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...

Those are adorable!

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

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

I still think you should add flaps! 

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
 

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.

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

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

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

DaveMo...

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

Looks like a winner to me!👍

The screen was an early flame suppressor technique.

Time for an update on this project. Am running into troubles getting a decent engine run with the little remote tank shown above. I tried mounting it closer to the engine, but to no good effect. The .020 starts well enough, but only runs in sputter mode with the needle quite open. Leaning it out, it barely breaks into 2-stroke mode before it quits from starvation.

I'm thinking that this motor just doesn't like a remote tank in the way I've mounted it. Or, the tank might be bad. Anyone here have any experience with these little motors?

Dave Mo...

Thanks, Dane. Kind of a mystery. The motor runs well on the test stand.  I took a look inside the tank, and it's OK.
I might just have to find another .020 with a standard tank.

Dave Mo...

Jump over to Cox International to pick up a custom backplate for the .020. There are YouTube videos and a write-up on CEF.

It looks like a mini product engine backplate. It will be complete, so it shows up, and you mount the kit!

Hmm, good suggestion, Keith. Will give that a try.

Jim: Yes, I see that a backplate is available and will give it a go if no luck otherwise.

What I'm hearing from both of you is that this thing should run on a remote tank setup.

Many thanks!

Dave Mo...

I have that same engine, and with a remote tank set up it runs great. You may just have a little hiccup somewhere. And by same engine, I mean with the tiny little product engine style back plate. I also have lots of tank type peewee engines. So this group of folks here can definitely get you running

Mr. Dave,

Did you ever get to fly this one?

944 and Ken:

Nope, no flight yet. Never got a good engine run due (I thought) to fuel feed problems. Never considered the circlip potential problem. Might just have to pull it out of hiding and revisit. Pretty little critter it is.

Dave…

Here's my Queen Bee built last summer to celebrate Larry's achievements.  First flown at the NorthBeast Championships.  Flies great on 20 ft spectra.  1.5 oz ready to fly.  I built several when I was a kid.

   Hello Dave!  Seeing your article cause my mind to drift and hear my box or left over wood call out ... "USE ME!  USE ME!"  To which I was unable to disobey!  Sir, this is your fault!  Although it is and has been a marvelous fault!   

I loved reading through this thread! Cute design, right up my alley. We have some snow coming in (shuts down the city), so I printed up the plan and dug out my box of .020’s.

I picked one un-run Peewee and two nice TeeDees. I’ve also got a couple Perfect 1/4oz tanks I can pick from. I’ve run TeeDees for years on many designs, so I’m leaning that direction. I think doing so might also get me slightly longer lines.

PS to the above. My model of the Queen shown earlier in this thread turned out to be a hangar queen, albeit a nice one.

Dave Mo…

              The Mylar reed which is the same shape as the original copper berylium works quite well not too mention is readily available. Once the circlip is in place, I like to rotate it in order to insure it's seated. When I'm satisfied with that, I take a X-acto and carefully nudge the reed underneath in rotation to verify it's not pinched. I then hook a syringe to the venturi and do the suck blow test. Don't just pull off the old hard pick up tubing from the backplate. The fuel nipple on the Pee Wee is very fragile and can break off. Use heat first and this will make the tubing flexible and it will slip right off. Wiggling the old one prior to what I mentioned will immediately snap the barb off.


One important thing I like to verify is the area where the venturi of the tank plugs into the backplate. Inside this area, there's a small hole. This is where the point of the needle is located. Remove the needle and insert a fine piece of wire down through the spraybar and insure it exits the hole I mention. Repeatedly do this as build of crud isn't uncommon here and alcohol can help break up the crap in there. Prior to reinstalling the fuel pickup tubing, insert a modeling pin back through the fuel barb with the needle removed and insure that you can see the pin through the spraybar hole looking down into it.

When doing the suck blow test,  a drop of oil is sometimes needed on the reed which will assist the reed in sealing. If I find it's leaking in anyway, I always flip it over before I try anything else. When the Pee Wee is back together, I pressurize the tank to insure no leaks as well. If air is immediately escaping, check the screws on the backplate, listen at the venturi intake as that is a immediate sign the venturi o-ring isn't sealed. Place a drop of oil on the threads at the top of the backplate where the needle is inserted, this can yield air leaks where the spraybar is pressed into the backplate and also threads themselves. Keep in mind that other leaks can also show their ugliness such as tank to crankcase, screws through the backplate and tank to backplate connection. While some of these might have a moderate impact on engine run, all of them at some point matter and should be resolved.

I’ll play Jim. I started cutting this morning.

I used my removable gluestick method with an extra printed set of plans. Makes quick work of cutting the parts.

I'm making 3 small changes.
Teedee power
Remote tank
Small bell crank move Still need to cut some parts for that.