My effort at keeping fun in the hobby as mentioned in the Star Wars thread below.

Taking my time on this and perfecting covering and painting techniques. With apologies to Mr. Scarinzi and to the English language, this model is very "modificationized." The plastic landing gear and remote tank were not part of the original plan. Thinking light lines of 15 to 20 feet might work for the .020 mill.

Dave Mo...

Very Cute Dave.

I built one a few years ago to decorate my display case with. I never did fly it. I couldn't find lines short enough. 
Mine is covered with Japanese Tissue.

Those are adorable!

Add flaps for a micro BiSlob! Way cool project, Divot.

Larry,

Nah, I don't have nothing that cool. This plane is by my cousin DaveMo from up in the badger state. They get snow up there, so that means there's a building season...but from the size of that little guy, it must have been a short winter!

The Actual Divot
"Leaving spinner holes in the ground across SoCal"

Built mine from the FM pull out plans the month it was published. Flew from the mile high field (Lowry AFB) where I was assigned at the time, it flew great on Dacron lines. Bought a roll (50 feet?), and just cut it in half, so that must have been about 25 feet in length.

The Queen Bee was a perfect match for my very first Pee Wee engine, and flew so slow that a landing gear was never needed.

Built it per plans, with colored tissue and clear dope on the wings. A light coat of Testor's "Insignia Red?" dope on the wood surfaces after a few light coats of clear dope to seal.

Always wanted to build another Queen Bee, but waited way too long to build anything that delicate again. 

Bill

Hey gents, nice comments appreciated.

Larry's conflation error on the Divot name with my SoCal "cuz" is understandable. Heck, my mom never could get my brothers' and my name straight!

Little things can really rock. Will post a photo upon completion. Thanks!

DaveMo....

Sorry for the confusion, it jus looked like a Divot project and I didn't look closer.

I still think you should add flaps! 

Nice looking model. I started to build one of these once, completed all the sub assemblies, but never put it all together. I still have all the pieces and a TD .010, I am inspired to finish. By the way, plans and article are available on outerzone.

The latest pics showing the modifications I made to the Queen Bee. These mods are necessary because the chain of causation goes like this: 1) Pee Wee Cox .020 without integral tank, leading to 2) a need for external tank, leading to 3) the bell crank relocation inboard, 4) leading to extended pivot line inboard. Will see if this thing flies and can do a loop or inverted with the little stunt tank feeding the might Cox. Again, apologies to Mr.Scarinzi for hacking a masterpiece beyond recognition.

This ship is as likely to win top design and performance points as it is to be built with flaps. So there ya have it, Larry! Eternally grateful for your suggestion, nonetheless!

Dave Mo

You could really make it blasphemous and electrify it! 

I Electrified a Vic Smeed "Chubby" (13" span).

I still have it and it did fly (Including a loop).  Now a Hangar Queen. There are certain things which are just frankly better with an IC Engine and this was one of them. 

TTFN
John.

Completion of this little bipe is within sight. I've got two questions before the final touches go on:

1) John's "Chubby" has leadout guides at the wingtips. The Queen Bee does not include this feature. Is this something I should be concerned about including on my model?

2) One of the wings has a bit of a bendy/twisty feature to it. Given that the perfect destroys the good, I still might try to remove that problem, depending whether the solution is worse than the disease. I can search the site here for the technique(s), but does anyone here had any success?

DaveMo...

Dave,

I built mine per the plans and article in FM and it flew great!

The line guide was close enough to the wingtips to work perfectly. The Pee Wee was a bit down on power at that altitude and this allowed it to be hovered just by dithering the elevator fast enough to slow it down. By controlling the dither rate I could hover (hanging on the prop), descend, or climb out of the hover! My family and I got a big kick out of that. It would even loop (sort of) but when the fuel ran out it was a light weight brick. Fortunately it was light and sturdy enough to tumble on landing without damage.

Bill

Thanks, Bill. I'll have to give that dithering technique a try (I think I know what you mean). I won't worry about adding leadout guides.

Your comment about the Pee Wee's power caught my attention. I plan to use that very engine and hope to be able to do a loop, but won't be disappointed if it fails. Altitude here is around 900 feet, so maybe a bit more snort on my little motor?

DaveMo...

Dave,

Dithering means jiggling the elevator rapidly about neutral by only a few degrees. Easy to see the effect on short lines, and just as easy to determine the rate for hover, drop, or climb all in nose up attitude.

What kind of lines are you planning to use?

I suggest Spectra but I originally used common Dacron back then.

I have 10# Power Pro but it tends to coil up like a scared snake in defensive mode, when cut from the roll. The stuff is woven into a coil and rolled flat when wound onto the spools, so a partner is a must to hold each end until it is cut and stretched initially. You might try a fast setting adhesive to to hold the strands together when tying the knots onto ferrules, or the small slide connectors I use. Slide connectors are not allowed on large planes but I've never had problems on half A and smaller lines. Just be careful to slide the locking part until it actually locks into the gap on one side of the connector.

Knots are limited to the kind that pull up tight and lock in place. The Palemar has never failed for us but others try any knot they think will work and even try CA to fix the knot in place! Bad mistake, because CA hardens and causes stress fractures in the individual strands of Spectra and eventual failure.

Also, be sure your hands and lines are very clean when tying the knots, as any oil will allow the knot to slip with the expected results! A friend tried shortening his lines and forgot about the Castor oil residue on his hands and lines, so a knot slipped and he dunked his airplane. Once pulled tight Spectra will never slip.

There are some very good videos on "Spectra knot tying" on the web and probably found with a search for that exact text.

I used the wire lead out guide shown on the plans that is glued to the inboard wing strut and it worked fine. If you don't coil the loops too tight you can string a flying line into each loop and connect the clip slider directly to the bell crank.

If I recall correctly I used the landing gear for balance but would leave it off if I did it again. A nice grass field will allow it to just settle slowly onto the grass without a gear.

I'll be waiting anxiously for your build and flight reports as I love this little jewel of an airplane and engine.

Bill

Bill:

My apologies for such a late response. Great comments!

I'm of two minds on the lines - .008 solid stainless or #10 Spectra. It sounds like you are recommending line guides between the inboard wingtips. I've got a sturdy strut that'll make that possible. As far as landing gear, I'm kind of stuck with having it. Most of my flying is via stooge, though I'm hoping to spur interest in another guy helping out, post corona time. Landing will be on grass regardless.

As you can tell, this is a slow project. I'm also working on the other end of the size spectrum with an LA 46 powered Twister. It's in the Engine discussions on this forum. Regarding slow progress, I could blame Larry Renger for sending me off on a wild goose chase in his suggestion to install flaps, but that would not be true. Ha!

I've got this thing ready for installing the fuel tank - see the following pic. Will post a photo of the complete project here in the near future.

DaveMo...

Any suggestions from the fliers here on whether to install this tank Uniflow or open atmospheric?

DaveMo...

Ok, too many lemonades tonight but Sheesh how long are you planning on fly this thing for?

That tank looks like 3 weeks worth of fuel.

TTFN
John.

John, that was funny! 

I used the standard Pee Wee tank and that was fine for sport flying. Had I built another I might have considered other tank options for longer runs.

Bill

Well folks, here is a photo gallery of the completed model. With all due respect to Mr. Scarinzi, I should probably call it something else than a Queen Bee (My Little Chickadee perhaps?). Yet I owe him much for the design and the inspiration.

Not flown yet but will report back. It doubtlessly is porkier than the original in spite of my efforts to keep 'er light. Larry R: I went with adjustable leadouts in place of the flaps!

Dave Mo...

Looks like a winner to me!👍

Moe,

Now that is really sweet! Love the colors and trim scheme. Looks like the styling department did a "way back" tour thru the Cox Pitts biplane production line. Are those Cox landing gear?

What is the restrictor/muffler thing going on here? I don't think I've seen anything like that, although the pictures don't really give away the secret setup....

For lines, did you really mean solid stainless? We fly Mouse racers (.049's) on .010" solids (music wire) and it is a lot more than you will need. Going down to .008 would help with the weight but they are going to get pretty fussy about handling. I'd go with the Spectra unless you already have the stainless and just built the plane as an excuse to use it up.

Stay safe and don't let the hodags catch you in the park after the sun goes down,


The Divot

The screen was an early flame suppressor technique.

El Maximo Divot

Thanks for the comment on the colors. It's Rustoleum over doctor paper.

Yes, the landing gear is from Cox International. It's black plastic and originally made for some kind of .020 model Cox produced at one time. I did some major surgical work on it to lighten the load.

Yes as Larry mentioned, the screen over the exhaust ports is for fire prevention. This Pee Wee is a product engine from a helicopter, which must have raised heck with some dried grass somewhere back in the day.

No intention to use the stainless lines. I'll take your suggestion either on 10-lb. Spectra or coat thread from the local sewing shop. That particular thread is some serious stuff.

Hodags sporting Covid masks just don't seem that threatening!

Chow for now.

Dave Mo...