Hi everyone...
I recently finished an Adrian Page Gee Bee "Z" that I bought at a swap meet. It seemed the gentleman that sold it to me had bitten off more than he could chew. He told me for $50 I could have it. I was about 30%-40% framed, but not very well at all. I had to re build it from the cockpit back with all new wood and stringers. The vertical stab was canted about 10 degrees to the right and turned to the left a few degrees, it all had to go. Sorry to Adrian but I had to mod a few things, due to the damage, to get it to work for me.
I covered it in Ultracote, cutting the numbers out of the same, red pinstripe finished them off. It took me over 20 hours to cover but I'm pretty happy with the results. All the fiberglass was in the box, along with the decals and the radial engine, but the radial is really messed up and needs allot more work so I left it off for now. I plan on putting all the flying wires and braces on after I get the flying bugs out of it. The wheel pants are still all black because I was trying to meet a deadline for a scale meet here in town and ran out of time.
The first flight was a bit hectic to say the least. After getting the O.S. FL70 to run close to normal (don't ever let me buy one of those again) I taxied out and added power trying to keep the tail down. It rolled for about 75 feet and suddenly went straight up, I let off the elevator and the nose just went to level and flew on like nothing happened, kind of looked like a cartoon. The rest of the flight went fine. I realized I had too much elevator and not enough ailerons so I did some EPA for the next flight. It all went great, man is this plane fun to fly. The problems came when I tried to do what most planes call a landing. I'll just say I am O for two. No damage but I need to work on them a bit.
I plan on saving more headaches and replacing the FL70 with a Magnum 70 or a 46FX. In the meantime I'll finish scaling it out a bit more.
Thanks to Adrian for a really cool plane that keep me on my toes, and really draws the attention at the flying field. Between the Gee Bee and a TF Stinson Reliant a friend has, the ARF's don't even exist there.

congratulations. the fotos are perfect. dick

Rebsix...Looks great. I wish I saw this post when you first wrote it, I just ordered Adrian's 1/4 scale R2 and probably would've ordered it sooner had I seen your pics.

Any luck with the landings? And did you end up adding any more details?

Damon

Excellent looking plane. I have one of the Gee Bee Z's also. designed by Adian Page but sold by Hobby Hanger still sitting in the basement. waiting for one day. if ever to be built.
Dennis

Thanks guys.

Damon....
I havn't added anything else yet with work and everything. Today was the first time I have put it in the air since Labor Day. About 20 flights on it so far and I'm batting around .500 with the landings. The bad ones aren't violent damaging crashes, it just gets to the end of the roll out and the tail passes the engine. Allot of them now simply end up on the nose so I'm getting better. It's just frustrating knowing I have done successful ones, but I havn't broken a prop yet.

The real problem is with the wheel pants. The 4th or 5th flight I had one rip off breaking it pretty bad. I took the other one off and I have flown it like that since then. I know, it just isn't right for a GB not to have them but I'm working on it.

Flying it requires all your concentration, that's what makes it so fun. Not that it's hard to fly, but it goes where it is pointed and quickly. With the top looking exactly like the bottom it can get out of hand pretty fast, fortunaltely it won't really stall, it just drops the nose a bit and starts flying again. Approaches are long and low. It dosen't want to come down. Tip stalls are no worry either. Just land with a little speed and learn to work the elevator on the roll out.

Don't quote me on this but i think adrian page changed some locations for some of the equipment inside the fuselage to make the landings better. you might want to e-mail him and ask. i don't know what mods were done but i think it was to help with the problem of rolling over on landing. good luck and if there were some changes recomended can you post them here.
Thanks Dennis

On what I have read on other post on this Gee Bee 'Z' (building one my self) is that you have to make a 3point landing otherwise you will flipp over.

From what I have read, then from my own experience you have to make a 3-point landing. It's still no guarantee on a perfect landing but the odds improve.

Take-off's are the same way. I found if I hold about 3/4 elevator and apply the power slowly, the plane lifts off before I get to full power. As soon as it leaves the ground I ease off the elevator and fly away. Lifting the tail and rolling on the mains is inviting a high speed flip as compared to the flip over on landing. Those usually happen toward the end of the landing roll out when the speed is minimal. Anything other than a subtle turn during either take-off or landing will cause it to flip also. Just make the approaches long and low with a gentile flair, and the 3 gear will touch down nicely. Keep applying elevator after the touch down and it will roll to a stop, then you can turn it around to taxi back. I also recommend your first few flights be done without the wheel pants installed. I shattered one of mine and still haven't repaired it, I may have to order another set.

I am by no means an expert on the plane, I'm just sharing my experiences with my setup. I think the bad rap these planes get are from people that couldn't fly them. Mine flys like no other airplane i have flown. It goes where you point it and sometimes where you don't, but it keeps you on your toes, which is the fun part about it. It's a little difficult to keep track of sometimes due to the bottom looking exactly like the top, but if you keep it close and fly it scale it isn't a problem.

I love the plane and highly recommend it if you want to have some fun building and flying. I got a great deal on mine but if the un-mentionable happens (knock knock) I wouldn't hesitate to give Adrian a call and order another one.

Build it and have a blast with it...Jeff

Something about a Gee Bee, huh! I cheated and have the Kyosho .46 size Z model ARF powered with a Magnum .61 4 cycle. Been flying it for a little less than a year. First flight was a doozy! Had way too much elevator and learned a lot about flying 3-D that day. Had a bud help me trim it and then I flew it around till I could master the EXTREME sensitivity of the elevator. When I finally got calmed down enough, I remembered the Model Airplane News review of this plane and how the reviewer just lined it up and slowly backed off the throttle until it set down on the mains. Mine landed perfectly the first time, however I'm also running about .500 on it still being on the wheels to taxi back to the pits. I never had much luck with a 3-point landing. I come in hot enough that the elevator is still effective and hold the tail down as it slows. Got 6 good ones in a row! Crushed the wheel pants on the second flight and finally gave up repairing them leaving them off entirely. The thin fiber glass cowl has been reinforced and repaired several times.

Flight characteristics for the Kyosho Gee Bee is that it takes off easier than most of the tail draggers I've ever had. It flies like a sport plane most of the time at full speed and is a little touchy at low speed. It flies very scale like with the .61 and the 4 cycle sounds really nice under that cowl. My field is at 5500 feet but doesn't seem to have much effect on its flying. 750 ft long, 100 ft wide decomposed granite runway comes in handy with this plane especially when I had my one and only dead stick Glad to hear about others building and flyng this historic plane. There used to be a full sized Z model at the Smithsonian Air Museum and if you ever get a chance to see Delmar Benjamin fly his full scale R2 replica, it is one of the most amazing things you'll ever see!