Bill, as I remember I built the Sterling Guardian with the stock engine bearers for the longest time while running Rossi 60's. I do remember eventually finding a way to run the engine bearers farther back. I don,t recollect a lot of complaints about the model having serious issues in the motor mount area. Nice looking airplane. Let us know how it flies.
Thanks
Wayne

Impressive build, wish I could be there for the test flights. With a .65 a real return to days of yore. 

 Very cool, awesome job! Thanks for the story and the pics.

If you look at the plans and build the kit as per instructions.   The fuselage sides glue to the engine mounts also.   I have had three Sterling Gaurdians,   first one was Merco .49 and got me my first trophy(a first place).  Next was the McCoy .60 Redhead with Bill Johnson setup.  Won a lot of contests with it.  The last one was Rossi .60 power with Johnson type throttle.  Was not very consistant.  The fourth Gaurdion was one of Bill Meltons planes.   Can't remember the engine, but had a Perry pump on it.   The kit built Guardians were all built using Ambroid or Testers cement and stayed together except the one time in Nebraska I pulled the hook out of the plane.

Here's a picture of Dan's Wildcat.

Tower 40? Is North West Sport Carrier going to migrate to the South West? That would be a good thing! Plane looks good BTW.

Sorry it's been a while for this one, but here's the latest. JP and Jack came out to the contest at the end of April, but at that time I hadn't made lines yet, and the engine hadn't been run or adjusted in the airplane, only on the bench. They took the airplane home, and the next day they ran the engine and made some preliminary adjustments. Sadly, Jack died that very night, so he never got to see the Guardian fly.

JP and I both still wanted to see it fly, so he left the airplane with me so I could build lines. Contest season spooled up and I got busy with that, so I didn't get the lines made until last weekend. I called JP and told hit it was time to make it fly.

I got to fly it three times today. The engine idled and ran very nicely below about half throttle, but did not want to draw fuel at full throttle. After a couple of flights we changed from the original Evolution 60NX carb barrel to a smaller bore 46 barrel. This would run at a higher throttle setting, but still quit if I opened it too far. (Next, we are going to eliminate the remote needle and go direct to the carb.)  In spite of this problem, it seemed like the airplane was going to be fast, and I was able to fly the airplane in slow speed quite successfully. This is the first Sterling Guardian that I have flown, and maybe they're all like this, but this airplane flies beautifully! With the flaps dropped and the rudder deflected, I didn't detect any changes in handling, but I do think that it did fly a bit slower in the "dirty" configuration. Flying as fast as I was able, the airplane grooved well and was not touchy, yet there was enough elevator authority to hold the nose up a "nostalgia-correct" amount.

Other than the high throttle issue, I didn't feel that anything about this airplane needed to be changed. I am looking forward to getting the engine sorted out, and being able to post a score with this airplane at our October contest.
Nice job JP. I think Jack would be pleased.

The engine is running on suction. The tank is half-round, flat on top. The vent goes to the front top outboard corner, making it a "front uniflow". If the vent was moved inboard some, it would lean out less in the air, but even on the ground it won't run at full throttle, so it's not (just) a tank problem.  I really think it's the remote needle. but we'll know soon enough!

I'll ask JP if he knows any more details about where and when Jack was flying.

Bill, I have not had any luck with a uniflow setup trying to draw thru a large carb a long distance. 4BK in fact around 9 inches until i quit blocking one of the inlets. I fnally got moving without a problem when I left all the vents open. That doesnt say that the carb inlet still might not need to be reduced. My Irvine .36 and K&B 40 FESE graycase 4 BK equiped draw well at about 9 14 inches. Hope this helps.
Wayne

"BTW do you know from where in Ohio Jack was. In the late 60's to mid seventies Carrier was real heavy in Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit."

JP said Jack was from North Olmsted, and flew in the same club with Carl Dodge. In fact, the club meetings were at Jack's parents' house. They would fly until dark then have the meeting in the barn. Perhaps this will sound familiar to somebody.

I am happy to report that the fuel system problems are ironed out, and I got to fly the Guardian at our year end carrier contest. High speed was 107 mph on 10%, low speed in the wind was 27 mph. I ramped the landing, which is as close as you can get and still miss the landing  . Part of the hook release mechanism broke, which will be easy to fix, but was enough to make me not fly it a second time. JP was there to see it and seemed pleased, and also wants me to keep flying it. Looks like I'll have one more event to fly next year.

The magic fix for the fuel system was replacing the Evolution carb with an OS 6B carb. I don't know where I got it, or what engine it was actually made for, but it fit without modification and works beautifully. Even though it is a significantly larger bore that the Evolution carb, I think it has better draw because the spray bar goes all the way across the bore. As I think about it, I also had fuel draw problems with the Evolution 36 carb.

More details about the rest of the contest in a day or two, and hopefully David Russum will post some pictures.