Stearman makes progress

I have done a lot of work on rebuilding the Stearman after her stall crash. The motor mount was crushed, but I rebuilt it piece by piece with CA and epoxy.

It came together pretty well, though some chips and pieces were missing. I supported the structure with pieces of balsa and ply, and installed the firewall and mount on the fuse using CA to get it into position, and epoxy to strengthen it.

The slots and structural support for the landing gear really took a hit.The fuse wall was crushed into the fuse where the landing gear jackets pushed into the fuse. I pulled the fuse out and filled it in as I could, using CA and epoxy. I couldn't get the landing gear plate completely flat. It had buckled a bit and I couldn't get any leverage to push it back. The plywood was bent, but not broken. I pushed it into place as well as I could, but its not perfect. The residual is that the gear pant on the right side doesn't fit flush, but it looks really good. I ironed in the new blue Ultracote. Looks really good!

I will install the motor and ESC and run a motor test. All that is left is to order and install the cabane struts, the upper wing carbon fiber support rod, the wing N struts, and the cowl. I will need to rei-nstall the weights to get the CG again, I suspect with some less to account for the epoxy in the motor mount.