Comp-ARF Gee Bee ???

[TorkRollN]

Anyone have pictures, video, construction tips on there Composite-ARF Gee Bee ?

Barry Finck

[GMoney]

Good luck with the construction. I have seen two of them neither of whick will ever be completed becasue of the complete lack of building skill of the owner. The instructions are very limited. I dont beleive I have ever seen a build thread on one either. I"ll check around. Your best bet is to become real good friends with your local Comp-Arf rep. Now that I have assembled a cuople of these comp arf birds I would like a shot at my old friends GeeBee's. When he bought these they where going to be made into race birds..NOT!!!

Get with your rep. If you where local SoCal I would say get a hold of Darcy Wingo but Im not sure where you are.. If you are where you say you are you may find him there. I think he is still in the giant sand box.

[adrian]

I have been around one for years - flown only about 6 times - lands like a ................gb tips over on the nose and breaks a prop - but its pretty and looks great also goes like hell!!

[adrian]

a pic of a bigger one at our Arava air show in April this year - guess what it landed, bounced once, twice and flipped onto it's nose breaking a very expensive carbon prop.

[adrian]

another pic

[Walt]

Several years ago a friend of mine ordered one of these, then Fiberclassic's. At that time we were told of one flying that would be in St.Charles Ill. at a giant fly in. We went to see this plane fly in person. The trip ended up being disasterous for the R-1 and we came home and my friend cancelled the order. We are in the process of doing a "Y" model which is said to be a very easy handling plane. We'll see shortly..Good Luck, Walt

[Howie]

I haven't flown mine yet so I can't comment on its flying attributes or, more to the point, landing characteristics. I do remember seeing Andreas fly his for the lunchtime demo at the 1997 TOC. It had a 5 cylinder glow radial around 125cc. (Seidel sp?) It did end up on its back after one landing.

Mine is 90% complete and there is nothing difficult about the build. It certainly is not aimed at the first time builder but if you have a moderate amount of experience you'll be fine. Frankly I enjoyed building a kit that made me think a little instead of telling you exactly where to place every single item.

There is one trap that I fell into. The manual recommends moving the landing gear to improve its ground handling. If you do make the change, (I did) then make sure you don't use the lengths specified in the manual for the flying wires. Next time around I would simply jig up the wings and measure them for myself. (It was an easy fix to add extra length to the wires I used some 5mm threaded hex spacers.)

Other more important projects (Yaks, Extras...) keep getting in the way of finishing this model. If I get a chance through this week I take some photos and post them here.

[Bushman]

Hi

I own one and have only made a total of 18 flights on it.
If the CG is good it flies great and is less than a handfull than most poeple that don't have one would tell you.
If you fly of grass it is really nice and landings is uneventfull.
On asphalt it is a little harder to get a good landing without any bouncing but practice makes perfect.
Take off is a little hard if you have a narrow runway as rudder controll is bad at low speeds. I fixed this by doing a bigger tailwheel and keeping the tail down untill take off speed is reached.
With a 3W 150 in the nose take off is only about 10 meters.
She tracks well and will do the most amazing knife edge passes you can imagine.
This plane is well worth the time and effort. I will send you some pictures if you like.
If you move the landinggear forward one inch you will never tip her over.
The plane comes with instructions for biulding and I can send you a copy.
I have never flipped her on landing or broken a prop. She has the same prop since the first maiden flight.

Regards
Alex
www.zerogmodels.com

[TorkRollN]

Thanks for the input guys.
All comments are welcome but I am really inerested in SPECIFIC info on the COMPOSITE-ARF Gee Bee.
I have built plenty of Comp-ARF's but it is always nice to see pics of how other people are doing the same thing.
Plus somebody may have a good idea for assembly.
It's always nice to know about it before you do it, instead of after.

This is actually my brother's plane he is building and I am just trying to collect some good info on it for him because I have not found hardly any info on the Internet about the Composite-ARF Gee Bee.
I will try to get him to post some pics as he builds it.

Bushman and Howie,
I would like to see pics or vids of both of your airplanes.
I guess post them here or E-mail them to me at:
TorkRollN@aol.com

Bushman,
Thanks for the comments about how she flies.
I keep hearing the exact same thing about the way she handles on the ground and in the air.
I know we will be moving the landing gear forward 7/8" to help with ground handling, sounds like it's working good for you.

GMoney,
Darcy is right here with me!

Thanks,
Barry

[Bushman]

hi Barry

Give me a day or so to get some pictures. I will scan the manuel and send you the copy.
I also made some changes to make assembly easier.
By the way I had one cut and she glides really well and lands even easier than with the engine running.
I used a 30 -12 biella prop in the beginning as this made landing speed slower.
Now I have the Biella 30-14 and the speed is much faster.
C-arf told me that with the 28-16 prop it really goes like a bat-out-of-hell.
But it is little harder to land as the plane does not slow down on idle, you need to cut the engine on the final approach if you want to reduce the landing distance.

Bushman

[SleepyC]

Hey a bit off the "model" topic and more about the real plane.
Anyone know the purpose behind the plane? I mean what made the first builder/designer go SO outside the norm?

I'm interested!

[rcflyguy]

Your joking right sleepy? you realy don't know what the GeeBee's were for?

And you live in Cleveland?

Thompson Trophy race!!!

http://www.airrace.com/thompson_trophy_story.htm