Why not just use the radial and put a bottom fuse air brake??

I have just finished my Gee Bee, what a Nice looking plane , I have three take offs and two landings ,, I lost a batery that ended with a crash in a pond unhurt but wet . take off and flying was great , I was thinking what a great plane ,, I cant land it ,, what is the trick of landing so I dont hurt this plane any more than I have to .. what is a good start for elevator throws ? have a Saito 150 on it ,

Jason,

First, be sure to stiffen up the landing gear wires. If you search out Henry Haffke's Gee Bee plans, you will see how he uses balsa between the fore and aft wire. I believe that wheel binding caused by the flexing wire gear is a major issue for most landing mishaps. The other is when one attempt to land this plane too slow.

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I purchased me another GP GEE BEE today. I am going to make this GEE BEE as light as possible. I plan on putting a saito 125 in it.

I have a saito 150 in mine , I didnt cut any corners building , I used lots of micro ballons and epoxy beffing up things . it has more than enough power and the CG came out great . did not have to add any weight at all , I have 4 flights on mine now . I hate to do anything more to it because I feel like I am working on it for nothing , every flight ends up with a control crash for landing , In my flying of 28 year I have never flown something like it . when I take off I think , lets have the best of it in the air because landing is going to be ugly . it flys very light and smooth . when on aproch it like to ballon up on its own than its a porpus fight to get it on the ground , if it ballons its better to power up and try again . I have the stock gear on it and from what I read is my main issue but I hate to put any more money and work into a plane that I crash every time I fly it .its to the point that the gear blocks are loose . If it works for you great ! but I think that I am just going to haul mine around in the trailer to talk about .

Jason

The Gee Bee is a handful to land. I haven't mastered it yet, but I think that I've got a better idea on how to tame this beast on landing after gaining some proficiency with a couple of my .60 size warbirds and a Great Planes Lancair ES. Great Planes tried to tame the take-off and landing characteristics of the Gee Bee with shorter than scale landing gear and lots of down and right thrust. This setup works great for take-off. The Gee Bee is easier to take off than my warbirds as it needs little to no rudder input to track straight down the runway and lift off gently as it accelerates. Experimenting with my warbirds, I found that they track straight as an arrow at speed with flaps up but porpoise like the Gee Bee when their flaps are down. I've learned to use this porpoising to my benefit on my warbirds as a way to judge airspeed. If I am set up on an approach and find that the plane wants to climb, I reduce throttle a bit and feed in a bit of down-elevator until the climbing tendency subsides. I'll know if I've reduced the throttle too much if the plane descends too steeply with my hands off elevator input. Basically, what is happening is that I'm using mostly throttle to control the descent rate instead of mostly elevator. Getting proficient at this required programming in some elevator trim when flaps were deployed to trim the model for landing speeds. I figured out how much elevator trim was needed for straight and level flight just above stall speed by taking the plane up a few mistakes high, deploying flaps, adjusting the elevator trim (counting the trim beeps so I could return the trim to normal after landing) until I found a safe landing speed just above the stall speed (If you try this, you should spend most of this flight getting used to the flight characteristics at this speed as a way to practice for landing, which no doubt will be flawless after having read this post ) After landing, I measured the difference in elevator trim between normal cruise to landing trim and programed that trim difference into the radio to be activated with my flaps switch. The Gee Bee doesn't have flaps, but the same process can be used to set the trim for landing speed. If you don't have a computer radio, you'll have to remember how many clicks of trim away from normal cruise speed are needed. If you do have a computer radio, you can program the landing trim to be activated with a two or three position switch or dial. Since the Gee Bee has an abrupt tip stall to the left, it may be a good idea to also add right rudder trim to the landing configuration trim settings. The proper right rudder trim can be found out at the same time that you are experimenting to find the proper elevator trim for landing.

The large amount of down thrust on the GB can throw a wrench into this process. You'll see my GB dive on the aborted landings on this video as I throttle up http://www.rcuvideos.com/video/gbstruts-wmv This is the effect of the down-thrust. I haven't figured out how to deal with this other than to be aware of it and compensate with elevator manually. My radio doesn't have the capability needed to mix this out. To mix this tendency out, it would be necessary to mix up elevator with full throttle but the up elevator mix is only needed until normal cruise speed is reached. Well, that is the best that I can figure out about how to tame landings for the GB. I haven't actually tried this approach with my GB, but I'd be happy to use you as a guinny pig if you think it's worth a shot

IN the air the thing flys great , one of the best flying planes I have ever flown . till it comes to landing . the plane is getting beat up fast and looking shagy quick . like I said if it works for you great ! but my gee bee days hare done I think . Its a road I went down and can talk about .

jason

Just got another GP gee bee. I am going to try to make it even lighter than the lowest weight on the box. Hopefully I can get it done before december. If not it will be next year.

Hi!
I have had my GP GEE BEE R-2 now for 3 years , flying it approximately 15-20 times. Despite being used to flying fast airplanes this one takes some time getting used to. I have been flying pylon racing for more than 25 years and thought I could handle most airplanes but this one was a beast at landings.
There is no problems taxing and take off is very easy (I'm using a ´MVVS 15cc (.91) two stroke and 15x4W APC prop) and so is flying.
It rolls good and knife-edge forever.
The problem is landing it!!!
It seems to have a very narrow landing window between a perfect landing and disaster!
If you come in too fast the wheels grabs the grass ... the plane tumbles...this despite near golf green facility... if you come in too slow ...she suddenly just doesn't fly anymore and just drops...! Neither is any good.
The last time I flew it, this spring, I modified the ailerons to have more up throw than down and this made the landings easier. Cannot say I'm 100% familier with the GEE BEE yet, but the aileron modification seemed to help. Seems like one wing-half stalls when moving those big ailerons on landing and flying slow , and then she drops.

To have a light plane is vital! my GEE BEE R-2 weights exactly 5000g (5kg) and despite this low weight it's real hand full to land, at least it was until I put in some aileron differential.
So build it light and remove anything that isn't necessary and power it with the lightest possible engine.

What struck me the first time I saw the GP GEE BEE-R-2 was the wing sitting at 6 degrees positive and the stab 0 degrees. I think this is perhaps the factor that make the wing stall so early.
The Henry Haffke GEE-BEE R-1 I have been building the last 25 years... sic [8D]has the wing sitting more like 1 degrees positive. Have Laser 30cc V-twin on that plane.

That's the weight I am trying to be around. You have it a hair above 11lbs, but I want to even try 10.5 lbs. I plan on putting a saito 125 in it. My last GP gee bee had a os 120 and I had to move the battery and receiver back and add a little tail weight.

So far I have the gee bee put together with everything inside servos receiver tank and all hardware it is coming out to 7.5 lbs. Without the radial engine cover, and with the saito 125 installed it should come out to 9 lbs. Then I have to balance it hopefully I can stay under the 10 lbs mark. I was shooting for 10.5 lbs but now I want to be at 9.5 lbs.

This video is from a couple years ago.
But in the end you can see how proper technique in landing can make or break it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6b92I5XJBM

When I get my next one, it will have robo struts!

Very nice piloting skills! I hope that you just sold your GB and it didn't "buy the farm." Any detailed comments on how the GP GB flys? I found that the large amount of positive incidence of the wing and down thrust balance out nicely at full throttle and top speed and make the GP GB really easy to take off, but throttling back suddenly makes the GB balloon until some speed is bled off.

If you are considering Robostruts for the GB, you might want to do what I did in this thread http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_56...tm.htm#6583985

Anyone selling good condition Robostruts ?
I'd like to buy one used.
Thanks.

no I do not plan on adding robarts. I had two great landing with the factory landing gear. I think that robarts add more weight that is not needed. I am trying to stay as light as possible.

Isn't stock landing gear gonna be too bouncy ?

Do you think "Articulated Knee, Spring-Shock Landing Gear" will help ?
http://www.goldenskiesrc.com/SLG.html

Thanks.

Hi!
Standard landing gear is good!
It's keeping the weight down thats important. Those Robart "Robo struts" is just plain too heavy. Use the lightest engine possible and mini servo on throttle and move tank, servos and receiver as far forward as possible.

Thanks Craig,
Looks like you did a good job getting a handle on the beast also. Nice work and flying.

I don't understand the folks that think the robostruts will add too much weight.
The Gee Bee comes in plenty light enough and it has plenty of wing area to carry all of the 12 lbs that the specs allow.tHE
The problem of the spring action of the stock gear is easily overcome with the robo struts and the interference of the fairings is easily addressed with your mods and a few other possible tweaks.

Thanks Tommy. From my own experience of flying the GB both with and without Robostruts, I didn't notice the extra weight of the struts. The Robostruts with my mod to the pants make the landing gear bullet proof. In my GB flight video, that hard touch and go, where you can hear the struts bottoming out, would have been a hard, wheel-pants shredding, nose-over had I done that with the stock setup. Since I haven't been able to grease my landings consistently with the GB, I like the peace of mind that bullet proof landing gear gives.

However, the more you lighten the GB the more reliable the stock gear becomes. I would say that the stock gear is "iffy" for a plane that is 11.5lbs. If you go the lightening route, you may be able to get by just fine with the stock gear. I thought about going that route myself, but knew that people fly Topflight 60 size P-47s at 12 and 13lbs and it has a comparable wing area to the GB. One way I thought of to lighten the GB is to build a lighter rudder out of sticks or foam or cut huge lightening holes in the stock and cover them with white monokote. I'll bet it's possible to halve the weight of the rudder. I've never weighed the rudder but I'm guessing that it weighs at least 4oz. Two ounces saved on the rudder would mean 8oz less weight needed in the nose.

someone made a tri landing gear for the GEE BEE. I PM him put he never responded. Does anyone here know how he did it?

does anybody know how are have a email for this gentleman.

never mind I got in touch with him. Thanks

I have the GP Gee Bee ready. All I need now is the engine. Currently the plane is right at 8lbs. After I get the engine it should be around 10-10.5 which is where I wanted to be. Here are some pictures

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