pack fi ts into the Stearman like
a glove. It’s slightly tight, but there are no surprises.turns. The power is available in an
instant to hold the altitude, but then
the speed jumps up again.
Not wanting to push the battery too
far, I set up for landing after a solid
8 minutes. I took a few attempts at
landing and found it best to set up a
longer glide path, and then hold the
model a few feet above the ground
until the speed bled off, using power
as needed to ease the Stearman onto
the runway.
Conclusion
I flew the Super Stearman several
times that day, and have roughly 20
flights on it as I write this review. I’m
impressed with the build quality and
the small grab-and-go size that lets
me throw it in the trunk of my car
and be off to the field in a jiffy. Note
that I wrote field, not park. The Super
Stearman eats up so much sky that you
need a larger area to fly safely.
The wind will push the little biplane
around, especially at slower speeds,
but the power system gives you more
than enough to easily take on fairly
gusty conditions.
The only downside of the Super
Stearman is trying to fly it at a scalelike
speed. Although not as lumbering as the
original Stearman, the full-scale Super
Stearman is not a quick aerobat; it’s
more of a barnstormer.
The Great Planes Super Stearman
model is far more than a barnstormer.
It’s a high-octane thrill ride. If it was redand had the Oracle branding on the side,
you’d find it a perfect model of Sean D.
Tucker’s Challenger.
The power system is so strong that it’s
almost too much. Resist the urge to fly
it at full throttle all the time. With some
power management, I’ve been able to
coax 10- to 12-minute flights from the
Stearman, depending on how wild I was
on the flight.
The Super Stearman is a compact,
semiscale model that can hold its own
regardless of what you throw at it.
The completeness of the kit and the
better-than-average flight time (even
with aerobatics), make the model an
appealing choice.

www.ModelAviation.com March 2012 Model Aviation 77
Originally designed as a military trainer in the 1930s, the Stearman’s fl ight
characteristics and ruggedness have made it a mainstay of air shows and
barnstomers for decades. The aircraft is so popular that you would be hardpressed
to attend an airshow where one didn’t appear.
The Super Stearman was an evolution of the original design that doubled the
horsepower and added an extra set of ailerons to improve the roll performance.
Great Planes has created a 36-inch span, electric-powered ARF Super Stearman.
Let’s see what this semiscale (fun-scale) model has to offer.
First Impressions
The Super Stearman comes in one small box and when I opened it, I found
everything polybagged and taped into position. Nothing was damaged or missing.
After the parts photo was fi nished, I took a few minutes to note the construction.
The entire airframe is built-up from balsa and laser-cut, light plywood. All of the
pushrods, control linkages, main gear, and even a steerable tail wheel are in the box.
It appeared to be a complete kit.
I needed to reshrink the covering on most of the model and spent extra time on
each of the ailerons.
Construction
I’m not going to quote the manual. Instead, I’ll go over the build and focus on
steps where more attention is needed.
The wings are straightforward because both the top and bottom wings come
completely built as one-piece units. The ailerons are already installed and glued in, so
all that’s left to do is install the servos and the aileron linkages in the bottom wing.
The top wing’s ailerons move in tandem with the bottom ailerons using a pushrod.
The bottom wing takes a couple of other steps such as gluing in the wing dowels
and the doublers around the wing bolt holes.
The fuselage assembly isn’t much more involved. The tail surfaces are installed, and
the design of the rudder locks into the horizontal stabilizer. Everything aligns nicely.
A compact
aerobat that’s
built for
performance
Tom Sullivan
[email protected] REVIEWGREAT PLANES SUPER STEARMAN EP ARF
Photos by the author
It looks good, doesn’t it? For a small, electric-powered model, it presents much
larger than it really is. The great color scheme doesn’t hurt, either!78 Model Aviation March 2012 www.ModelAviation.com
After using thin CA glue to attach
the elevator halves, install the tail wheel
strut, glue in the rudder, and your control
linkages are installed. The pushrods
slide through preinstalled tubes in the
fuselage, and the control horns glue into
precut slots in the tail surfaces.
The landing gear bolts on and there
are two vacuum-formed fairings glued
into position. One note here: I’ve built a
number of kits and most vacuum-formed
parts need much work and caressing to
fi t properly. However, these two fairings
are some of the best-fi tting, vacuumformed
parts I’ve seen. They fi t perfectly
and snugly, and look quite nice! Finishing
out the landing gear are the axles, wheels,
and wheel pants. No surprises here.
The Super Stearman’s power system
was the ElectriFly RimFire .10 motor
and a matching ESC. The laser-cut
motor-mount box was a perfect match
for the motor’s mount and the ESC
attaches slightly aft of the fi rewall using
Velcro that was included.
The servos and receiver mount
internally on the aft portion of the
battery shelf. After you’re hooked
everything up, carefully attach the motor
battery and determine which way the
motor rotates. It’s much easier to swap
the wires at this point instead of after
everything is in place!
The cabane strut installation comes
next. Study the manual’s photos
REVIEW
Notice the amount of work done for you (one-piece wings, painted cowl, pilots installed, etc.) before assembly begins.
It’s rare to fi nd a kit that includes pilots.
Great Planes not only includes them, they
come preinstalled with the other cockpit
details shown.www.ModelAviation.com March 2012 Model Aviation 79
three-cell battery or larger. However, the
Super Stearman has no provisions to do
this, nor is it mentioned in the manual.
The small fuselage and tight battery
installation required me to have my arm
and fi ngers in the arc of the propeller.
If you use the SS-35 brushless ESC as
I did, it sort of skirts the problem of a
live propeller because it requires you to
move to full throttle then back to zero
throttle to arm the motor. Using other
ESCs could make the battery installation
and removal tricky.
Be safe, because I don’t know about
you, but I’m pretty sure my fi ngers don’t
grow back!
Unsure of the Super Stearman’s
speed, I decided to make the trip to
my local fi eld for the fi rst fl ights rather
than the small fi eld where I normally fl y
small electrics. Taxi tests showed nothing
surprising, other than the tail wheel
seemed slightly light, bouncing under
quicker taxis.
On the fi rst fl ight, I found the
Stearman slightly touchy to keep
SPECIFICATIONS
Model type Semiscale ARF
Skill level Intermediate builder; intermediate pilot
Wingspan 36 inches
Wing area 365 square inches
Airfoil Semisymmetrical
Length 29.5 inches
Weight 2.25 to 2.76 pounds
Power system 300 to 400 watts
Radio Four channels with four servos
Construction Balsa and light plywood
Price $149.97
TEST-MODEL DETAILS
Power ElectriFly RimFire 35-30-1250 outrunner brushless
motor; ElectriFly 35 amp ESC
Battery ElectriFly three-cell, 2200 mAh LiPo
Propeller APC 10 x 7E
Radio system Futaba 8FG FASST transmitter; Futaba R617FS 2.4 GHz
receiver; four Futaba S3114 micro servos; three 6-inch
servo extensions; one 6-inch Y harness
Ready-to-fl y 2 pounds, 5 ounces
weight
Flight duration 8 to 12 minutes depending on fl ying style
PLUSES
• Airframe construction is 100% plywood and balsa.
• Model is covered with MonoKote in an attractive color scheme.
• Included fi berglass cowl and wheel pants are prepainted to match
covering.
• Assembly is quick considering the complexity of biplane designs.
• Preinstalled magnets are used to attach cowl and battery hatch.
• Two pilot fi gures are preinstalled.
• Decals (including N-number) are not preapplied, giving you the option
to customize the Stearman to your liking.
• Using the recommended power system, there is plenty of power for
extreme aerobatics.
• Its small size makes it a great grab-and-go airplane.
MINUSES
• There are no provisions for an arming plug, nor is it mentioned in the
manual. (More about this and why you might want to install one is in
the text.)
• It is highly aerobatic with plenty of power; however, it does not fl y at a
scalelike speed.
AT A GLANCE....
carefully to determine where all the
struts go. There are right and left, as well
as fore and aft struts.
Note the top and bottom of the outer
wing struts. Although interchangeable
port and starboard, they only line up one
way to the hole of the mounting tabs.
After the inter-wing pushrods are
attached, attach the vacuum-formed
turtledeck and the bottom wing fairing.
All that remains is to snap on the cowl
and attach your propeller of choice.
The completed Super Stearman can
be disassembled if needed, but its small
size and the use of a bit of thread-locking
compound throughout makes it easy to
leave assembled, including the wings.
The completed kit came in at 21
ounces ready-to-fl y, and assembly took
roughly fi ve hours (not including the
time needed for the RC-56 glue to dry).
The CG was right on the money when I
moved the battery all the way forward.
Flying
Before I get into the fl ying portion,
let me note a possible problem. I’m a
huge fan of installing arming plugs in
any electric-powered model that uses a
You need to drill the mounting holes
to mount the motor, so a wide range
of motors and mounts can be used.80 Model Aviation March 2012 www.ModelAviation.com
REVIEW
down-elevator to hold level,
but that’s expected. Rolls and
point rolls are effortless, but
take some cross controls to
keep things straight.
Throttling down to a
reasonable, scalelike speed
is a not something that the
Stearman likes. I had a hard
time fl ying at any sort of
a prototypical speed and
maintaining height in the
straight; however, its power was
awesome. With a bit of back stick, the
aircraft leaped into the air and was easily
climbing out at a 45° angle.
I needed some height to trim things
out, so I let it climb under full power.
After reaching altitude and trimming it
out for the photo passes, I explored the
fl ight envelope.
Under full power, the Super
Stearman reminds me of the fl ight
performance of an Extra, Edge, or other
air show performers. It screams across
the sky and, because of its small shape,
it is able to aggressively snap and spin
on command.
Loops from level fl ight are no
problem. Inverted fl ight requires slight
Top: The Stearman’s landing gear fi t and fi nish
was one of many of its highlights. All holes are
predrilled and everything fi t together well.
Bottom: Incorporating a design feature normally
found in larger models, the aileron servos are
mounted inside the wing halves.
To change the batteries quickly, pop
off the top hatch that’s held in with
a locking tab in the front and
magnets in the rear.
The wing struts have a subtle difference between the top and
bottom, so use care to ensure they are positioned correctly.
The supplied Futaba fl ight pack fi ts into the Stearman like
a glove. It’s slightly tight, but there are no surprises.turns. The power is available in an
instant to hold the altitude, but then
the speed jumps up again.
Not wanting to push the battery too
far, I set up for landing after a solid
8 minutes. I took a few attempts at
landing and found it best to set up a
longer glide path, and then hold the
model a few feet above the ground
until the speed bled off, using power
as needed to ease the Stearman onto
the runway.
Conclusion
I flew the Super Stearman several
times that day, and have roughly 20
flights on it as I write this review. I’m
impressed with the build quality and
the small grab-and-go size that lets
me throw it in the trunk of my car
and be off to the field in a jiffy. Note
that I wrote field, not park. The Super
Stearman eats up so much sky that you
need a larger area to fly safely.
The wind will push the little biplane
around, especially at slower speeds,
but the power system gives you more
than enough to easily take on fairly
gusty conditions.
The only downside of the Super
Stearman is trying to fly it at a scalelike
speed. Although not as lumbering as the
original Stearman, the full-scale Super
Stearman is not a quick aerobat; it’s
more of a barnstormer.
The Great Planes Super Stearman
model is far more than a barnstormer.
It’s a high-octane thrill ride. If it was redand had the Oracle branding on the side,
you’d find it a perfect model of Sean D.
Tucker’s Challenger.
The power system is so strong that it’s
almost too much. Resist the urge to fly
it at full throttle all the time. With some
power management, I’ve been able to
coax 10- to 12-minute flights from the
Stearman, depending on how wild I was
on the flight.
The Super Stearman is a compact,
semiscale model that can hold its own
regardless of what you throw at it.
The completeness of the kit and the
better-than-average flight time (even
with aerobatics), make the model an
appealing choice.