LEARNING TO FLY THE STEARMAN
After waiting nearly 30 years, the Stearman was finally mine. Tens of thousands of pilots learned to fly in the Stearman in WWII. Thousands fly them still today but not many seriously fly aerobatics in the big motored version. MCMD still sells the Stearman Aerobatics Manual written in the 60’s by Walt Pierce. It was written for the stock airplane. I purchased a copy. The stock Stearman is a different airplane than the 450 HP. At 1 1/2 tons, the big motored version weighs 20% more with over 1000 pounds forward of the fire wall. The wings are the same which means the stall speed is higher. Control forces, specifically aileron forces, never light in the Stearman are tremendous requiring two hands for rolling maneuvers, yet the aileron effectiveness is almost non-existent. The elevator is very limited in nose down travel but that’s OK because the negative G limit is only -2.67. I read and reread the book cover to cover and headed for the hangar. I knew basically what the airplane could do but didn’t have airspeed or power settings. Day after day I went up high flailing around like a fish out of water, falling out of loops, hanging up rolls to the right and never figuring out how to get all the way around in the snap roll.
The Stearman is a very stable airplane in flight, a good thing for a trainer and a bad thing if you want to do aerobatics. Slowly the loops grew into circles. The rolls smoothed out and the snap roll came together. The hammerhead, a graceful looking maneuver to watch and a pleasure to ride through, requires nearly full control input in aileron, elevator and rudder. The four point roll requires every flight control to go stop to stop at some point during the roll. High performance pilots talk about vertical penetration describing how high they can climb when they pull straight up. In the Stearman a pull up from red line might make traffic pattern altitude before Isaac Newton and Bernoulli take over. Airspeed doesn’t decay. It disappears.
Flying aerobatic performances in the Stearman is a workout. You are close to the ground in an airplane that doesn’t respond very fast. It was designed more than 70 years ago when aerodynamics were in their infancy. Control inputs are large and response is limited. High performance aircraft quote roll rates in degrees per second. The Stearman measures roll rate is seconds per degree. Your right leg is larger than your left from always holding rudder input. Landings aren’t over until the hangar door is locked as the Stearman always wants to ground loop and there is always a little lurch as the tailwheel touches down setting off another series of large rudder inputs.
Having said all that, the Stearman is a very forgiving airplane, in flight. With so much weight in the nose, a blown maneuver only requires a reduction in power and the nose heads for terra firma. The Pratt and Whitney R985 is the sweetest sounding engine ever built. At idle, the R985 is music to behold. At 2300 RPM the nine foot prop tips are nearly supersonic giving it that throaty growl that is unmistakable. Nine cylinders, each the size of a 1.6 liter engine producing 50 HP a piece. It never met a gas pump it didn’t like.
There is something magical about flying a big old open cockpit biplane around the country. We’ve crossed the Rockies at sunrise and raced locomotives in the desert waving to the engineer as we pulled past. We’ve spotted herds of elk, antelope, and wild horses, reported forest fires and waved to more farmers and fishermen than we can count. The magic only gets better and performing in the Stearman gives me a chance to share that magic with others.
By Gary Rower
E-mail: gary@garyrowervintageairshows.com