Yann

Hi guys,
I'm building a Gee Bee from Great Planes. The plan says there should not be between 0 and 0.5 degrees between the wing incidence and the stab incidence.
I have mesured 3 degrees on my plane. What should I do ?
Has anybody gone through the same issue ?
What kind of engine should I use on this plane ?
Does anybody know how it flies ?

thanks.

sseward

My Feedback: (1)

Yann,
I've built and flown the R2. I can't recall checking the incidence between the wing and the stab. Since you get it pretty much prebuilt it's sort of already set for you. You will find fitting the belly pan a chore, but as long as you have some basic building skill it's not that bad, it just doesn't drop right into place.

I have an OS 120 FS with pump on mine. I also fitted the Robart struts designed for this plane.

As for flying, I have flown it twice. It takes off fine with no ground handling issues, but with the 120FS it needed more rolling time on takeoff (has to overcome some serious drag!) than most sport planes. I thought it flew very well. Landings are were it's a bit hard. It needs more speed to land, and once you get it slowed, if you need to apply throttle and go around (I had to several times), be prepared for some lag once you throttle back up.

I landed the first time just fine. On my second attempt I got it on the ground but it abruptly stopped and did a complete flip! Everyone there was as shocked as I was since it looked like a good approach. What happened? First, I had to make a short field approach because of wind direction which is not easy with this plane. I would prefer more time in a straight in approach to establish a good controlled descent. You can't just swing this plane around (or at least, I can't!). Second, I "softened" the springs on the robostruts by cutting out a bit of the springs. When the plane came down firmly, the struts compressed and allowed the wheel pants to dig into the ground. We determined this from the damage to the wheel pants and the ground that was stuck in them.

The damage...it twisted the wheel wires right through the wings. Nothing else! I ordered new wings and wheel pants and she's ready to go again.

To the point....Takes off great, flies great, sucks to land!

Steve

Yann

Thank you so much steve, helps a lot.
Great pic by the way...

Yann

CafeenMan

So you're saying that you need a new wing every second flight?

sseward

My Feedback: (1)

Cafeenman.....I hope not! But I figure the first ones my bad. At least now I've achieved 50% on my landings!

I'm gonna replace the springs in the Robarts and only fly if the wind favors a longer approach, at least until I get the landings down!

CafeenMan

Check those wheel pants too. When a plane comes down, there are a lot of negative G's on the airframe. If the wheels grab the pants... well, you know what happens. Maybe leave them off until you're more familiar with the plane and can set it down consistently.

sseward

My Feedback: (1)

I checked the Pants. The only thing that grabed them was the turf! I actually spent a bit of time setting up the Robarts and the pants and the struts can be pushed up in there as far as they can go.

One other factor I believe contributed to my hard landing was exponential rates on my radio. Sounds crazy, but this was the first plane that I've set up exponential on, and I followed other recommendations. I've been flying for years, and never with expo. set up, so I don't think I got enough up elevator on the flair when I should have because I was being soft on the stick. I'm gonna dial out a little of the expo. before the next flight.

Steve

CafeenMan

I haven't used expo much either for that reason. I like dual rates. on or off.