gerry111 (your #6),
...She appears to favour flying from the rear seat too...
I did 60 hrs in the Stearman at Primary School in '41 with the USAAC. The stude always flew in the back seat (as it had little affect on the CoG if the instructor was in front or not - I think it was the same in the TM). Left to my own devices now, I would have gone up front solo every time, as there was no ASI in the back (that did not faze us: what you've never had, you never miss).
Cloudee (your #8),
...Gerry111, the Stearman is flown from the rear seat, maybe that's why she favours it. It's the seat with the starter button...
STARTER BUTTON ? All ours had a hand-cranked inertia starter wound up by a sweating mech under the blazing Florida sun - and I still recall the look of blistering contempt when the stude didn't "catch" the engine first time, and he had to do it again !
But of course ours only had a radial 220 hp Continental (fixed pitch prop), which seems to have been replaced here by a Wasp Junior (?) with all mod cons and a (two-speed prop ?) out of a scrap Vultee BT-13 (?)
Danny42C.