I found that my best landings occurred when I carried a little airspeed all the way to touchdown and then kept the plane straight into the wind all the way to full stop. I needed to hold just a little up elevator to keep the tail wheel down and the nose tracking straight, to get the little racer airborne. With its narrow wheel spacing and the large gear covers, the Gee Bee needed a paved runway and a straight line into the wind for takeoffs. I was pleased to find that this Gee Bee was very mild mannered and even easy to fly. I should have known that Great Planes would tame down this little racer so mere mortals would be able to fly it with confidence. The original Gee Bee was a no-nonsense racer, so I was a little worried about how this model would fly. For later flights I moved the CG back 1/4" to improve aerobatic performance. For the first flight I set the control surface throws at the recommended amounts for low and high rates and programmed in 25% exponential on low rates and 35% exponential on high rates. I moved the battery all the way forward in the battery compartment to get the CG to the recommended 1-1/4" point. That's just over 155 Watts per pound of power. With a fully charged battery and the provided propeller, the 1000 kV outrunner pulled 27 Amps for a static power loading of 335 Watts.
The completed Gee Bee weighed 2 pounds and 2 ounces RTF. The AnyLink module worked Flawlessly with all of the transmitters! This technology now allows almost any brand of transmitter to operate any of the new fleet of Great Planes Tx-R models. I needed to remove the prop from the motor, determine the correct travel direction for the throttle channel, and map the channels for the correct control sequence. For a full list of compatible transmitters, check out the AnyLink compatibility chart for complete details.īefore I began any testing on my six different transmitters, I needed to observe several safety precautions. The completed wing assembly attached to the fuselage with a single mounting screw.Īll of the flight radio gear is already installed in the Gee Bee, so this section will explore installing the AnyLink transmitter module to six different transmitters. The finished look with the wheels in place was really sharp. Each wheel assembly had some nice two-piece wheel pants that were held together with magnets. The one-piece wing only needed the wheels to be complete. Once the elevator pushrod was hooked up, the fuselage assembly was complete. The bottom of the stab has a ridge and the bottom of the fuselage slot has a groove to help with orientation. The elevator halves slide together and are held in place by magnets. The assembly process begins with the fuselage. I have to admit, I skipped this step, but the cord is included and the "wires" certainly add to the scale looks of the Gee Bee. Stringing the elastic cord "flying wires" through their various locations is the most tedious part of the build, and it's optional. All the hard parts have already been done, so assembly takes less than an hour.
GEE BEE PLANE MANUAL
The 16-page Instruction Manual includes numerous illustrations and pictures and helpful building tips.
Now almost any RC pilot can fly this legendary racer. The new Gee Bee is available in both Rx-R and Tx-R configurations. They have created a beautiful scale model of the Gee Bee R1 that is actually easy to fly. Lucky for us, Great Planes has set out to lighten that reputation. Doolittle said the R1 was "the sweetest ship I've ever flown." Unfortunately the R1 would later develop a darker reputation due to a number of fatal crashes at the hands of less proficient pilots. The famous Jimmy Doolittle piloted the original Gee Bee R1 to victory in the 1932 Thompson Trophy Race and then set a new world speed record of 296 mph in the Shell Speed Dash. The rearward pilot location was supposed to afford the pilot a better view of the race course when rounding pylon turns, but I think it may have had more to do with offsetting the weight of that giant radial engine up front. The plane sported a teardrop shaped fuselage that flowed back from a huge Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine all the way to a tiny cockpit and tail. In 1932, after only three days of wind tunnel testing at NYU, the legendary Granville brothers emerged with a revolutionary design for a Thompson Trophy racer. JR 9503, Spektrum DX18, Spektrum Dx5e, Futaba 8FGA Super, Futaba 6EX, Tower 4TH
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