dirtydingus

This is not a very active thread but I thought I would post a picture or two. I just got the Comp. ARF Gee Bee. Over all a nice arf, although there were a few problems with it. A small hole in the wing, a tear in the fuse. and an unusable rudder. I am waiting to see what is done to remedy the flaws.

jjmretired

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That's one funny picture. You should send it into a magazine.

dirtydingus

A few other things of interest for perspective builders of the Comp ARF Gee Bee, DO NOT make the flying wires the lengths stated in the manual, or you will end up re-making them like I did. Their figures are between 15 and 20 mm short. At final wing fitting, I will relay the exact and correct lengths. I did receive a new replacement rudder and it is beautiful! How the first one slipped by quality control I will never know. It was junk! To be fair to Comp ARF, I should say that the rest of the plane is very, very nice. However, they do need to get on the ball and make a new, accurate and professional manual. Will post some pictures of progress in a few days.

Jim

PTS

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dirtydingus

Hey guys,
I test flew my Gee Bee this weekend and it did not go well! It was the hardest thing to do, just keeping it in the air. Almost uncontrolable. I can't for the life of me figure out what is going on. I built it to exact specs. I am waiting to here back from tech support in hopes they have an explanation. It seemed to be a thrust issue, it pulls hard to the right. I had to mix in left rudder in with the throttle, strange. The only thing I changed other than the paint job was to ad the big spinner, could that be it? I have flown 3 flights and each time I was lucky to get it back in one piece. Any (good) advice is welcome.

dirtydingus

gee bee r2. here you can see the spinner

PTS

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I hope you get it figured out! I was planning on purchasing one of these as well.

Perry

as722

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dirtydingus,


Love that paint scheme, it looks awesome !!


Albert

PTS

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Hey Dirty!

Please keep us posted on what you find out. I am really curious...

dirtydingus

Hey guys,
I flew my c/arf Gee Bee. This time without the big spinner and guess what? It flew great. I'll give more details this weekend after some more flights.

camss69

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That paint job is pretty incredible... got any in flight pics?

dirtydingus

Hey Guys
I just posted a video on RCU Videos. Under "Composite Arf Gee Bee". It''s short and a little shaky but shows the speed of flight and landing.

PTS

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I rapidly got the bug when I saw the dirtydingus Gee Bee. I called Andy Kane at Comp ARF and ordered one today and the last one in inventory in the USA. I plan on running a big Radial but which one I am not sure of. Does anyone have and good resoureces on what radial is optimum for the Gee Bee. I am leaning towards the RCS line due to the service being available in the US.

Thanks,

Perry

dirtydingus

Hey PTS,
That is great! I think the RCS 215 is the best choice. The sound of that radial is awesome, and they can swing a wicked prop. Keep us posted.
Jim

rusty55125

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I had the RCS215 Radial in mine until I took it out for my Fw-190. I did find out a very important thing, if you don''t reinforce the motor dome, it will flex and that is very bad!! When it flex''s expect your plane to pitch all over the place. If you have the 2004 Dayton video, you will see exactly what i am talking about. In that video, I made the turn down the flight line and then powered up and then it headed for the ground. After I reinforced the motor dome, everything was fine. I was even able to get it to torque roll out of it. Good luck with your project, the plane flies great and always gets attention where ever you bring it.

Scott

PTS

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Do you have any pics of the reinforcements you did or a description of how you did it? Also did you have to use a certain length standoff for the engine, what prop did you use, what size fuel tank, and how did the plane balance?

Thanks,

Perry

hotrodblazer

I'm just started building one also,and am curious as to what you guys are using for servo choices,and I also would like to see what reinforcements can be made to motor dome.

dirtydingus

Hey Guys,
In the center of the dome there is about a 7" flat circle, I cut a 1/2 " 7 ply aircraft grade plywood circle to fit perfectly inside that area. (backside of the dome) I epoxied it in and that gave me a great area to mount the tank to and provided a strong area for the motor mount blind nuts, and made the dome rigid .I will be tearing my plane down for the 20 flight inspection this weekend and I will take some good clear pics. I'm glad to here that other people are interested in this plane. It is alot of fun. The servos are a personal preferance. I used Hitec 985 mg's. Jim

PTS

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Thanks for the info...

Perry

hotrodblazer

Dingus, WOW,20 flights already!,by my count ,that makes at least 20 landings! Congrats!!
In only 2 weeks,you must have really been busy.Please feel free to provide any flight tips now that you are approaching "veteran" status!
These planes are somewhat rare,and there is not very much support to be found on the internet.This thread, in fact is is one of the few sources that I have found and I hope you and the others that have had good results can contribute and help those of us that are working on the plane.We all know that the instructions are marginal, at best, and that the Gee Bee is an unconventional build to most of us.
Thanks,Danny

TheRickster

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Danny you need to get busy making room in the Garage to work on the GB.. Your due-date will be upon you in no time at all, kind of like ours[X(]... Looking forward to seeing a larger version in the air than my GP one...

Rick

PTS

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I have decided to power my Gee Bee with the RCS 250. I bought the engine thru Andy Kane w/ Composite ARF. The 250 is lighter than the 215. Who would of thought.

Perry

RichardGee

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Gentlemen,

I am joining the CompARF Gee Bee R2 'fray' as I too am currently assembling one. DA150 for power. I have all flying wires constucted and mounted, LG, stab, rudder, TW, rudder servo, servo tray all installed.
Built my own fuel tank platform - can post pix. Instructions are sketchy, AT BEST.
Also, found cowl to have a fairly serious problem - mounting brackets allow for zero fuselage overlap and one bracket was carbon fiber/glassed into place with a twist. This will require that I make all new brackets to correctly mount cowl in scale position - not good, considering CompARFs are all pre-engineered.
Also found that one wing is thicker at the root than the other, and that both wings are thicker at root than where they mate with fuselage/wing filets. Problems are not horrible, but I am a perfectionist and they bug me! NONE of these issues would prevent me from purchasing another (of course, I have not yet flown mine...), but irritating, none the less.
Using a 50 oz. fuel tank and 24 oz. smoke tank. 42% Products on-board electronics and smoke system. Hitec 5645 MG and 5625 MG digital servos throughout. Futaba PCM Rx.
I have experienced 100% reliability with DA engines (this is my fourth) and Futaba PCM receivers (also my 4th) so figure, why mess with a winning combo?
Expect to have my R2 finished by mid May.
Also purchased Kirby's Kustom Graphics package for the Benjamin R2.
Access to interior is not good. Once motor dome is mounted, the only access is through scale cockpit door. Transport and field assembly will be a chore. But, as Delmar Benjamin said of his Gee Bee, "Compromises must be made."
If you are looking for an easy to build, easy to fly, scale model, steer far clear of a Gee Bee R1, R2, or Z.
They require a level of dedication reserved for we few loony tunes...

PTS

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I received the Gee Bee today and everything was great until the thin skin at the aft of the fuselage has a small crush mark and a chip right at the thin edge. Both places are small and fixable! What is a good way to fix crushed composite and a chip with only the glass remaining? I am referring where the fuselage ends before the rudder.

Dingus - When you painted your plane did you rid of all the rivet and panel line details and I assume you fixed the seams?




Thanks,

Perry

dirtydingus

PTS
My Gee Bee was torn in that same area. It was an easy fix with epoxy resin. I left all of the rivits in, it would have added to much weight to romove them all. Not to mention the hours of added labor.
I let the factory know about the damage and they sent me red and white paint for touch up and seams, the mach was perfect.