daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Just picked up a Kyosha GEE BEE Yesterday. What a cool airplane.
I was thinking Saito .72 for power. Does anybody have one of these? What's on it for power? If you guys havent seen one of these go to your hobby shop and peek. The fuse is only 3 feet
long but you can stick your head in the wing saddle & see to the tail. It will crack you up.
later daveo

twostroker

My Feedback: (37)

I'd say go for the .72 4-cycle. The one I have has a tower .46 on it and required enough additional nose weight to put another one on. Just kidding but real close. In my opinion if it needs nose weight, it needs a bigger engine, why not. As for the airplane, it flys great. Looks awesome, doesn't look like it should fly though. Landings are soft and smooth, elevator very sensitive, go with recommended throws on this one. And use the silcone down the wheel pants as directed. Also use low rate on rudder during take-off, it will ground loop fast with too much rudder input. Hope I didn't scare you, but I learned the hard way.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

The magazine write up I saw. They strapped the battery & reciever
to either side of the fuel tank. Just wondering were you put yours?
later daveo

twostroker

My Feedback: (37)

Everything was as far forward as possible on mine, including the nose weight.

gilligan371

I just picked up the Gee Bee as well....it definatly looks sweet!!!

Still undecided on power, but I am leaning toward the 4 stroke side of things..... Do you think a saito 80 will be to much power or be to heavy???

twostroker

My Feedback: (37)

No and No. Not to heavy, not to much.

gilligan371

I havnt flown mine at all yet, (still undecided on power)but the wheel pants really make the plane look awesome. Before I fly it, im going to have to tweak the gear some, the rear of the one wheel pant is almost touching the ground. I didnt take any material off of the pants as they suggest, because of what the article in Model airplane news said, but I think I might, just to be on the safe side. Our field has a black top runway, and I am pretty good at hitting it, so I think im going to leave all the peices on when I fly it, hopefully it will slow down and float good....I kinda think it will...theres ALOT of dihederal in the wing...more the some trainers.

PlaneDoc

Just started building my Gee Bee. Going to put a Saito 72 in mine. I've flown my buddies Gee Bee with the 72 and liked the setup.

gilligan371

I put a OS SX50 in mine, its really fast. I have flown it twice now and botched both landings. Tore the pants off and everything. WHere did your friend balance yours. I think im right around the 70mm mark and i think the plane flys like sh!%. Elevator is really throttle sensitive. I going to check the balance again and probable add some more weight to the front. Then im going to take the wheel pants off and try flying it...getting sick of fixing them. But all in all, it still looks awesome in the air.

alanl2

Put a Saito 91 4 stroke on mine. Fun Fun Fun! I did not need any added weight and the motor just fit inside the cowl. Be careful to follow the manufactures throws for the elevator. To much thorw and your in a spin thats hard to recover from. Ask me how I found that out. Good Luck, its a real cool plane.

GeeBeeJim-delete

Hey Squawks: That Satio .72 has gotta be near perfect for it.

dvfrancaccio

i have a gee bee and i stuffed a saito 100 into it. with the battery pack behind the wing mounting bolts, it balances perfectly. weighs in at 6.2 lbs. takes off in about 5' and goes strainght up, but it kind of lands like the space shuttle. the wheel pants are horrible.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

After some stick time on mine I can say for sure it lands like a turd. Mine turns to the right as it scrubs
off speed. Rudder only helps to a point then it's ineffective. To compound this the wire gear is to soft.
If you try and land with some speed the gear flexes back and the pants dig in. It is a blast to see it fly and takeoff is no problem, I just don't fly it that much because of the landing problems. The Saito .72 is perfect in
this plane. I moved the motor and cowl out an extra 3/16" and it balanced with the battery right behind the
servos. I did use a heavy hub but it would not look right with a spinner anyway. later daveo

dvfrancaccio

the gear wire is extremely soft. i also blasted the reinforcement in the wing. i have a spare wing that i am going to modify with some thicker wire. this brings me to my other point, i have a spare wing because my first gee bee was totalled on it's 3rd flight. engine failure during a stall spin. the plane will not recover without power. after the fact, i realized that i should have tried down elevator.

Toro1

My Feedback: (2)

Gee bee history...

Just remember this airplane had the nickname of the flying snap roll. DONT SLOW IT DOWN TO MUCH.

Short coupled and sensitive with little rudder authority with a fat fuse. If Im not mistaken I think the prototypes killed a couple of guys during tests .

JB

NO SINK [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

geebeeman

My Feedback: (21)

I've got a Saito 72 on mine and it's a perfect match. Mine's still getting broken in, so I don't have unlimited vertical. I was amazed at how slowly the plane would land, with no sign of a snap roll.

I did beef up the gear mounting blocks inside the wing, and I glassed the wing center section, since it seemed weak to me. This wa all hidden under the fiberglass belly pan, so it couldn't be seen.

Make sure you use a balancer to accurately determine the CG. I used my fingers for the first flight and I ended up flying a slightly tail heavy Gee Bee. Not good. The tail squats as speed bleeds of and you end up holding a little down elevator.

Great airplane, you'll love it! Like all Gee Bee's- it's a show stopper!