Seagull Gee Bee Z ARF

RCU Review: Seagull Gee Bee 120
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Contributed by: Jerry Festa | Published: May 2010 | Views: 153977 |
Jerry Festa
(tailskid)
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Introduction
Specifications
First Look
Assembly
Photo Shoot
Flight Report
Summary
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GEEBEE Model Z SuperSportster - Pratt & Whitney "Wasp" powered, 1931
Thompson Trophy winner (one built, destroyed December 5, 1931, Lowell Bayles
killed) The Model Z was built to win the 1931 Thompson Trophy Race at the
National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio. With a big engine incorporated into the
smallest possible airframe the plane was fast, but tricky to fly. During the Shell
Speed Dash, the Z set the world record for the fastest speed ever recorded by a
land plane -- an average of 267.342 miles per hour. Refitted with a bigger engine,
the Z began flying at speeds over 280 miles per hour by December.
But during one high-speed run at 150 feet, the Z's right wing failed and the racer
crashed in a massive fireball -- killing pilot Lowell Bayles.
(http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/granville-brothers-gee-bee-z-city-springfield)
Seagull Models
Distributed through
Horizon Hobby
4105 Fieldstone Rd.
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 352-1913
www.seagullmodels.com
www.horizonhobby.com
Very stable flying
plane
Unique looking along
the flight line
Good part fit
throughout assembly
fiberglass paint
matches covering
Spacious fuselage
shock absorbing
landing gear
The Granville Brothers then proceeded to design and develop a whole series of
racing planes known the world over.
Seagull Models have an offering that does justice to the full-scale aircraft. It may not
be 100% scale but there is no doubt as to the model being featured. Owners of this
model will enjoy assembling and flying this 'one of a kind' model. I think you will
enjoy this plane.I know I did!
Name:Gee Bee Size 120 by Seagull
Price: $319.99
Wingspan: 70.9 in (180 cm)
Wing Area: 863.4 sq in (55.7 sq dm)
Weight: 10.6 - 11.5 lb (4.8 - 5.2 kg)
Wheel pant opening
too small for wheels
landing gear twists
on landings
Wire attachments to
landing gear
Wing Loading: 28.1 - 30.7 oz/sq ft
Length: 64 in (1,630 mm)
Requires: 4 channel radio w/6 servos (JRPS821
recommended) and a 1.20 cu in 2-stroke, 1.50 cu in 4-stroke.
Channels Used: 4 total - Elevator, Aileron, Rudder, Throttle
Skill Level:
Items Needed To Complete
Time Required to Build:
Frustration Level:
What do these ratings mean?
Wire Cutters
Thread Locker
Larger fuel tank
Canopy or Silicon Glue
Thin CA Glue
30-min Epoxy
Small Drill bits
Various Standard Shop Tools
Guiding this classic bird around the "pylons" was a JR XP 9303 2.4 transmitter talking to an
AR 7000 Spectrum receiver. Controlling the flight surfaces and engine were 5 JR 821 Digital
Servos and one JR 527 Standard. Two 12" servo extensions were required to connect the
aileron servos to the receiver. The remaining servos were all secured in the spacious
fuselage. You have to love that 2.4 GHz.
The Saito 1.80 was a perfect match for this airframe.
Excellent lightweight fuselage and huge fiberglassed parts were complimented by the large
decal sheet!
Neatly pained wheel pants and fiberglass cowl match the covering exactly.
The interior box arrived with out a scratch, although the shipping box did display some
damage. Thankfully, the contents were secured in individual plastic bags, were in perfect
condition. A Saito 1.80 glow engine was the power source and was used for this RCU
review.
Pacer Products were supplied and used for this review
Manual
The Seagull Manual contained many pictures and for the most part did an excellent job of
conveying the message. The only problem was at time the pictures were somewhat dark.
Very few words, many pictures
WING
The actual assembly commenced with hinging the ailerons. I'm happy to report all hinges
are pre-mounted but do require the assembler to actually glue them into their respective
locations. The two aileron servos (with extensions) are also installed. At first it appeared as if
the rudder hinges were missing, but were discovered in a separate plastic bag. Each wing
receives two 'turnbuckle' hard mounts for the landing gear 'splats' and was be secured with
some Pacer Thread locker. Here the aileron horn bolt is being drilled.
The aileron, elevator and rudder control 'horns' are composed of a metric-sized bolt, two
washers and nylon 'horn'. This method not only produces an infinite amount of adjustment,
but also is also very secure, efficient and foolproof.
Metric hardware was used throughout the plane.
COWL INSTALLATION
The engine area was next on the agenda with a large plywood ring fastened to the firewall
area with five screws. The purpose of the ring was to give a surface to which the spacious
oversized cowl could be attached. The fiberglass cowl/plywood ring size match-up was
excellent permitting air to pass through the engine area and exit the fuselage. It must work
because our engine never overheated! A quick coat of 30-Minute Epoxy was given to the
front of the firewall after sealing the threaded blind nuts with Vaseline.
Next was the installation of the Dummy Engine. After drilling a 9/16" holes in the Dummy
Engine, the white static pushrods were glued into place with PACER's Thick Zap CA. Four
empty "spaces" between the cylinders would be later removed for airflow while the rest were
left untouched.
Here the dummy engine has its pushrods installed and is ready to be mounted in the cowl.
The dummy engine fit inside the cowl was excellent.
A couple of spaces between the cylinders was removed for cooling purposes.
Those open spaces aligned themselves directly in front of the side-mounted Saito and
apparently supply enough air-cooling to prevent overheating. One always wants more Exit
space as opposed to Entrance area! The instructions demonstrate removing all the spaces
between the dummy cylinders, but it was my decision to only remove four spaces. The
Dummy Engine was then glued to the inside of the fiberglass cowl with Thick Zap CA and
the cowl was mounted. When the cowl was installed it only showed only a slight view of the
Saito.
TANK AND ENGINE
The supplied tank was then installed. Not a good choice for a Saito 1.80! After a half-dozen
flights this tank was swapped out in favor of a Du-Bro 24 oz. tank because those 5-7 minute
flight time with the original tank limited the amount of fun we had with this bird! All that was
necessary to retrofit the Du-Bro tank was the removal of a portion of the plywood bulkhead.
And yes, the Saito is a thirsty one!
Because the tank was installed so early in the assembly process, some method had to be
used to remember the function of each of the three fuel lines. This designation was easily
accomplished through the use of different colored fuel lines!
A couple of tie wraps keep the supplied tank in place.
Three line system was used for fueling and defuling.
One of the fuel lines (green) went to the engine; another (yellow) to the muffler for pressure
and the third (blue) was used as the fill line. The Saito 1.80 has a breather nipple in the
center of the rear crankcase that would coat the firewall with excess fuel, so a short
segment of fuel line was attached to the engine and exits at the bottom of the firewall
keeping the opening for the fuel tank and firewall free from residue
Just before mounting the engine on the supplied motor mounts it was apparent the
carburetor had to be rotated 180 degrees. No problem, just remove two bolts, rotate the
carb, and replace the bolts. BINGO! All fixed
Now the noisemaker was actually mounted to the nylon motor mounts. An 8-32 tap was
used to thread the mounts and with the thrust washer 6.25" from the firewall, everything
worked out well. The supplied mounting (metric) hardware was discarded in favor of 8-32
SAE socket head bolts from Micro Fasteners.
The firewall area was given a light coating of Epoxy 'just in case' some of the fuel gets
spread around.
How do you start an enclosed glow engine? Two choices come to mind: a) cut a hole in the
cowling and use (in this case) an extended length glow igniter; (take note the standard glow
driver is a bit short) or: b) use a remote configuration. As you can see from the pictures
choice 'A' is a viable option.
But in trying to keep the front end as clean and hole-free as possible, a Sullivan HeadLock
Remote was used. In all the years I've used this product, it has never failed me, so without
hesitation, it was installed.
Front end with muffler installed. Secure the muffler with some wire to prevent the muffler
from coming lose!
One hole was drilled in the cowl for a needle valve extension, but whereas no engine
adjustments have been needed, the extension has not been required. A small portion of the
lower side of the cowl was removed to provide additional exit area for the stock muffler and
exhaust. In order to keep the vast majority of the muffler enclosed, a 90-degree muffler
adaptor from Saito was utilized. In this fashion there is adequate cooling, muffler almost
undetected, and only the bottom of the fuselage (and one wheel spat) gets the residue
Here is the exhaust system.
Moving on to the radio installation, all fuselage servos were mounted in the belly of the
fuselage. Two elevator servos are required, one servo for rudder and one for throttle control.
The outer pushrod housing was large enough to replace the supplied pushrods with 2-56 x
48" pushrods from Du-Bro. Not knowing how fast this plane would fly along with a very large
engine, it was felt the supplied metric pushrods were just too light for the job. As it turned
out, the GEEBEE isn't all that fast - but if done over again, I would replace them anyway.
Two JR Digital servos awaiting their assignment.
Hinges had to be glued in space, and some Thin CA from Pacers was used.
The covering for the horizontal was removed with a soldering iron with a #11 blade melting
the covering but NOT cutting into the wood. 30-minute epoxy was then used to glue the
horizontal and vertical stabilizer to the fuse. A slight change was made to the tailwheel
mounting. Instead of using the supplied hardware, a simple piece of fuel tubing was
attached to the tailwheel tiller arm and secured to the rudder.
Elevator control horn secured.
Servo on the left is one of the elevator waiting for installation of its pushrod and the servo on
the right is the throttle servo.
Next came the wing. It comes in two halves and is joined by a 21.5" long aluminum joiner.
These three parts were epoxied with Zap's 30 Minute Epoxy. Take note on how the wing's
clear shipping bags were used to minimize the amount of (my) Epoxy fingerprints that would
normally be scattered all over the wing panels. While this was drying, the tail feathers were
added to the fuselage.
Ever notice the discoloration of epoxy at a glue joint? To make the epoxy match the covering
(in this case UltraCote) a toothpick was dipped into some Testor's Plastic paint and mixed in
with the two parts. If there were any exposed epoxy, it would be almost unnoticed, as the
color of the glue would be very close to matching the covering!
Two huge but very light wheels are supplied.
3.75 oz is pretty light!
The struts are shock absorbing and add about a half-pound of weight to the plane.
All the landing gear parts are shown here. Very complete
Now came the fun part... installation of the landing gear and associated hardware. The struts
are shock absorbing and fit easily into the grooved mounting blocks. They are secured with
the typical two nylon-mounting straps. A rear plywood block is then epoxied into place and
will help secure the fiberglass wheel 'spats' that were very common back in the Golden
Days of Aviation.
Wheel centered in wheel pant. Notice the space between the wheel pant and the wheel
itself. This caused many problems until a solution was found.
The instructions are not very clear as how to secure the cables from the landing gear to the
wing. By following the diagrams, the wires did nothing to hold the wheel pants in position
and caused the wheels to rub against the 'spat' forcing the plane over on its nose.
So a solution had to be found and it was found right here at RCU! A short piece of wire was
secured inside the wheel pant and the cables were attached to that wire. This resulted in
secured inside the wheel pant and the cables were attached to that wire. This resulted in
spreading out the wheel 'spat' a bit (giving the wheel more clearance) and assisted in
holding the entire spat in position.
Part of the solution was to replace the supplied wheels with some from Du-Bro.
The wheel pant opening was 'adjusted' to expand the space between the wheel and the
wheel spant. Don't forget, the strut does compress on landing so give the wheel some
breathing space.
This is the business end of the wire that leads from the pant to the wing, permitting slight
adjustments to keep the pant spread out.
The GEEBEE was assembled at home and transported in
the back of a standard Dodge pickup truck. The cowl was
removed for engine adjustments and two tanks of
PowerMaster 15% was quickly consumed. The brand new
Saito started on the fourth try (a Chicken Stick was used) by
flipping the prop backwards. Everyone was surprised at not
only how easily the engine started, but how it would idle
without any adjustments on anyone's part! Lot of smoke
indicated a slightly rich setting, but we still produced 9300
RPM's before the first flight commenced. With a slight
adjustment of the needle valve, the cowl was installed and
no more excuses could be found NOT to test fly it. Static
Pics At first I taxied too fast and when turning, one wing
would scrap (Note: add a nylon wing skid on the bottom of
the wing). That Saito wanted to move so with the APC 16-8
turning close to 9600, the GEEBEE was pointed into the
wind. With a slow application of throttle the plane tracked
straight ahead with only a very slight tendency to fade left.
The tail came up and another 30 yards a bump of elevator
and a shallow climb developed. A couple of clicks of rudder,
aileron and elevator and she was flying straight and true.
Then the fun started. Rolls were somewhat slow (very slow
on low rates) and with the aid of the rudder produced some
very nice rolls. In the vertical department I wasn't impressed,
but was reminded the engine was running rich and perhaps a
different prop may produce better performance. Nonetheless,
stall turns and loops were very nicely accomplished. Stalls
were straight ahead and inverted flight did require a little bit
of down elevator but was rock solid - it fact it was as solid
upside down as right side up! Not bad for the first flight - then
when making a pass the engine 'burped' and that meant a
landing was in short order. Turning around and lining up with
the runway resulted in being too high so a missed
approached ensued. BAD CHOICE as 1/2 way around the
engine quit! Keeping the nose slightly down the glide slope
looked good enough to make the runway - well not quite. She
fell from about 10 feet and sure enough I let go the elevator
and found I had unintentionally added too much up elevator
and I bet that was a stall. The good news is that it hit square
on the wheels and tipped up on its nose. Damage report:
only some damage to one wheel spat and a scrape on the
bottom of the cowl. Tried to empty the tank and not even an
ounce was left - told you it was thirsty! Enough flying for one
day - took the plane home and inspected for lose bolts, nuts,
wires, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary so back on charge she
went and back to the field the next day. Another straight
take-off and more aerobatics and this time landings were
tried after 5 minutes - just to make certain enough fuel would
be left for a go-around. On the third landing the strut twisted
and the model ended up on its back. No damage but the "U"
portion of the strut was twisted and the wheel spat took some
additional beating. It was at that time it was decided by all in
attendance the stock landing gear had some issues.
The shock absorbing landing gear doesn't want to stay
pointing straight ahead. They twisted on every landing
causing the wheel to tear up the wheel spat, so a solution
had to be found. First of all the "U" shaped portion of the
gear needed a lock washer under the holding bolt. That
helped, but then while visiting the AMA Convention, I came
across glue that just might be able to hold the "U" in position
I also replaced the supplied wheels with Du-Bro's 4.5"
Threaded Lightweight Wheels as they are much thinner and
absorb the shock better instead of bouncing like the supplied
ones did. A small section of the bottom portion of the spat
was removed - no way could the wheel touch the spat now!
These 'modifications' have made the landings a much easier
experience. Now the plane was 'complete' both in the flying
and landing departments.
The next flying session ended with a very happy pilot!
The next flying session ended with a very happy pilot!
GEEBEE's have a bad reputation for first of all not being
stable and by visual accounts, should not even be able to
sustain flight... AND they are supposed to be difficult to land.
Well I will now set those two items to rest. This plane is so
stable - it flies like a trainer! VERY STABLE IN FLIGHT!
Then to dispel the second 'point' is to learn HOW to land a
GeeBee. Almost everyone who has had the opportunity to
land this plane all say the same thing - FLY IT TO THE
RUNWAY.
Check out the video to see her in action!
Seagull Gee Bee R1 ARF
Or, Download the Video (24meg)
CLICK HERE
Many GeeBee models have demonstrated some bad habits in either their flying abilities
(or lack thereof) and/or their landing problems. For these reasons there have not been too
many models of the GEEBEE Z offered. However the unique design of this aircraft lures
aviation enthuists into proving the design does work and like the preverbal BubbleBee
(which they say can't fly) breaks ground and disproves that myth. I'm happy to report
Seagull has created this model in such a way so that the Z 'bumblebee' reputation is not
only disproven but demonstrates a very enjoyable smooth flying plane that is as stable as
any other plane along the flight line.
The only area of shortcoming in this model delt with the landing gear's inability to keep
the wheel pant from striking the wheel. That was easily solved resulting in a plane that
can be landed without any difficulty.In fact almost everyone who flies this plane asks if
they can do a 'touch and go' and after doing them are surprised at how easily that
maneuver was completed. I would not recommend this model to a novice but to an
intermediate modeler who can understand this model will float on landings, fly true and
will smoothly react to their commands.
Would I recommend this model to my best buddy? You bet I would - just do the
modifications as explained and fly!
Seagull Models
Distributed through
Horizon Hobby
4105 Fieldstone Rd.
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 352-1913
www.seagullmodels.com www.horizonhobby.com
Spektrum Radios
Distributed through Horizon Hobby
4105 Fieldstone Rd.
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 352-1913
www.spektrumrc.com
Saito Engines
Distributed through Horizon Hobby
4105 Fieldstone Rd.
Champaign, IL 61822
Phone: (217) 352-1913
Saito Engines
Comments on RCU Review: Seagull Gee Bee 120
Posted by: Flight Risk on 05/03/2010
After watching the video, I think it may be a good idea to put skids on the wingtips.
Profile
Posted by: TEAMERICA on 05/04/2010
Profile
I don't know where the "R1" comes from in your title and article. This is a model of a Gee Bee Z. The Gee Bee R1 is a very different
model. The R1 and R2 were the models that gave Gee Bees a name for being dangerous and hard to fly. The Gee Bee Z has a longer
fuselage which improves the handling. The Gee Bee Y has even a much longer fuselage and was flown by a women, Maude Tait who won
many trophies.
Posted by: skorman on 05/06/2010
Good review. Terrible, jerky video.
Profile
Posted by: Chad H on 06/05/2010
Profile
Posted by: Chad H on 06/05/2010
Profile
This has got to be one of the dorkiest looking unscale looking scale model out there. I love the Z, and SeaGull again keeps their reputaion
ruins a fine looking plane. The fuse is two thirds the diameter it should be, the tail moment is way too long, and the wing just has rounded
tips stuck on it instead of the graceful eliptical ends of the full scale. Never mind the wacky gear hanging way out the pants. I guess if you
can pretend it is a Z when you are flying it because of the paint job, but c`mon, what the hell is it..? Chad H.
Posted by: rowdog_14 on 10/24/2010
Profile
CHAD H. Sorry to bust your bubble but if you look at the specs of the original GeeBee Z and the reproduction GeeBee Z Seagull has made a
great reproduction of it as a 1/4 scale. Yes, I must admit that the wheel could have been better engineered. I love GeeBee just like you but
you have to give seagall models credit they did a goo job, and kept it in a great price range.
Page: 1
The comments, observations and conclusions made in this review are solely with respect to the particular item the editor reviewed and may not apply generally to similar products by the
manufacturer. We cannot be responsible for any manufacturer defects in workmanship or other deficiencies in products like the one featured in the review.
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