Mini Gee Bee! Review
05-11-2004, 07:44 PM
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Mini Gee Bee! Review
I just got the Mini Gee Bee from Hobby Lobby. For my birthday i got the Nippy Black 0808/98 and since the Gee Bee is recommended to use the 0808 i decided to give it a try. The Gee Bee is a kind of double profile. flat fuse flat wing. The plane is entirly made of Depron Foam except some balsa and plastic parts. Also there are carbon fiber rods that sorround the entire wing. There is 1 long peice to go around the side of the wing and it goes in front of the motor for extra protection. also on the leading and trailing edge there are peices of carbon fiber rods.
The instructions that come with the Gee Bee are not all that great. Only 4 or 5 pics on the front and the rest is all text. Also it looks like it was done on a home printer. There also are some but few confusing parts. But if you read through it one or two times and you'll get it. Overall it took me about 3 hours to do this. After it was all done I charged up the 340mah Li-Poly Kokam 2 cell pack and was already to go.
Before purchasing i watched some videos on the plane and noticed most of the pilots hand launched by holding it at a 45 degree angle and just let go below the waist. So i decided to do this. When i let go the light 7 oz bird sprung to life. But it was very hard to control. But amazingly it was ez to avoid objects but hard to keep straight flight. (Just if your wondering it uses elevon mixing and a apptional rudder. For the first flight i didn't use rudder but i added it later.) I brought it down becuase it always went to the one side with no imputs. I looked at the fuse and noticed that is was slightly curved at the end. So i used some eletrical tape (soon to be replaced with balsa) to straighten it. After that i noticed it was ezer to maintain lvl flight but still pretty hard. Also dont try to glide the plane with no throttel it wont without a airfoil. But it can climb vertically at a very good speed. My favorite trick is to to a full down elevator at lvl flight and do a sort of tumble outside loop. Very fun. Another thing to watch out is when it goes in a dive it may gently rise or any controles will be more then enough. But this little plane is very fun. Suprising it is hard to do a perfect loop but you can do not so perfect ez. But this is only my 4th plane and 1st 3d so it might just be me. Hovering is possible also. Flight times reach to 10 min. After a few flights my friend let me try using a 700 2cell Li-poly but the extra weight gave it a small performance drop. Hovering had to be at 3/4 instead of 1/2 throttel. But i got much longer flight times. I prefer the 340 instead though.
Overall the Mini Gee Bee is an excellent plane. The only thing i dont like about the plane is the problem with the bent fuse making it constantly turn. But with a little tape it can be easily and quickly fixed. Also the Depron is very strong with the carbon fiber rods. But with a moderate fast nose down dive the carbon fiber rod pushed out on the sides of the wing causing one to rip. Also on my Gee Bee i used a prop saver prop adapter. It uses rubber bacds to hold the prop on and with no landing gears it has saved the motor mount as well as the prop and motor shaft. I hope this review helps some buyers who have been looking at this plane.
The instructions that come with the Gee Bee are not all that great. Only 4 or 5 pics on the front and the rest is all text. Also it looks like it was done on a home printer. There also are some but few confusing parts. But if you read through it one or two times and you'll get it. Overall it took me about 3 hours to do this. After it was all done I charged up the 340mah Li-Poly Kokam 2 cell pack and was already to go.
Before purchasing i watched some videos on the plane and noticed most of the pilots hand launched by holding it at a 45 degree angle and just let go below the waist. So i decided to do this. When i let go the light 7 oz bird sprung to life. But it was very hard to control. But amazingly it was ez to avoid objects but hard to keep straight flight. (Just if your wondering it uses elevon mixing and a apptional rudder. For the first flight i didn't use rudder but i added it later.) I brought it down becuase it always went to the one side with no imputs. I looked at the fuse and noticed that is was slightly curved at the end. So i used some eletrical tape (soon to be replaced with balsa) to straighten it. After that i noticed it was ezer to maintain lvl flight but still pretty hard. Also dont try to glide the plane with no throttel it wont without a airfoil. But it can climb vertically at a very good speed. My favorite trick is to to a full down elevator at lvl flight and do a sort of tumble outside loop. Very fun. Another thing to watch out is when it goes in a dive it may gently rise or any controles will be more then enough. But this little plane is very fun. Suprising it is hard to do a perfect loop but you can do not so perfect ez. But this is only my 4th plane and 1st 3d so it might just be me. Hovering is possible also. Flight times reach to 10 min. After a few flights my friend let me try using a 700 2cell Li-poly but the extra weight gave it a small performance drop. Hovering had to be at 3/4 instead of 1/2 throttel. But i got much longer flight times. I prefer the 340 instead though.
Overall the Mini Gee Bee is an excellent plane. The only thing i dont like about the plane is the problem with the bent fuse making it constantly turn. But with a little tape it can be easily and quickly fixed. Also the Depron is very strong with the carbon fiber rods. But with a moderate fast nose down dive the carbon fiber rod pushed out on the sides of the wing causing one to rip. Also on my Gee Bee i used a prop saver prop adapter. It uses rubber bacds to hold the prop on and with no landing gears it has saved the motor mount as well as the prop and motor shaft. I hope this review helps some buyers who have been looking at this plane.
05-11-2004, 07:45 PM
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RE: Mini Gee Bee! Review
Oh also the carbon fiber rod around the motor makes a very good thing for hanging something. A way to keep it of the ground in the shop or your room!
