gee bee ace

Nice vid Steff, gotta love that red dirt hey, you should get a water truck to follow that grader.
Thanks for the info on the struts. Seeing as i already put mine together ill give it a miss this time but good to know.
Keep us posted on the build and the performance i was hoping i was going to be the first to fly one of these in town but looks like your going to beat me, amazing how the priority's change as soon as you get married.
Well i better get back to flying my Walkera 4G3 around the control room.

PSJDBF

Got'a love night shifts eh !.

Unitracts international web site for any one interested.

http://www.unitracts.co.uk/oleo.html

PSJDBF

Well the assembly Part is all done except for a few cosmetic touch ups.
just requires balancing ,control throws set and an engine run up which all should be done in the next couple of days, then hopefully the maiden
next week.Our strip has a big trench straight through the middle of it at the moment ,a pipe line from the bore feilds going in,so hopefully will all be fixed up in the next day or so !!.
The wheels look a little un-scale and the struts a little to long but that is what I was looking for ..going for function than looks hopefully will stop any nose overs, also have the big wheels at quite a low pressure for the hard ground.
Took alot of time to finish the belly plate and wheel pants & wires (very time consuming ) the belly Pan was to small length wise so has left a small gap at the trailing edge ( to be Covered ) and the longer brace wire pair were to short so had to design an extension that would suit the struts ,also had to modify the wheel pants to suit the wheel /strut combo
,you'll notice there alot Flatter on the bottom also enlarged the gap for the wheels to allow for some front & rearward flex & fitted in ply blocks so I could screw them together instead of glueing them.
Starting to get nervous about the first flight now !!.

gee bee ace

Looking good mate
I was wondering if you had got around to flying it yet, let us know how it goes. Mine is a shelf queen these days hanging of the ceiling in my living room.
Later mate

PSJDBF

Couldn't resist putting 1 more photo up , done all the little cosmetic bits I;m going to do.
Fuel proofed her today which has made a huge difference to the finish of it , throws are done , I put in alot of expo
Batterys charged just need to run the engine up tomorrow and a little taxi run , starting to get very nervous !!.

PSJDBF

I'm not the only one crapping himself by the looks of this guy !![]

Are you going to finish yours Gus ? ,may have to catch up some time in Perth.
Cheers Steffan

gee bee ace

Hey Steff
Neat pilot where did you pick him up from he even looks closer to the right size.
Would be neat to see two of them on the runway hey.
Im looking into joining up with Whiteman park heli club at the moment witch also lets me fly planes there, ive never got into that whole club thing, following rules and such but its just too hard to find a decent runway near Perth. Thats the main reason behind not taking off. ive got about 2 hours work left to do on the plane and then give the motor a bit of a run so not much really. And i dont want to crash it, is the other reason i havent finished it yet i guess. Little bit chicken ****.
Just a little advice on the nerves, i find i fly much better after two beers especially with the helis, if I go to three i find i get a bit reckless and i end up with a pile of bits. lol
Anyway if i join one of those clubs ill have to be on my best behavior.
Later mate

PSJDBF

Went out to do the maiden this morning but unfortunately my mate was a no show so did some more taxi tests.
Wasn,t getting the rpm's I expected at WOT yesterday so changed to a different fuel filter replaced 1 plug & tried
a different fuel and now she's peaking alot better !!.Seem to be having some dramas with some of the fuel I've
been getting lately as the stuff I used before I cant get anymore ![:@].
Also had a drama with the tail wheel set up , the plane is to heavy for the sullivan wheel I have so once the weight or momentum
changed the tail wheel would skid off in its own direction ( dont think I explained that to well ), any way going to try a
different set up ,so maybe tomorrow will be the big day[].
Put a vid on utube of the engine run up & taxi test yesterday you'll see what I mean in regards to the tail wheel & rpm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn9snkpTH7c

Gus I know what you mean about the clubs, was checking some out down there a couple of months ago ,the pilot is from
DH the pilot people in the UK.
Catch ya.

gee bee ace

Another nice vid steff, that motor sounds sweet, keep us up to date

PSJDBF

Well it flies !!!.
Successful maiden done this afternoon ,whew.
The lift off was abit hairy at first I didn't think she was going to lift off , then she just lept into the air.
Required some right trim on the aileron and alot of down trim ,which I,m guessing is why the tail didn't come up.
After that she was stable and graceful to fly,and I reckon it looked awesome in the air ... did have the shakes quite bad though.
The 170 performed perfectly and was just enough I think certainly not loads of power but still flew with authority.
Didn't do alot just got the feel of her one barrel roll a couple of passes then landed , wanted to gauge the 170's fuel drinking!.
She putted around nicely at about 1/3rd throttle on the landing circuit ,I came in low and quite fast but as she approached
the strip I cut the throttle down slowly and she slowed up rapidly ,as if I had just deployed flaps but still settled nicely on the
two mains ...however when the tail came down she skidded off to the right alot and went straight over the the dirt left from grading the strip.
Luckily the struts absorbed it all & she didn't look like tipping on her nose.
The good news is I have some video footage of the flight ,so you can see her up !! the bad news is my mate doing the videoing was nervous
or excited ? about the landing and forgot to video most of it...1 min of the ground & his feet !.
Will post the vid on utube tomorrow.
Cheers everyone (having a celebrationary whiskey)
steffan.

gee bee ace

On ya mate job well done!!

PSJDBF

Cheers Gus.
The video of the first flight.
Theres some nice shots of the ground near the end but I had to put it in
because of the guys comments.
Steff.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXTNg87gsHw

PSJDBF

Went out this morning for another flight but had some dramas with the brace wire's
& also some dramas with the other plane I took out ,so took it as a sign & went home
(not superstitous ? )
Anyway fitted up some turnbuckles to the brace wires which makes adjusting them
easier.
Also had the 17x7 xoar prop & 16x8 menz prop turn up today so may try them out
tomorrow & see how she performs on them.

PSJDBF

WARNING dont fly the Gee Bee Z in high winds !!!!....Flew mine this morning with quite a strong wind blowing...take off was very short & hairy
& she was almost uncontrolable in the air so decided to bring her in but with the wind blowing like it was she would not drop !! I had to more or less
fly it in with alot of down elevator & any gusts would push her all over the place ....Thought to myself I'm going to lose her soon but fortunately I
got her down in one piece.
The amazing thing was how slow she was flying with the wind when she finally came down ,not quite on the strip (alittle cross wind pushing her off )
but eventually she started to drop on her own , Glad I invested in those struts as it wasn't the softest landing.
Anyway my mate managed to get the take off & landing on vid check it out !!.
All the best Steff.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51x_Vv58zFc

gee bee ace

Nicely handled mate ill take the advice on board for my retirement which is probably when ill get around to flying mine. i signed up to whiteman park club last week so i might get there one day, i have to do all the training crap before im aloud to fly much other than a trainer at the field. Take it easy mate and keep cranking out those top Ozzy vids.

PSJDBF

Cheers Gus ,I guess I'll have to go through the same thing soon.(club wise )
I take my hat off to Seagull models though, she might not be good in the wind but this ARF is well designed built
& flys really well & you dont need alot of speed to fly her , the maiden vid is a little deceiving it is actually flying alot faster than it looks in the video
and is very stable at low airspeeds......I love this Plane.
All the best steff.

bryant50

My Feedback: (3)

Just got a SEA Gull Gee Bee Looks good .Going to put a DL30 on it. What do u guys think about that engine is it going to be to much?

gee bee ace

Hey Bryant
That motor should be no problem, If 0257 can put a 40cc in his and get it to balance you should be right, if you read the earlier posts (if you havent already) 0257's motor was around 1300 grams the motor your talking about is around 950 grams i think. I would say that all you probably need is 26cc but it is a racing plane so ya just gotta do it hey
0257 moved the tail servos down to the tail to help balance it out, you could do this too if need be, but id say you should be right as it is.

I haven't flown mine yet so i still cant really tell you for sure how the 26cc goes

One thing i would recommend is sandwiching an aluminium plate on the firewall to beef up the mounts a bit i found the ply to be a bit soft and the standoff squashed in a bit. also do a bit of reinforcing as the gassers vibrate a lot. i have seen that dubro make a large scale engine mount for gassers with vibration dampening it might be worth while looking into that. Im still tossing up whether not i should pull my motor off and remount it.

Still i really like Steffs motor the best cant beat the sound of a four stoke.

Keep us posted how it all goes
Cheers Gus

bryant50

My Feedback: (3)

Well i do have a brand satio 150 i could put the gee bee instead . Im just trying to get out of glow motors lol .. I'm thinking that it would be enough power.

PSJDBF

Hi Bryant , good to see someone else giving this plane a go.
I think the Saito 170R3 is the heaviest engine used so far at 1350g and certainly not the most powerful.
It seems to handle the weight well, I used both my flight & glow driver batteries to balance her mounting them
behind the wing ,from my experience it doesn't need alot of power to fly well , but if your've got it all the better.
The Saito 150 would be perfect grunt wise ( a little more than the 170 ) and you would be able to keep the weight down
, however the power of the DL30 would be impressive ,with plenty to spare !!.
Either way you cant go wrong I reckon.
As Gus has said keep us informed on your decision & how your build goes..Pics etc ....are you going to use the stock
landing wires or invest in some struts , the struts I have used give me alittle more height which has served two purpose's
It has stopped any tendancy's to tip on her nose when landing , and one I came accross during a takeoff incident, if it
does end up on its nose it saves your wheel pants from any damage , I have read they are expensive to replace.
Good luck & keep us informed.
Steff.

bryant50

My Feedback: (3)

Hey psjdbf the sea gull gee bee i got has working struts i guees they made changes to the newer kits they seem be be spring loaded. And i am going to put the dle30 on the plane i just got it in and it looks good. I will post pics as soon as i start the build which will today after work.

PSJDBF

Hey you'll have to show us a picture of the struts , they are just getting better & better with this improvement.
Steff.

pencon

Hi folks , I have a CMP GeeBee r2 and I'm using the robart robostruts. I'm thinking you guys could probably adapt those to your Z's seeing as the planes are the same wingspan . I adapted rc car oil dampers to my robostruts . They're piggybacked onto the front of the oleos and will hide under the wheelpants. I haven't tried flying with the dampers yet but I am taking it out on Sunday for a test .Hopefully the bounce will be gone .

gee bee ace

Hi Pencon
would love to see some pics of the setup you have on your R2 if possible, let us know how the flight test goes.
Cheers Gus

pencon

Hi GeeBeeAce , When I can get some decent pics taken I'll post some .Our usual club video man is currently suspended so hopefully he comes back soon and does a video of it . I did test it out on Sunday and it does seem smoother on the landings but does still bounce a bit . I think the robart struts need some kind of progressive springs . They need to be softer initially . I've been toying with the Idea of removing the springs altogether and filling the strut with high density sponge foam of some sort .