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SPECIFICATIONS

GEE BEE "Y" ARF

Aircraft Type
Sport Scale

Mfg. By
Pacific Aeromodel Mfg., Inc.
15437 Procter Ave.
City of Industry, California 91745
Ph. (800) 780-0100, Fax (626) 330-9351
www.pacaeromodel.com

Mfg. Sug. Retail Price
$429.00

Available From
Both Mfg. & Retail

Wingspan
82 Inches

Wing Chord
14.3 Inches

Total Wing Area
1175 Sq. In.

Fuselage Length
62.5 Inches

Stabilizer Span
28 Inches

Total Stab Area
225 Sq. In.

Mfg. Rec. Engine
1.08-1.60 2-stroke; .1.20-1.80 4-stroke
23-26 cc gas

Rec. Fuel Tank Size
16 Oz. (Included)

Rec. No. of Channels
4

Rec. Control Functions
Rud., Elev., Throt., Ail.

Basic Materials Used In Construction
Fuselage
Balsa & Lite Ply

Wing
Balsa & Lite Ply

Tail Surfaces
Balsa

Building Instructions on Plan Sheets
NA

Instruction Manual
Yes (24 pages)

Const. Photos
Yes

RCM PROTOTYPE

Radio Used
Futaba 9CAP, 6 Servos

Engine Used
YS .120 AC

Fuel Tank Used
24 Oz.

Weight, Ready to Fly
200 Oz. (12 Lbs. 8 Oz.)

Wing Loading
24.5 Oz./Sq. Ft.

SUMMARY

WE LIKED THE:
Great looks, good fiberglass cowl & wheel pants, flying performance,
and big wheels

WE DIDN'T LIKE THE:
No info given on how to install dummy engine cowl blocks (see text).

In the late 20's and early 30's, Gee Bee airplanes dominated the air racing world. The Gee Bee R-1, R-2, and "Z" were airplanes that demanded skills that some of the early pilots didn't have. They were unstable, required high landing speeds, and one needed a good understanding of the aircraft to take advantage of its performance potential. Skilled and knowledgeable pilots successfully flew the Gee Bee's. The less skilled did not and a few lost their lives trying.

The author with his Gee Bee "Y".

The Grandville Brothers (hence the name Gee Bee), all five of them, built many one of a kind airplanes. For example there was only one each of the R-1, R-2 and the famous Model Z racing planes built. There were two Model Y Senior Gee Bee's built and unlike the purpose-built racers, they were used for promotion and business trips, but even the Y's were occasionally raced. Florence Kingensmith lost her life flying a Gee Bee Y #NR 718Y at Chicago, Sept. 3, 1933, during the Frank Phillips Trophy Race. The cost of a Gee Bee Y was around $5000 and that was big bucks in those days. The Great Depression occurred about that time and the high cost of the Gee Bee was out of reach for most. The market declined for the Grandville Brothers and the Gee Bee's.

The Gee Bee Y had a 31' wingspan, was 21' in length, and weighed 1400 lbs. It was powered with a 215 hp Lycoming R-680. The airplane was designed for a maximum 250 hp engine. Today, there are no original Gee Bee's in existence but there are few replicas which are occasionally shown and flown.

Editor's Note: Jerry's Gee Bee Y won "Best Sport Scale" at its first fly-in.

The Pacific Aeromodel Gee Bee Y ARF is not exact scale but is a good resemblance to the full-scale airplane. Changes such as lengthening the fuselage, increasing the tail area, moving the landing gear forward, and slightly wider apart, were made to improve flying and ground handling performance. Still, one could not mistake it for what it is. When placed on the flight line the Gee Bee Y commands attention with excellent curb appeal and unusual dominance.

The Gee Bee arrived in a box 17"W x 15"H x 52"L complete with colorful pictures hyping the model's features. Opening the box you will find the best packing job you ever laid eyes on. The major components were all in plastic slips and sealed. The box was com-partmentalized to take care of the other components in a very efficient manner, leaving no extra space. Certainly a lot of attention to shipping and possible damage went into this package. I was impressed, having seen many ARF kits that are not so well protected.

Removing the parts from the box I spread them out for inspection. Good covering and trim job, with a few wrinkles. Good finish on the fiberglass cowl and wheel pants but not quite a perfect match between the paint and covering. The fiberglass cowl and wheel pants were thin and light; expertly molded. They looked good but probably could be easily damaged, especially the wheel pants when rough landings occur. Other hardware included engine mounts, chrome plated pre-bent landing gear, 5" wheels, aluminum wing tube joiner, assembled pushrods, installed fuel tank, wind-shield, wing struts, dummy engine, tail wheel assembly, and assorted screws and nuts. In all, a very complete kit; and well done.

Assembly:

Before starting to assemble the Gee Bee, I read through the instruction manual. It was somewhat abbreviated, being written for experienced ARF assemblers, but did impart a lot of the information required for successful assembly. Most assemblers tend not to read the manual until they get into trouble, then wonder why. An addendum sheet to the manual indicated a change in the control horns and some other improvements to bring things up to date. Be sure to read it.

You start out assembling the Gee Bee by installing the tail wheel and hinging the rudder to the fin. I can remember way back, when scratch- building an airplane, I always built the tail first. Then if I lost the "hots" for it, I didn't have too much invested in it to keep on going. Sort of a backwards way to start but it all has to be done to complete the model. Once the fin and rudder are assembled the graphics are applied and the assembly is set aside.

The wings are assembled next. I usually like to assemble one panel at a time because of easier handling and in this case it was very easy to do. The wing panels are joined on an aluminum tube spar with an alignment pin at the trailing edge to keep them matched. When mounted on the fuselage, the two leading edge tabs are mated in a square hole in the bulkhead and the trailing edge of each panel is held to the fuselage with a nylon bolt. The alu-minum tube spar is then allowed to float, in the wing, but is held captive to carry the loads. It would have been nice if tubing sleeves had been installed in the wing for easier insertion of the tube. This method gives you a couple of options. You can permanently glue the wing together or slide the panels apart and transport them separately. An excellent method, which gives you the best of both worlds.

The aileron servos are mounted externally on the bottom side of the wing. The control horns supplied were first class hardware and were supported by hard points, located and drilled, in the aileron. The 2-56 pushrods are completely assembled; hex nut, clevis and keeper with a "Z" bend in one end. I assembled one and it looked a little weak to me even though it was short in length. Sometimes, if it doesn't look like it will do the job, even though it will, it remains a question in your mind. And let's face it, looks sell! So, with that in mind I decided to go with 4-40 pushrods throughout the airplane and over-engineer it. There are no separate graphics to apply to the wing panel, they are already applied.

Installing the landing gear came next. The wire pre-bent main gear is quite hefty (6mm) and has a rear strut welded in place to keep it from torsionally overflexing. In the middle of the rear strut is a "u" bend, allowing some movement of the main strut under load. The wire struts were chrome plated, a touch of quality, mounted to the wing in hardwood blocks and held in place with metal straps.

The key to the Gee Bee's tough landing gear is the rubber insolated floating wheel pants. The pants are held at the wing with screws through rubber pads mounted fore and aft, with additional rubber pads glued to the inside of the pants, bearing against the wheel axle and strut. This allows the wheel pant to move along with the strut without breaking, while the pant remains stationary. A great idea Pacific Aeromodel; however, I did find one wheel pant wider by 1/8" than the other and had to add an extra thickness of pad on one side of that pant. The fiberglassing on the molded pant was very good quality, thin and light with a good finish. But, I did wonder how much rough treatment they would take before breaking.

Moving on to the fuselage I found it a work of art. All laser-cut parts throughout, making for good fit of parts and tight glue joints. It is completely built up the old-fashioned way with formers and stringers. The radio compartment is large mainly because the rudder and elevator servos are mounted in the tail. The fuel tank, with fuel lines, is already installed and padded. Provisions for mounting the throttle servo, LH or RH side, are built in with cutouts provided for the servo. An extra piece of lite ply with Velcro strap to hold the receiver and battery pad was fitted loosely in-between the fuselage sides.

The servo mounts are covered over at the tail. I removed the covering over them with a micro tip soldering iron. By far the best way to do it, sealing the edges of the opening. The elevator servo arms are configured in opposite directions so no servo reversing is required. Here again I opted to use the 4-40 linkage as I used on the wing servos to hook up the elevators and rudder. A "Y" harness is required to tie both elevator servo connectors into one and an extension of approx. 12" is needed beyond that. A 24" rudder servo extension was used. A paper wing tube was glued in the fuselage to support the servo leads. A small tube is pre-installed in the bottom of the fuselage to retain the receiver antenna. A nice touch!

I mounted the throttle servo next. The pushrod and sleeving provided was too stiff for the severe bend required, getting from my 4-stroke engine, around the fuel tank to the specified servo mount. I mounted the servo on a lite ply plate and glued it to the fuselage side. Because of the round fuselage side it had plenty of room. This gave me perfect alignment to the throttle arm on the engine and I was able to use the pushrod and sleeve provided. I would recommend you place it there or on the opposite side, if required.

Mounting the engine is pretty straightforward. The blind nuts for the engine mount are pre-installed in the firewall. I installed a YS .120 AC, inverted, and had plenty of room inside the 10" cowl, completely enclosing the engine. An air tunnel is built into the forward bottom side of the fuselage to help with engine cooling. The dummy engine provided is cut out on the bottom side permitting air to flow past the engine and out through the tunnel at the rear of the cowl. Before mounting the cowl I installed a Sullivan Head Lock Remote, No. M021, to facilitate engine starting. I also installed a Du-Bro Fill It Fueling System, No. 840, to fuel and de-fuel. These two items make dealing with the cowled-in engine easier.

The dummy engine comes with a set of shaped balsa blocks that are appar-ently supposed to be glued inside the front of the cowl. Then the dummy engine can be glued to the back of the blocks. The instructions don't mention this, but Pacific Aeromodel told me that they plan to add an addendum to explain it.

With the Gee Bee almost complete I decide to check out the C.G. Placing it on a Great Planes Balancing Machine, inverted, I found it quite tail heavy at the specified balance point (30% of the wing chord). I then moved the 5-cell NiCd to the back of the firewall under the fuel tank. Still tail heavy. Next, I moved the rudder servo forward to the recommended C.G. and put in a Du-Bro 4-40 Pull-Pull System, No. 518, which comes with 15' of nylon coated cable and all the hardware. After completing this it was determined that 8 oz. on the firewall would be required to balance it. Had it not been for the additional weight I would have had a 12 lb. airplane. You may or may not encounter this problem; depending on what engine you decide to use. Keep this in mind as an option.

And finally, the windshield is very easy to install. I used five screws, hardening the screw holes with thin CA. The white trim tape supplied is useless. It doesn't fit and will not adhere very well in spite of cleaning the surface with alcohol. I installed my windshield with just the screws and no trim tape. It looks fine. By all means install a pilot in the cockpit. I looked around and found one that looks and fits absolutely perfect. You can purchase it from Hobby Lobby, part no. HLMT 3243, named Harro. Good quality, well painted, and you will be pleased with the price of around $20.00.

Covering:

You will be well satisfied with the covering job on the Gee Bee. It is available in two color schemes, red/white and black/yellow. I found a few wrinkles but they were easily removed with a heat gun. The covering is Oracover type film and will take a considerable amount of heat. Just be careful when working around the decals.

Engine:

I installed a YS .120 AC engine swinging a 17 x 6 prop in my review model. It turned the prop at 8,000 using 20-20 fuel. Having experienced excellent reliability with YS I felt it was a good choice. A Performance Specialties elbow and muffler were installed using a high temp Loctite also available from Performance Specialties to keep it on. The Per-formance Specialties' elbows are available with different angles that will allow you to place the muffler in just about any position you need. I used the 90 degree elbow on my installation and it worked out fine. Mounting the engine is straightforward. Take note, there is right and down thrust built into the firewall.

I did not use the fuel tank furnished because I wasn't sure of the stopper's ability to withstand the pressure of the YS fuel system, so I installed a 24 oz. Du-Bro tank and wrapped it with strapping tape. The YS does pressurize the tank quite heavily (6 psi) and I have had good luck using this tank and wrapping method. The Du-Bro tank is easy to install and foam in place. The fuel tank supplied can be used if you decide to install a gas engine but you must change the installed clunk line to neoprene tubing.

Radio:

I am a Futaba man with plenty of JR buddies, but we get along just fine. My Futaba 9CAP with PCM receiver was used to guide the Gee Bee through all its review flights. FMA Direct Premier PS705 Dbl BB 70 oz. servos were used on all controls except the throttle. What I liked about the FMA servos is the heavier wire on the leads. And, they come equipped with an industry standard connector that is compatible with all major manufacturer's industry standard connectors including Futaba, JR, Hitec and Airtronics "Z" type connectors. The output spline shaft is also compatible with Futaba servo arms. There was plenty of room in the radio compartment for any kind of modification in a radio installation that you might run into.

Flying:

With the C.G. properly set and the control surface travel as per the manual, I headed out to the flying field with my buddy Gary Spears. Gary always helps with the first flight so I can take the flight shots ... just in case? The radio was range-checked with and without the engine running; with that com-pleted, we were finally ready.

The Gee Bee tracked straight down the runway and lifted off in about 50 feet. After gaining altitude Gary made the remark, "Look, this airplane is flying straight and level, hands-off, and I haven't touched a trim." Was it pure luck and I had everything set up just right? You bet, but I never had this happen before. Subsequent flights with loops, rolls, stalls, inverted flight, and many landings indicated that the Gee Bee was indeed a stable, gentle airplane with no bad habits. An airplane that an intermediate pilot would have no trouble flying. You do have to get used to the landing attitude of the Gee Bee because it sits nose high. When you think it's stalled, because of its attitude for a three pointer, it's not and tends to float more than anticipated. You will soon get used to this. The YS .120 AC had more than adequate power to fly the Gee Bee; take-off's are done at half throttle and wide open throttle only for vertical maneuvers.

Gary Spears flew the first flight while the author took the photos.

Conclusion:

The Pacific Aeromodel Gee Bee "Y" ARF is an airplane you will be proud to own. Its looks and flying performance will always be a hit at the flying field. No doubt, it is an outstanding looking airplane that demands attention and one you don't see too often. Any pilot with intermediate flying skill can fly it because of its gentle flight characteristics. It is big and easy to see in the air, easy to transport and assemble at the field. You couldn't build one for the price of the kit when you consider time, material, and cost, let alone your building skills to be able to build one as good as the kit. That's part of the attraction and popularity of ARF's these days. If you are looking for an airplane that's big, with outstanding looks and flying ability, consider the Gee Bee "Y" ARF from Pacific Aeromodel, you will be most happy with it.

Sullivan Products, One North Haven St., Baltimore, MD 21224,

www.sullivanproducts.com

Hobby Lobby, 5614 Franklin Pike Circle, Brentwood, TN 37027.

sales@hobby-lobby.com

FMA Direct, 5716A Industry Lane, Frederick, MD 21704.

www.fmadirect.com

Performance Specialties, P.O. Box 3146, Gardnerville, NV 89410.

www.pspec.com

Great Planes Model Distributors, P.O. Box 9021, Champaign, IL 61826.

www.greatplanes.com

Du-Bro Products, P.O. Box 815, 480 W. Bonner Rd., Wauconda, IL 60084.

www.dubro.com