Has any one out there purchased a Lazy Bee ARF yet? If so....what do you think about it? How did it fly on the cobalt 400 sized motor?

I have seen the arf and have built and flown a Bee from Kit.
Do yourself a favor build the kit and put an .05 astro geared on it you wont be depressed.

Yeah..Hobby People must be out of their minds..........they say to buy their cobalt 400 and use that direct drive with a 7" prop. Give me a break!!!!! Their is no way that it would fly with any power at all. I took a Green Machine reverse rotation motor and added a Master Airscrew gearbox and a 10X7 prop, I ordered a Kyosho magnetic mayhem motor but has not arrived yet. I will use my 2400 miliamp six cell batteries that I use for my monster truck.

Backyard flyer says that it is great..........they also rave about Megatec so how could anyone get an honest answer?

My ployhedral wing tips did not match up perfectly. Good enough to fly but not to my standards. The fuselage is very nice. although no suspension. So I put large trexlers on it. I have to install the ESC tonight ad I am ready to fly. I will post my results later.

Well......I just finished tooling around the yard and driveway with the Lazy Bee. I tried the 10X6 and the 11X7. I think the 11X7 will be the one to make fly with some spirit. It looks very cool zooming up the street....it lifted off the ground for a second unexpectedly. Can't wait to get off work Saturday afternoon so I can get her in the air.

Dave

OK.....Saturday afternoon did not go as well as I hoped for. The Bee was hand launched but I had the throw way too much on the rudder and when I went to make my turn......she tipped the wing and all-most went inverted.....I corrected too much and she went swooshing to the left and right very quickly, loosing altitude, until hitting the ground hard. I broke the wing polyhedral on one side. Glued it back together and brought it back home and recovered the polyhedral. Also....I took off the Trexlers and the wide axle that I had installed. It added extra weight and I think a lot of drag. I installed the original wheels and axle that came with the plane saving a lot of weight. It of course is raining and a little gusty here in NJ and I will wait for better weather. Also.....not used to using the rudder, elevator and throttle together. I am used to using ailerons, elevator with just a touch of rudder to make quick turns. I was uncomfortable once it was in the air......using the right stick and nothing was happening........oh........use the rudder dummy! That gets the heart rate up! I may just put the rudder servo wire into the aileron port on the receivers. That way I will use the right stick and be more comfortable in the air. I will report later on how it goes.

Dave

Move the rudder over to the right stick
I always fly planes with only rudder and elevator with the rudder on the right stick.

As soon as I finish playing on line I will switch the wire to the right stick. I think that will work better. I just wanted to try it the other way.......on the simulator, it is awesome, in real life when you have that plane in your hand and your box in the other, and the heart is pounding because you know what will happen if you make a mistake.......you realize that the simulator is NOT the real deal!


Dave

OK.....getting tired of trying this electric business. I added a folding prop from an Aspire sail plane mounted onto a Trinity Black Onyx motor. Holy moly!!!! Talk about thrust! It is unreal! But........my ESC from Great Planes would not handle the amperage and would kick out after a minute or so. I had a Tekin G620 laying around and that curred the high amperage draw problem.

It is windy today but I had to try it. It lifted off the ground with in two feet! But it torqued to the left bigtime. I landed a little hard and tried again but with less throttle. It was doing well until the wind slammed it into the home plate fence. Only the left wing tip was damaged .........again! I took it home and repaired everything again except the prop. My local hobby store is out of the folding props. So I mounted a Kavan 9X6 yellow prop on it which very cool and goes with the color scheme. You know......it has to look good! So........I will try her again. This next time will be the last. If it is not performing well.....I will yank it all out and go glow fuel.........that is probably what I should have done from the beginning!


Dave

With the Kavan 9X6 prop the Bee took off in about eight feet and climbed at about 20 degrees. I did not use much elevator, I wanted to get a good feel for it before yanking and cranking on her. My battery only had a partial charge so I don't know the flight duration, I was only up for maybe two minutes before she started dropping altitude. It is quiet....slow and very smooth. Very relaxing. I may play araound with her this weekend and see how long I can keep her up. I fear that I am fighting a loosing battle with the elelctric. If the wing was wider.........less wing loading would keep me up in the air longer. I don't know.........it was nice flying at 6:00 am and nobody can hear me. That is what I was looking for! If the flight duration is not what I was looking for, I may put a little 15 motor on her and I think I will see a big difference.

Dave

OK guys.........the LA 15 is in a scratch built model that I just don't want to rip apart at this point. So I dropped in the LA 25. Yeah...it is a large motor for that plane but I would rather have too much power than not enough. The plane is so light now! Compared to what it was like with over a pound and one half of nicads and heavy electric motor I figure that if it flew like that.....the LA 25 will be a lot of fun. I am envisioning prop hanging, loops and rolls. I have to get a small tank today and I should be flying tomorrow.........weather permitting. I will give a report and I promise..........I will post some photos.........sorry, I have been real busy.

It looks like I wasted a lot of time trying to get that Bee to fly electric. I tried out the 25 LA on her today and It was beautiful! I flew for a maybe ten or twelve minutes before landing and I had a half of a tank left and it was not even totally full when I took off.

It is really smooth in the air. I still have the low rates set very concervative for now. I did a few loops wich were nice. That .25 LA is a nice running engine....power to spare. It started raining and I had to bring her in. One of the coolest things that I like about it is the slow fly-bys. When approaching for landings.....I like the looks of the swept up wings as it is heading towards me......looks like a clown plane and then when I hit the gas it turns into the evil clown snarling and cursing and demanding respect!

One thing I will try soon is a roll. I understand that if you set the throw for the rudder with 3/4" travel that it will roll. I have to see that! Maybe if I hit the elevator and as the nose raises.......hit the rudder hard? I think that should work.....have not tried it yet but this weekend will be full of experiments with my little Bee.

All in all I hd no problems converting it to gas and it flies nice and slow at quarter throttle, I have only had it to half throttle so far. Throttle mangement is the key.


Dave

Wait till you get enough nerve to fly it in a stiff breeze or should I say wind. They are a ball to turn into the wind and toy around with almost like a slope glider but with power. You can actually make them fly backwards.

That sounds like a lot of fun! Can you roll yours? I was a chicken yesterday and did not try it. I did try a half loop, stayed inverted and rolled out of that.....that was fun. Please let me know if you can roll and how you go about it please.

Dave

OK guys.....sorry I have been very busy! Here is the Bee with the Master Airscrew box on it. It did not work well....barely could stay in the air with a 2,400 battery and a 40 amp Great planes ESC. I was using the Green Machine reverse rotation motor. I am thinking maybe it would have been better with a 60 amp ESC?

So......from there I decided to try it with a magnetic Mahem motor direct reverse rotation direct drive with not any more luck. Then I wnt to the Trinity black Onyx.......direct drive and could get three minutes with the plane at full throttle. Just way too heavy!

Now remember....I bashed up the wing two or three times and at this point I am tired of the electric business! The only thing that I wanted to put on the plane was an LA 25. I was concidering a Norvell .09 but it seems heavy compared to the displacement. The LA 15 was on another plane so I dropped my LA 25 onto the plane and it is a lot of fun!!!! I will be flying in the morning and can not wait! Anyone know or have any info on a product called the "Quiet pipe"? It is made of light weight slicon or something like that? I used to see it advertised mut have not seen it in a while. Any knowledge out there of this product?

Flew the Bee again today. What a fun plane! The LA25 provides more than enough power and it is just a real pleasure to fly. Landing is a riot!!! It bounces with thos big Trexlers on her. I did rolls with her for the fiorst time today. With higher rates, aroll is no problem. It freaks people out when they have looked at it and they know it has no ailerons! I can even hang on the prop....not pretty yet, I need to get used to it first. While hanging on the prop....I have to keep down stick preasure to keep it's nose in the airor it rolls backwards. Flat bottom wing characteristics. I have added some pics....a little grainy....I did some stills of of video.

Dave

another....

another............

last one....sorry for the poor quality photos.......I should have had some body with my digital camera....but forgot about it.

i built my l.b. from a kit. i put a 15 la in it. 13 min. with a 4 oz tank. it will hover for a little while before it falls out of it. rudder & elevator on the same stick. take offs r pretty ugly but i`m getting better. with all the throw i have in it it will roll real fast using only rudder. full rudder & full elevator is so fast it`s scary. lol my favorite thing to do is to fly real slow about 5 feet off the ground, i sometimes fly a whole tank out 5 to 10 feet high in a area about 50 by 200 feet. the pres. of our club can fly even lower than me, he showed me it can fly low n slow. it`s my favorite plane!!
conk

Conk......I have built the Speedy Bee twice and both have been destroyed. Once by being stupid and the last time (three weeks ago) from a guy chopping me out of the sky. I was so upset after the last one I bought the Lazy Bee ARF so I would not have to build. I wish I would have discovered the fun of this plane three years ago! This thing is a blast! I wish we could upload videos on RC Universe. I was doing loops and rolls today. Most of the guys were amazed at my little plane......and so was I! Not enough words to explain but I am sure you know what I mean! Mine hovers......I could not beleive it! But.......it went dead stick after I was yanking and cranking on the gas. My dead stick landing was beautiful! I spirelled down with three fifty foot diameter turns building speed and setting up for my approach. She came in " on the Money" as I knew she would. I converted my video into avis and I will post on my web page soon.


dave

i followed the post of your speedy bee build.seem to me you did something creative on one of the builds, i can`t remember what it was though. i think i was in your photo gallery? i built my l.b. in sept. $55 for the kit & another $70 for the trexlers , covering ,etc. the arf came out shortly after that. if anything ever happens to mine i`ll go buy the arf for $90. i saw 2 big lazy bee`s at joe nall yesterday. 60" wingspans. i wish i would`ve bought one. that`ll be my next project after i finish my super decathlon. i saw a big lazy bee fly one time, it`ll do everything it`s little brother will do & it`s easier to see. try flying "slo n lo" it`s a blast. you can fly so slow if anything happens it won`t hurt it because it`s so light. i can bring it in to land so slow & stall it about 1 foot high it has no roll out. flying backwards in the wind is fun too but with a 15 in it i don`t let it get too far down wind, i`m afraid i won`t get it back. have fun.
conk

imsofaman I have a lazy bee [from kit] with a norvel 15. instaled alumium tail pipe with snowmobile gas line and tie wraps to fuse. This keeps oil off the plane and beleive it or not actually increased power out put. First flight of day is always slugish ? retained oil in muffler pipe? cold pipe? ~2 minutes into flight all is well from then on. 2th fxr

Well...I am sure it is cold up there in Canada...maybe it took a while to get the glowplug hot and the the fuel actually warms up with the exhaust pushing preasure in the tank. I had a 15 Norvel on my kit Bee...I took that of and I have a 30 Saito Gold Knight....I know this is over kill....but I have the Gyro attatchment for it so I will need the extra power for the drag of the Gyro rotors. I am currently covering it...recovering from the flu so I have not done anything on it this weekend. I will post some photos later.

Yes...I too want to use the pipe on the side. I tried it with a Speedy Bee once, but it ran way too hot on my...many dead sticks until I took the pipe off. I will try again this spring with my Speedy Bee which has a four stroke on it and My Stagger Bee will have the Norvel .15 on her.


Dave