I Am Looking to buy Great Planes Gee Bee. Want to get OS 1.20 for engine, Should I get pumped or non pumped. I am new to this sport, and will fly trainers for awhile, and will build up to this stile of plane. I have always liked the Gee Bee and Great Planes has finally come out with my dream plane. Thanks for advice.

Hi!
Yes, the GP GEE BEE R-2 looks real nice and it flies just great. But forget it for a couple of years!
It demands so much more than a ordinary low winged airplane.
The problem is landings it. It is a real hot airplane to land.Flying is ok and so is take off, but landings are very difficult ...at least I think so after having flown mine for 10 times.
I have flown R/C for 30 years and last summer tried out the GB, doing an article for a R/C magazine here in Sweden and I assure you that despite having competed in pylonracing for many years I found it hard to do a nice landing with this airplane.
I have mine powered by a MVVS .91 two stroke which is much lighter than any fourstroke (300g) and despite the low weight (5kg), my GB was difficult to land.
Using a 1.20 fourstroke will add around 300-350g which will enhance the bad landing characteristics even further.
Pumped or not pumped doesn't really matter...both OS engines are very reliable.
What's importance flying this airplane is flying experience...that's more important than what engine you choose.
You get the best flying experience from competing!

Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

Thanks jaka, It must be alot eaiser to fly it on the GP3 simulator, because I do really good on takeoffs & landings. Is that true?

Want2B,
I suggest first of all that you look through all the threads on the GP GeeBee here. In fact there's one just a couple below this one.

I love the GeeBee's, not just the R2 but all of them. Like you, I was delighted when GP came out with this. I started flying this on the Sim as well, but you'll find it's harder to land in real life. It takes off great, flys great, but landings are a handful! I'm on my second wing thanks to one of those landing surprises.

This plane requires you to fly it all the way down. You can't just float it in for a landing. If there's a cross wind, forget it....the big fuselage acts like a weather vane.

You'll also find lots of tips on building this. The only difficult part is fitting the belly pan. It requires some patience and fitting to get it just right.

As for engines, I'm using the OS120 with pump. I have an on-board glow, and with that and the pumped engine it idles like a dream.


Steve

Thanks Steve, I did do a search on the GeeBee and did alot of reading. It sounds like they are a bear to land. I think I will hold off for now until I get more flying time in.

Hi!
Yes the GEE BEE R-2 in real life is much harder to fly (read land) than on the simulator (Aerofly Professional De Luxe).
My advise to anyone thinking of buying one is to get a lot flying experience from low winged fast flying airplanes like Q-500 pylon racers.

Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

You will go much farther in the hobby than many others with that kind of thinking. Good for you.[sm=thumbup.gif]

Thank's Terry, How about something like the Seagull Harrier. You think that would be to hard to fly?