I picked up a couple Phoenix Sea Bee's on sale.
How well do these things fly?
Is a .40 enough engine?(It is going to get a K&B .61)
Any weak area's in the construction to address?
Comments?

hi

bought one last week at a good price. only 2 problrms i have found is the servo mounting for the ailerons and the cover below the wing. a standard servo (if the horn is positioned in the centre of the gap) does not fit in the cavity, it catches in one corner. i had to cut away slightly for a good fit, thus weakening the point where one of the self-tapers goes in. i will re-inforce this before i fly, also probably tape around the edges of the plate, not sure i like the concept of 4 small self-tapers holding everything in!

the bottom of the wing is slightly smaller than the fuz, but does not look too bad, elsewise seems an excellent deal for the money. it ballances nicely, so i assume it will fly good. will find out this weekend.........

i am throwing an irvine 46, hope its got the power, as it is quite heavy.

Mine flew fine, landing gear holes did not match holes in the fuse. Flew well with an OS46. I would say it's OK, not great, but not bad.

Well nothing too bad then??
I got them for 80$ a plane. I also got a sukhoi that i am working on. These Phoenix arfs are really easy to build.
Thanks for the heads up on the servo positioning Aldo.

Where did you get them for $80?

Jon Lowe

Almost finished mine last night. Only other mod I intend on making is the dowels for the wings are kinda small...... easy mod though.

Also, the manual does not mention that you need to make a Y-piece for the elevators, probably the most time consuming part of the build!

I got the sukhoi, the 2 sea bee's and a trainer from Bisson Custom mufflers while they were selling them out. I'm pretty sure they don't have any more. I wish i would have bought another Sukhoi at 85$. The trainer was 42$.
My sukhoi has a elevator joiner but i haven't looked at the sea bee yet.

Any bad character in this plane? Can it take slow landing?

I'm thinking about two Pheonix model to purchase (Sea Bee or Extra 300s)

It flies okay (mine was very nose heavy to start with, the CG can probably be measured and inch further back...) and was not good at slow landings. programmed flaps in, and it was much better. still flying it, so cant be that bad, specially for the price.

Can you give me some tips on Flaps setup for this Sea Bee. I try to understand when applying flaps what is the counter degree for the elevator to prevent the nose over.

Is this model possible for near to 3D performance?

Really grateful of your help.

well, not 3d thats for sure. Pattern flying (of the small type) is what it is meant for, with a fine pitch prop it will hang though. Experimentation is the trick with your flaps, if you want a nice slow landing you want them generating more lift. I find i have to land at fairly high speeds.

Well my phoenix sukhoi bit the dirt. The left aileron with the factory installed and not glued pinned hinges came loose causing the spiral of death.[:@] My K&B 61 twist survived fine along with the radio.

Looks like one of the sea bees will be going together to replace it.

I'll be pulling all the pins and hinges and re-installing them. [:'(]

cogburn,

it's a good thing i'm having engine trouble in the sukhio.
i mounted the engine side ways.
you're talking about the pins to keep hinges in the wing?
holy shmootly ...if i pull those pins out...the hinges are not glued?
i was going to try put it up this weekend.

Leftnut-
Yup
The hinges came out and had maybe a tiny dab of glue on them. Nowhere near 'glued'. Preflight inspection showed them to be tight. Failed on the third flight turning into a 25mph wind at 1/4 throttle.
Also be carefull of the Cg location and err towards nose heavy- mine went from fun to fly to wild porpoiseing and snapping in about 2 oz of fuel. Did some wild aerobatics though.

Elevator throws are pretty criticall.

The nylon connectors for the control rods also do not appear strong enough-especially for the rudder!

I have over 50 flights on my Sea Bee. A 3D plane its not. For me its a go fast plane.

OS50SX with tune pipe, APC 11X7, Cool Power Green 15%

This plane comes in fast, you can flare it out nice but a bit of a headwind comes in handy.

When I wanna go fast, this plane keeps me on my toes.

I have one of these babys in my hangar. It has an OS 46 ax with a pipe. I lost one due to the elevator clevis pin snapping clean off. Nosed in destroying the fuse but wing survived. Went straight out and got another one. Did not use standard clevis but a heavy duty one. Now I have a spare wing. I put a 12oz tank in it as the tank supplied was a bit small. I had to remove a small part of the front wing to fit the tank but it did not affect the plane (except for longer flight times). I also moved the CG back an inch after careful testing. Very good plane. I use the flaperons when I have a deadstick and I have to slow her up quickly. Love it!

The Sea Bee is my everyday flyer. Mine flies great with an O.S. 52 four stroke. Lots of power for smooth pattern style flying with big loops, long vertical lines and very constant speed. At 5 lb. 8 oz. it slows down very nice for tail first 3 pointers. Easy to build and a great value for $99 from Tower.
bdb

What pipe, header and prop do you use with our 46AX?

Thanks.

Jon Lowe

I used the "Mac's" pipe and header with a 11x6 prop. She will go vertical and keep on going (into space). I fly at around 1/2 to 3/4 throttle, full throttle is too fast for level flight.