Sterling T-Square

I've got a Sterling T-Square kit as a result of a trade. Some nostalgia here.....some 40+ years ago my c/l partner & mentor had one. What I really remember is watching the maiden flight...a rather rapid series of up and down cycles. He later cut in to the bellcrank area and reduced the sensitivity and the T-Square was flyable as a sport ship for many years. It was powered by a Torpedo 35.

Thinking of powering this kit with an OS32F since the Green Heads are hard to come by. Any building tips and thoughts out there? The goal is for this to be a sport/fun flier....not a combat ship.

Does anyone have a picture of the T-SQUARE they could possibly post here? I was given a plane as a kid by some guy that was done flying C/L, flew, crashed, fixed it..... and I think its a T-SQUARE. I was just wondering, thanx

Greg/Ironbomb

Hi Greg,

You may want to try Barry Baxter's website
as he has tons of combat plans for sale.

http://www.controllineplans.com/

Ray,

The K&B .35 Green Head is easily obtainable on Ebay. They appear there often and the ones which have been run sell at reasonable prices. If you go after a New In The Box engine, however, it is a different story, since you have to compete with the engine collectors. I enjoy the old designs and in the 1960's, I had a Sterling T-Square powered by a Fox .35 stunt (which is shown on the plans) and later a McCoy .35 Red Head. I ran a pacifier tank with the McCoy and the plane was a suprisingly good flier. Unfortunately, I put it up in combat against my brother's K&B .35 Green Head powered Ringmaster and the result was a midair collision. My T-Square came down in lots of little pieces. Loved that airplane though. It does make a great sport flier.

Hi Ray,
Shouldn't need much alteration to be a good sport flier.
The OS 32F has quite a bit more power than the older engines so prop it down with a 4 to 4 1/2 pitch prop. We have flown a couple OS 32Fs and the APC 10 1/2-4 1/2 prop worked good. Even used a 10-4 APC.
Should be a blast.
Bill <><

Agree that Greenhead 35s are easy to come by, and not all that expensive.

I recently sold (ebay) a NIB Greenhead 35 at $78. And my NIB 29S, hard to find, especially in this condition, went unsold at $99.99. It now is available at $79.99 at The Bay.

Decent used ones (the 35) are available all day, even on ebay in the $35-45 range.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-30-04 AT 09:46 AM (CDT)
 
>Agree that Greenhead 35s are easy to come by, and not all
>that expensive.
>
>I recently sold (ebay) a NIB Greenhead 35 at $78. And my NIB
>29S, hard to find, especially in this condition, went unsold
>at $99.99. It now is available at $79.99 at The Bay.
>
>Decent used ones (the 35) are available all day, even on
>ebay in the $35-45 range.
>
>Currell

Yep! I have 7 of them right now- one the R/C version. One I got that was nice (great compression and all) had a busted crank. I paid $25 for it and the new in package replacement crank cost me $10, I got a new gasket and screw set as a freebie, it rocks now.
BTW: On the T-square, does anyone know what the "plans" color scheme was that was used on the model in the box art and mag ads?

J

LAST EDITED ON May-03-04 AT 08:48 AM (CDT)
 
i have a color pic of a T Tray dont know if its the same thing your looking for i hope this isnt to big i tried to compress it and it came out fuzzy kinda looks like a 1/2A size plane from the looks of the engine
steve

The T-Tray looks like a fun 1/2A, but it is nothing like the T-Square

Nope!!! That is definitely NOT a T Square.

Bigiron

would be interesting to have it sized up for a bigger motor

Here is the T-Square - as built from the Sterling kit. Colors were a light blue/almost a gray; black l/e; white trim line between them. The decal was orange and red with black outline.

Here is what is left of my T-Square from 1972. The box is off Ebay. It has the plans with it.
I loved the way this plane flew with a Johnson 35. The episode causing the crash was a bad launch and a Fox 35 Combat. (heh,heh)
The thing I remember most is how it would hang on the prop and literally rotate in the air.

Ooooh! That's what I don't like! Appreciate the inputs. THis kit looks pretty good.....a lot better than the "typical" Sterling stuff.

Those airplanes are sensitive to cg location. There is not much distance between being too dead to turn and being unstable.

Hey you guys that put the pics up, Thanks! That is what I have, only mine is in need of some serious repair. I thought I saw it at Barry Baxters plan site, and it was there that I first found what this plane possibly was, but the pic was to small for me to be sure. I see all these really great T-SQUARES here and it is the same plane I have. Now I want to get mine down and fix it up. Its been hanging in my Dads basement since 1981, when I left for the Air Force. And I crashed it a few years before that. I had no idea I am in the possion of a classic plane. Now I wish I had taken beter care of it. Discoveries like this are best when shared with friends, thanks you guys. Greg

Ahh...memories! Circa 1962 I built a T-Square, covered it with red silk and doped-on 15 coats of clear Aero-Gloss. Fox 35BB, the one with the big, square intake, metal tank on pressure, 9-7 prop, K&B 1000 fuel . . . it was an absolute rock-steady platform that turned fairly well. Went to a meet in Riverdale, IL with Dave Ek...entered Combat for the first (and only) time..."bellcranked" my opponent (was he ever ticked-off about that!), reducing his model to kindling. Somehow, the 'Square survived to fly again---after much fixing and patching. As it turns out, mine was a very nice Sport flyer.

>Ahh...memories! Circa 1962 I built a T-Square, covered it
>with red silk and doped-on 15 coats of clear Aero-Gloss.
>Fox 35BB, the one with the big, square intake, metal tank on
>pressure, 9-7 prop, K&B 1000 fuel . . . it was an absolute
>rock-steady platform that turned fairly well. Went to a
>meet in Riverdale, IL with Dave Ek...entered Combat for the
>first (and only) time..."bellcranked" my opponent (was he
>ever ticked-off about that!), reducing his model to
>kindling. Somehow, the 'Square survived to fly
>again---after much fixing and patching. As it turns out,
>mine was a very nice Sport flyer.
>
>Mike Keville

Ah memories. I built a few of them and covered them with scarves that I bought at the local 5 and dime store. You do remember those don't you. Anyhow I remember that one scarf was Aqua with butterflies on it. I covered on with that and let me tell you I had to fight or die with that covering. I learned the value of conservatism fairly quickly after that.
But I did like those and the Omega.
Dennis