This item is discontinued.

GREAT PLANES GEE BEE PROFILE
PRODUCT REVIEW
by Ron Baddorf

The Gee Bee Profile represents the third Great Planes design I have built and flown. The previous ones had excellent plans and instructions, excellent quality balsa, an excellent supply of accessories, and each proved easy to build and were all excellent fliers. Guess you can't ask for much more than that! So, naturally, when the chance came to do a kit review on the new Great Planes Gee Bee Profile, I didn't hesitate.

The Gee Bee arrived in a sturdy 43" long x 8-7/8" wide x 3-1/4" high box with a colored top showing the Gee Bee Profile in flight over the beautiful central Illinois farm land - nice touch. Also on the box top are the Gee Bee specs and the kit offerings. The box sides and ends have color pictures of the Gee Bee completed and before covering.

Included in the kit is the rolled 38" x 50" sheet of full-size CAD generated plans, a complete parts list for inventory, a 28-page step-by-step instruction manual with plenty of photos, die-cut plywood and balsa parts, a complete hardware package with a formed heavy-duty aluminum landing gear, a nice colorful decal sheet, and select AAA balsa.

Prior to starting construction, the first step undertaken was the inventory of kit contents against the included inventory sheet. The inventory was completed with no incidents, and this is where you will discover the top quality wood and the beautiful die-cutting. I also liked the heavy-duty aluminum landing gear pieces already pre-drilled for the wheel axle and the mounting bolts. After inventory was completed, a thorough review of the 28-page instruction manual and the full-size plans is a must. The instruction manual is a work of art with plenty of photos for each of the construction steps. Also in the manual are "Expert Tips" with photos, plus lists of Required Accessories and Building Supplies and Tools. Phone numbers and an email address are also included, just in case you need help. However, I must honestly say that if you need help after building per the steps and photos, you probably shouldn't be building this model yet. To assemble the Gee Bee, I used a variety of Great Planes Pro CA and epoxy.

Construction:

After reviewing the instruction manual and plan, I started construction with the rudder and horizontal stabilizer. The back of the die-cut sheets which contain the stab and rudder parts were "gone over" with some 220 grit sandpaper on a 5-1/2" Easy-Touch sander. The parts came out with no problems whatsoever. The die-cutting and quality of the balsa on the Gee Bee is excellent. One of the nice features of the plan was noticed when I be cutting the 1/4" x 1/4", 1/4" x 3/8", and 1/4" x 1/8" balsa strip pieces for the stab and rudder. The plan indicates which length of balsa strip to cut each piece from. This removes the possibility of using the wrong length now and winding up with a bunch of pieces that are too short to do anything with at the end (ever do that?). The stab and rudder went very quickly. The elevators were next and went exactly like the stab and rudder - quick and easy. After build-up was completed, the tail wheel assembly was fitted to the rudder and the elevator joiner fitted to the elevator halves. The rudder and stab/elev. assembly was completed with the location and temporary (not glued) installation of the hinges. Again, the excellent photos make all of this an easy task.

Next came the wing and ailerons. The ailerons are built-up exactly like the tail parts. Again, the die-cutting and parts accuracy to the plan is excellent. The wing is built-up using a "jig" which is a 1/4" x I" x 36" balsa stick. This is pinned in place per the plan and some plan protector then goes on top, followed by the wing trailing edge. Again, quick and simple. Next comes the top spar (since the wing is being built upside down), spar doubler, ribs, leading edge doubler, and servo mounting rails. Caution must be exercised here to keep the servo mounting rail holes facing up on the applicable ribs. The instructions are explicit about this, as are the many photos, so it's almost impossible to goof! The bottom spar/spar doubler, leading edge, and trailing edge are next. At this point, I deviated a little from the instruction manual and plan and added some 3/32" x 3/8" balsa shear webbing between the 1/16" x 7/8" top and bottom trailing edge sheeting. This is just a personal preference that I do on any model which has top and bottom trailing edge sheeting. The spars also have vertical shear webbing glued onto their leading edge for additional strength.

The spacing for the servos is about 1-1/2" wide, with the plan showing Futaba S3003 servos. Here, I lucked out since that's the servo I had on hand and was planning to use! Under the "Build the Wing" section of the instruction manual, page 11, step 9: "Center the 3/32" x 7/8" x 36" balsa edge..." The size actually so listed on the inventory sheet is 1/8" x 7/8" x 36". This did not cause any problems to the building - just some lost time hunting for the wood and discovering the error. The actual length of the main wing assembly, without tips, is 36". This allows the use of one piece leading edge, spars, and trailing edge pieces. Last, but not least, comes the I/ 1 6" sheet balsa center section and servo bay covering. Again, quick and easy. I added some 1/4" balsa sheet on each side of the servo openings for added support for the I/ 1 6" sheet balsa. Also on the receiver hatch frame, I added some 1/16" ply for the ply hatch cover to sit on and for the cover screws to take a bite into. Again, just a personal preference.

The fuselage was next. I followed the steps of the instruction manual in exact order and came to find out that the easiest is saved for last. The first thing I noticed from the plan is the caution which warns that the 1/16" balsa covering for the fuselage may be damaged if handled too hard at the seams. The seams are just butt-jointed and do not provide much strength. Therefore, when laying out the fuselage framework, I added a piece of 1/4" x 1/2" balsa at the location of the seams where shown on the plan. I let the seam (shown as a dotted line on the plan) split the 1/2" wide balsa in half so that 1/4" would be on each side of the seam. This worked out real well. Another item to note during the build up of the fuselage is that step 8 on page 15 does not reference epoxying the 1/16" ply landing gear support along with the 1/16" ply that covers the hardwood engine rails. Also, when installing the landing gear supporting ply, do one side first, then drill out the 3/16" holes, then do the other side; otherwise, you'll have two ply support pieces epoxied in place with no idea where the two holes are for the landing gear bolting. The addition of the extra 1/4" x 1/2" balsa stick at the sheeting seams allowed me to just glue the 1/16" x 3" x 36" fuselage sheeting in place directly on the framework without worrying to butt-join them before installing them. (I did true up the edges of the 1/16" x 3" sheeting with some 150 grit sandpaper on a Great Planes 33" Easy-Touch Bar Sander). This seems to be much easier and quicker than the called for method. Also, if a seam is not a perfect fit, it will get filled with Hobbico Filler later anyway.

The Gee Bee was assembled prior to covering as per the instruction manual. One note of caution: Do not be alarmed when assembling the stab into the slot in the fuselage, that the instruction manual does not mention the elevator. The elevator gets assembled under Final Hookups and Checks on page 18. When assembling the wing and stab into the slots of the fuselage, I used Great Planes 30-minute epoxy, as this allowed the time to make sure that everything was straight, level, and even. After the epoxy cured, the small gaps were filled with the 30-minute epoxy mixed with some Top Flite Micro-balloons. The entire structure was gone over with 220 grit sandpaper on some Easy-Touch Sanding Bars and the dings were filled with Hobbico's HobbyLite Balsa Colored Filler. The engine was then mounted per the instruction manual. Here, I used Great Plane's new Dead Center Engine Mount Hole Locator. This little gadget really helps to eliminate goofing up on drilling the four engine bolt holes - a cool little tool for only a couple of bucks.

Next, the Gee Bee was laterally balanced per the instruction manual. Here another "goodie" of the Gee Bee's engineering comes into play. The Gee Bee design has the receiver and battery pack installed in the left wing at the fuselage. This puts the receiver and battery pack on the opposite side of the engine and muffler, thus making lateral balancing much easier. All of the servos, receiver, battery pack, engine, wheels, ailerons, elevator halves, and rudder are temporarily installed with the model being "supported" at the engine prop shaft and the rear bottom of the fuselage. I attached a length of string with a loop to the engine at the front of the prop shaft and to the tail wheel wire, then hung both from a broom handle supported between two tables in my workshop. This allowed an easy and accurate way to do the lateral balancing. I wound up epoxying 9 grams (roughly 1/3 ounce) to the right wingtip to get my Gee Bee level. After laterally balancing was complete, I did an initial C.G. balance. One of my personal preferences is to trial balance before covering. The balancing was simple, as a 1/8" dia. balancing hole is incorporated at the bottom of the fuselage 3-7/8" back from the leading edge of the wing during the building. I hung the Gee Bee by a piece of string threaded through the balance hole and went from there. My Gee Bee required just a little less than 1-1/2 ounces of nose ballast.

Covering:

The finished airframe, ready to cover, weighed in at 21 ounces. I used Missile Red and White Top Flite MonoKote to cover my Gee Bee. The matching Top Flite LustreKote in Jet White and Missile Red was used to "finish up" where needed. The LustreKote spray-paint colors match the MonoKote film colors exactly and really helps toward obtaining the nice Gee Bee paint scheme. The instruction manual spells out a covering sequence that I followed to a "T". Prior to covering the fuselage and wing leading edge and wing center section, I rolled a Top Flite "Woodpecker" over the surfaces. This is another little tool that is worth far more than the couple of bucks it goes for. I did not have the air bubble problem that I sometimes used to wind up with when covering large solid surfaces. To obtain the red scalloped wing leading edge covering and the fuselage front red section, I first drew the design outline on the plan and traced that design onto some tracing paper which was then transferred onto the MonoKote. This worked out real well. The wing leading edge pieces were put on with the use of some Top Flite Trim Solvent. The wingtip scallop was masked and painted using the Missile Red LustreKote spray.

The control surfaces are now final-installed and the hinges are CA'd in place. One word of caution: referring to page 18, Install the Hinges, step 3 does not take the elevator joiner wire for the two elevator halves into consideration. I found I had to "fish" the joiner wire through the stab slot right behind the stab, epoxy the joiner wire into each elevator half and then hinge and install the elevator halves while the 30-minute epoxy was curing. The next step was to permanently install the engine, fuel tank, main wheels, receiver, battery pack, servos, control rods, control horns, and tail wheel (1 " dia.), and then the final balance. The final 1-1/2 ounces of nose ballast was added. With the nose ballast, the ready-to-fly weight came out at 3 lbs. 12-1/2 ounces. Just a hair over the advertised weight.

Engine:

I used an O.S. 40 LA with the stock muffler to power the Gee Bee. The O.S. 40 LA is truly an outstanding sport engine with its blue finish, plus it's very attractive. (Can't beat a red, white, and blue Gee Bee; almost as American as apple pie). The rear-mounted needle valve is also a plus for the O.S. 40 LA since it gets pretty crowded when you try to get your fingers around a forward-placed needle valve in among that big cowl outline.

Radio:

For control, I used a Futaba T6XA radio with the FP-R127DF receiver and five S3003 servos. The battery pack was a 500 mAh Futaba NR-4J. All control surface throws are set up per the instruction manual.

After breaking in the O.S., I took the Gee Bee to the flying field which consists of about a dozen soccer fields. The take-off was done from one of the hardtop roads which borders the soccer complex.

On the first take-off run, I wound up using about 30-35' of "runway" with all control throws set at the low rate setting as described in the instruction manual. After just a few flights, the Gee Bee was showing that she was able to offer anything that these tired old clumsy thumbs was willing to take on. With an O.S. 46 LA and the high rate settings, I would predict that the Gee Bee will give any pilot just about any "hot dog" maneuver he could ask for.

Conclusion:

The Great Planes Gee Bee is an excellent kit with good engineering and quality materials. It goes together quickly, easily, and accurately, and offers excellent flight performance. So, if you want to try a good fun-fly model, the Great Planes Gee Bee Profile is worth checking out.