CompARF GeeBee Begins

I started putting the CompARF GeeBee together last night. As you would expect from CompARF the kit is amazing quality and good quality hardware is included.

I ordered the optional undercarriage package as well, which is quite well engineered aside from the rough tolerances that the axle and collars are manufactured. In other words the collars fit VERY snuggly on the axle, a little too snugly as they wouldn't move when out of the box.

The only other disappointment was the lack of tailwheel included in the kit. Considering the quality and other inclusions in the kit this was quite disappointing. I've contacted CompARF about this to see what's going on.

The assembly of the kit is quite straight forward, and anyone with experience in assembling composite airframes in the past wouldn't have an issue. Few photo's here of the landing gear assembly, and you get a good idea of the size of the aircraft.

The equipment I've decided upon follows;

Engine: DA-150

Prop: 32x10 (to start with)

Exhaust: MTW cans

Servos: Hitec HS7955TG's on everything

Rx: Futaba 8ch FASST

Tx: Futaba 12FG

AMR-RC Giant Stick Maiden

It's been flown. Had a great time flying my Giant Stick. I ended up using an MT-80 for power with a 26A Vess prop.

Unfortunately as I put the MT on some longer standoffs I've got a vibration problem which, on the first flight caused the failure of the throttle servo mount and the motor died. No problems with the landing and all was good after a quick repair to the mount. I think I'll remove the standoffs and mount the motor straight on the firewall or on a rubber mount to try and remove the vibration from that one big piston.

The GiantStick flies nice, very stable, and has good roll rate considering the wing area. Unfortunately I ran out of channels on my 9CAP to put the flaps and ailerons on their own channels, I had to use Y-leads. FORTUNATELY, my lovely wife bought be a 12FG for my birthday, which means I've got another 3 channels to play with now! What a woman!

Next thing to do will be to build the lolly bomb bay, and get the smoke setup.

Other than the throttle servo problem, I'm extremely pleased with the Giant Stick, flies just like, well, a giant stick!! :)

C-ARF GeeBee R-2 + Project Update

Again, long time no post. I've finally bit the bullet and ordered a C-ARF GeeBee R-2 from DA Australia. I ordered the C-Arf accessory landing gear as well because I'm getting so lazy building things.

I'm planning to power with DA-150, Hitec HS-5645MG's all round.

I still have my Pawnee on the bench, I'm about to start on the wings, and still nutting out the cockpit framing to make sure it's strong enough.

I've also not yet maidened by AMR Giant Stick, but plan to do it this coming weekend. I've recently upgraded the Giant Stick to an MT-80 as I was concerned with the torque from the DLE-55 and also the balance. The kit turned out to be VERY tail heavy, and putting an 80 up the front gives me some more weight.

Pilot R/C - 88" Yak-54 - First Flights

Had successful first few flights yesterday with my Pilot R/C Yak. Great fun, flies like it's on rails, it really does. Such a simple build, it takes longer to put the servos in and program the radio than it does to build it!! My setup follows;

Make: Pilot RC - http://www.pilot-rc.com/

Model: 87" Yak-54 - http://www.pilot-rc.com/ProductShow.aspx?id=61

Engine: DA-50 from Desert Aircraft Australia - http://shop.desertaircraft.com.au/

Exhaust: MTW Cannister

Prop: 22x10 Mejzlik Carbon

Rx: JR RD-921

Servos: Hitech HS-7955TG's all round except throttle (Hitec HS-5645MG)

Batteries: Sanyo KR1700 5 Cells - I think I'll change them out for some Fromeco LiFe's though

AMR Giant Stick - Covering Done... Well almost

Here's some photo's of the final covered aircraft. I'm yet to add some trim stripes and attach the ailerons and flaps.

As this is really the first time I've put it together since I sheeted the wing, I've realised that the wing saddle is a little out of whack on one side and I'll need to "adjust" it. Which is why the wing panels aren't together.

Last bits to do;

* Add aerotow attachment

* Finalise RC Gear

* Engine and fuel tank

* Smoke and smoke tank

* Lolly Drop Mechanism :)

Here's the partially covered fuse, and one of the wing panels. If you're wondering about the funky colour scheme, it's following a 40-sized "fun fly / ugly stick" that I've had for a number of years and inherited from a mate. We estimate the smaller model to be about 12 years old, I thought it would be cute to have a huge one and a small one in the same colours!

You can see the included hardware here. It's a 5/32" bolt with a machined fitting on the other side. I've chosen to fit washers on the other side to the fitting to spread the load on the control surface out.

I've covered the bottom of the fuse and put the tailwheel and main gear on. So this is the first photo of the stick "on it's feet". Getting exciting!

AMR Giant Stick - Wing Assembly Continued

Looking from the top down you can see the wing attach points and how the whole thing fits together.

Sheeting the wing up, you can see that the good old d-box structure is still going strong. And I mean STRONG!

The finished wing panel

AMR Giant Stick - Final Assembly and Covering

Well it's all complete now. The wing construction and sheeting was performed without any hassells. I've attached the stab and fin and covered them. One point to note here there aren't any holes in the last former to allow the servo wires for the elevator to come through. Make sure you drill some BEFORE you attach the top fuse sheeting and fin. Whilst you are doing that make sure that you have glued the servo doublers in place as well.

Covering has been pretty straight forward, I find I need to cover a few bits and fail a few times before I get my "covering mojo" flowing. Once that's happening covering the rest is no drama at all.

Wings are covered, fin and stab are covered, rudder and elevators have been hinged.

I've started working on the pull-pull control wires for the rudder. I ran out of hinges for the flaps/ailerons as they didn't include enough in the kit!! DOH!!!

All the control horn hardware is pretty decent quality, but I felt that some washers should've been included to spread the load evenly from the control horns. Also, no pull-pull hardware is included so you have to find your own which was a pain as well. No matter.

In other news, my DLE-55 has arrived, ready for insertion.

AMR Giant Stick - Wing Assembly Continued

I've finished the construction on both wing panels, and am now sheeting each panel. Found a small problem with the W11 parts where the leading edge fillet is incorrectly cut to allow the sheeting to fit against it. It's no biggy, just noting it here for feedback to the AMR guys.

Sheeting is standard as per any other model you've constructed, I use masking tape to set the leading edge curved sheets in place, and I use bar bell weights for the flatter trailing edge sheeting.

One thing I have learned through constructing a bunch of different models, is when you are about to finalise the sheeting, make sure that you haven't left any rubbish, cut offs, dust etc inside the wing. If you do, this will rattle around when the model is finished and annoy you no end - or is that just me? :)

AMR Giant Stick - Wing Assembly Continued

I've begun sheeting the wing panel. Everything is very straight forward. I've fitted the phelonic tube into the fuse, and temporarily fitted it to the wing panel, they are fixed in place with glue once both panels are finished so that they align perfectly.

Once the sheeting is complete, I'll fit up the leading and trailing edges and then do the other panel.

AMR Giant Stick - Wing Assembly

I've nearly completed the left wing assembly. Everything is very straight forward, and the included jig makes assembly very quick.

I placed all the ribs in their holders, added the stringers and then went around and glued everything up.

Only one step had me confused when adding WSW3 and WSW4, fortunately the guys at AMR cleared that straight up for me, I think they are going to ammend the manual with some clarification.

The wing is assembled upside down initially, the wing root is shown at the right of this picture and you can see the servo bays at the rear. You can also see the WSW2 shear webs along the main spar there, I've decided to add shear webs along the length of the wing except for the final bay. The AMR guys assure me that their wing design is extremely strong, and i believe them, but since I'd already glued the WSW2's in place before I spoke with them, I'm committed.

Again, construction is like a big 3d jigsaw. The only other issue I had was the trailing edge part appears to be about 5mm too short for the wing. I've checked all the angles and it seems ok, not sure what the deal is there.

AMR GiantStick - Wing Parts

There are a few parts that need to be laminated with epoxy on the wing. W1, W3 and W11 all have one or more parts that need to be laminated. The manual is a little ambiguous about how W3 is laminated with W3A's and W3B. There are two W3A's laminated on one side (the wing root side) and W3B is laminated to the outer wing side.

W1 through to W3 holds the phelonic tube for the wing joiner. W11 is just the tip rib and is made of two parts.


Like the fuse I decided to flip through and laminate all the parts that need to be laminated for this wing half at the one time, this saves epoxy and time.

A little tip when you are using epoxy is to put the epoxy in some warm water this helps the epoxy run more freely and saves weight, and makes working with the mix much easier.

Don't use boiling water though, this will speed up the curing process too much and your 30 minute cure will become 10 minutes.

AMR GiantStick - Wing Jig

And now the fun begins, I've always enjoyed the construction of the wings in kits. Unsure why, but it's so much more interesting than the fuse.

Anyway, once again the AMR guys have done a stand up job, and have included a wing jig in the kit! The jig fits together very simply and can be changed over for each side of the wing - very ingenious!

The best part is that you can't actually assemble the jig incorrectly, the parts only fit together for a left and right panel. I don't know of any other kit manufacturer that includes a jig in the kit, most other kits require a jig for the wing, but you have to build it yourself.

AMR GiantStick - Tailplane and Fin

The construction of the stab and fin is very straight forward, just make sure you true up the edges of the parts to ensure everything is a nice tight fit.


The fin construction as well is very straight forward, I did run out of 1/4" square blasa which was a bit of a pain, and I'll need to buy some more for the construction of the wing, oh well.