40GeeBee

Rickster,
What engine are you using, what does it weigh?

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

VERY NICE WORK Danny (and Rickster)

Indeed, you have inspired me! Eventually when I remake my cowl to R1 shape, I will absolutely consider the scale exhaust outlets and doing what you did to the Johnson mufflers, rather than two big un-sightly holes in the bottom of the cowl.
Can't wait to see video.

hotrodblazer

40GeeBee,
Check back a few posts, to #1040,as there was an in-depth discussion on various engine weights.
Rick has a Moki 215,and I have spent much time admiring it running on the test stand,a sweet engine in all respects!
Danny

40GeeBee

Ha Rich,
What is so special about the R1 cowling?

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

The R1 cowling is different from the R2 cowling in that the R1's was larger to house the P&W Wasp Sr. engine. Look at the 3 views and the profiles of the two cowls are markedly different.

40GeeBee

Rich,
Will you be flying at the Golden Age, August 20th at your field?
Paul Steiner

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

Hi Paul,

I expect to be flying 3 Golden Age aircraft at my event...but one never knows what the RC Gods have in mind for me and my planes...[X(]
I want to get out and put more air time on the Gee Bee, plus I just purchased back my Ikon N Wst Mr. Mulligan and want to get it flight ready as well.

IF all goes as planned, I should have my CARF Gee Bee, Mr. Mulligan, and 1933 Gere Sport bipe

Maxclimb

My Feedback: (61)

All,

I had some more timeto look over my kit and I have questions regarding the alignment of the verticle fin. I have read that there is some offset built in to counter torque and maybe P-factor as on Delmar's full scale replica. Upon examining my kit I see the offset but what troubles me is some misalignment of the fin at the horiz stab cutout. If I take a steel ruler and lay it on the outer skin of the vert fin trailing edge here is what I see. The left side of the fin skin aligns below and above the cutout. The right side of the fin has a mismatch of .20 of an inch. That is to say that the upper portion of the fin is .20 left of the fin below the horz cutout. In addition, when I measure the distance from the aft edge of the fin inward to the bulkhead there is a difference of .35 in. This suggest that the aft most bulkhead was not installed square to the fuse. I do not know what type of tooling is used to position the bulkheads prior to bonding? Jigs or maybe just index marks and they are installed to a 'looks about right' proceedure. Although this may seem insignificant I can't help but wonder what effect this may have in directional stability.

hotrodblazer

Push on the rear bulkhead, chances are you will dislodge it with little effort! The adhesive is termed"cake frosting" around here.
The only remedy is to remove all you can and reglue rear bulkhead,I cleaned and roughed inner surfaces with sandpaper before epoxying back in.At that time you can insure proper alignment.
I will also add here that this has been covered in detail in this thread. Do yourself a favor, and go back and read entire thread,as so much has been covered here. Print out or save the highlights.
Most important are the lessons that can be learned by the crashes and the aircraft that have been lost.There have been many!
Yet each one has a probable cause and most could have been avoided.
You have to cover every detail to be successful with a Gee Bee.
Good Luck, Danny

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Hotrod! Nice scale look on the exhaust, should add some scale exhaust trails on the fuse as well, great job I have a Que for you GeeBee Gents, How much stretch can I expect from the flat wing wires? The stranded belly wires are typical but the flat wires look like they may resist stretching...whats the scoop fellas????[8D]

Jimmy

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Maxclimb, your discovery was alarming to me, so I looked at my model and did not find this discrepancy...for what the kit costs, I would think that Comp-arf would fix it. Hope you can fix it with no problems if Comp-arf does not.

Jimmy

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

The flat flying wires should exhibit almost NO appreciable stretch. The tension cables WILL stretch a bit and may require you to tighten things up after a few flights.

IF you detect a flat flying wire appears to be “stretching� I strongly urge you to CHECK YOUR SOLDER JOINT(s)

The flying wire CAN pull out of the solder joint if all was not perfect when the joint was created. This is why I believe you must ROUGH UP the flying wire surface to give it some “tooth� where it is silver soldered into the flying wire connector. A perfect silver solder joint is also integral.

IF your wires “sing� at a certain speed, this is normal. IF you find they are singing all the time, THEY ARE TOO LOOSE.

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Thanks Richard I roughed the ends and cleaned them thoroughly before soldering...the joints looked pretty good. A tip for you guys soldering those wires, the solder joint should be shinny, not dull[:@] Dull solder indicates a cold solder joint and should be re-soldered.

Jimmy

nexusdc5

My Feedback: (4)

Hello Gentlemen... Little update to my Painsteakingly slow progress... First step was Installing the gear... So I did! And Found that as I tried to tighten the gear to the fuse... the skin started to sink into the wing root and crack the fiber glass. I thought ... WoW! this is crap! I Dremeled out the skin and found little or no backing for the gear to mount nice and tight! Im going to send Carf Models some of these Photos to show them their internal craftsmanship of the gear mounting points. Has Anyone had this problem with their gear mounts as well? Anyways... I found some spacers that fit the holes I dremeled out and that gave me a very solid Mounting surface. Three out of four of the mounts were very poor and needed this remedy. Here are some Pictures.

hotrodblazer

Did you relocate the gear forward any? On mine, I moved mounts forward and canted the gear as well. the front mount hole is raised and the rear is lowered slightly to pitch the gear forwards.
My front wing mount dowel peg is nearly touching the front edge of gear. I can see a big difference in yours in that respect.
I wanted mine as forward to help with balance and of course, the dreaded Gee Bee nose-overs.
I remember adding doublers inside of wing root to support blind nuts.I also did tons of block sanding of wing mounting surfaces to get the wing gap spacing to look half decent.Your pretty mount surfaces look nothing like mine!!
Danny

nexusdc5

My Feedback: (4)

Hey Hotrod... All I did was locate and drill my mounts at Richards Recommendations. We spoke and he feels that this mounting point will be very successful. Ive yet to loin wing halves to determine any gaps that need to be remedied. I hope its very minimal to none!

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Nice job Nexus, let me know when you get to the tailwheel...mine was a bunch of mismatched crap that that I had to modify. Comp-arf had no explanation except "you never know what they may send you", they meaning the people that pack the kit hardware, most of mine was rusted. Anyway, I made it work with my own stuff. The only worry I have about the tail wheel is the tiller arm. It has no set screw, held in place by a nut which screws down on top of it. I will certainly see if it will hold

Jimmy

rowdog_14

My Feedback: (5)

For 1000 bucks I expect them to know what the hell they are sending.

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

Gee Bee enthusiasts,

I am not defending CARF, although having written some Builders Manuals and just completing my 6th CARF airplane, I am an unabashed enthusiast... the kit that arrived with a mish-mash of TW hardware?? Was this a new kit or was it purchased some time ago or was it purchased from a private seller?

I ask because when I wrote the manual, I worked with Andreas Gietz and Sierra Precision to upgrade ALL the landing gear parts. We found the correct Fultz strut for the TW and included the correct wheel and misc hardware as well as Sierra Precision modifying the 7" Sullivan wheels for bronze bushings and the proper axles for a perfect fit. I also describe in the manual that you must NOTCH the TW stut to secure the tiller arm.

You should not be receiving (new) kits with a mish-mash of anything![X(]

40GeeBee

Why are we using a stearable nose wheel for the tailwheel, why not just use a straight strut, what does this springy tail wheel get you? also, are you soldering the flying wires with a regular soldering iron, mustake, should be using silver solder!

rowdog_14

My Feedback: (5)

I look at this thread every day. I can not wait until I can buy the CARF Gee Bee. It will be about another year or two but I can see it now!!!!

I want to at least get the airframe and the landing gear before CARF stops making the Gee Bee. I can always find an engine and electronics.

TheRickster

My Feedback: (12)

Mine was purchased after all the "Gear updating" .. The wheels were narrowed but there was no bushings included that fit the axles nor was the tail wheel a "Fultz" but a apparent copy made of cheap grey plastic which also did not fit the axle to wheel correctly...

Rick

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Richard and Rickster, thanks for jumping in on this. What I received was a nice aluminum tail wheel which seemed too heavy, but had a huge center hub for a larger than wanted axle, a Fultz copy nose wheel strut, and some screws and nuts that were not usable with neither the tail wheel nor nose gear. I had a dubro wheel and some collars and nylon spacers I used to make it work. Comp-arf rendered no help nor remedy. except "use locktite"???????? Duh, but the advice was not appropriate for the problem. I go with advice from those who show a good knowledge of the hobby, thats why I listen to you Richard, as well as the Rickster and Hannes

Jimmy

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

Sorry to hear about the gear woes...[] The genuine Fultz works well and a heavy tailwheel is absolutely VERBOTEN![:-] ANY weight that far behind the CG is a nightmare to balance out. Use a very light tailwheel, even one of the foam types. It may wear out fast, but you simply do not want un-needed weight back there.

I used a threaded bolt for my TW axle, which captures the blind nut on one side of the TW PANT. I then locked the loosely threaded bolt/axle into place using the lock studs that are integral to the Fultz strut ends. This works great.

btw: the REASON the Fultz is heated and bent aft is due to scale TW location; it also offers some shock absorbsion. However, in experience, I do NOT like the castoring effect this creates. Every move of the plane to rear causes the TW to deflect and in turn deflects the servo and rudder. This gets very irritating[:@] Were I to do another one, I would have the Fultz strut going straight down with no rearward bend.

n8622t

My Feedback: (8)

Thanks Richard, sounds like we are on the same page. I used similar materials as you described...it was not a real problem to set up, I just happened to have the materials to do so. I do wish the Fultz copy had a set screw for the tiller, instead of a friction type nut to hold the tiller in place on the shaft.[:@] Its actually a pull pull tiller, which I do like, I may take another look at it to see if I could drill it for a set screw. Ill post what I may find.

Jimmy