New plan: Bob Gieseke’s 2003 Bear: Update 1/25/2025

[SteveMoon]

I am almost finished drawing/inking/lettering plans of
Bob Gieseke’s 2003 Bear. See my post on the
Ultra Hobby Products tab in the Vendor’s Corner.

Thanks, Steve Moon

As of 1/25/2025 the plans for Bob Gieseke's 2003 Bear are
available for purchase.

Check the Vendor's Corner for info.

[Dave_Trible]

+1...

Dave

[SteveMoon]

Plans are ready!

Steve

[Dave_Trible]

Moolah sent.

Thanks Steve

Dave

[SteveMoon]

Thanks Dave

[Russell Graves]

I just sent $28 for the plans and shipping. The address should be in the PP receipt. Let me know if you need it.

Thanks,
Russell Graves

[Sina Goudarzi]

Hi Steve,

I sent mine too,
Thank you
sina

[Russell Graves]

Hi Steve,

I received the plans today. They look fantastic!

Just wondering how this one flies compared to the 1997 Bear Nobler (which had a slightly lower aspect ratio wing)?

thanks.

[Matt Colan]

Hi Steve,

I received the plans today. They look fantastic!

Just wondering how this one flies compared to the 1997 Bear Nobler (which had a slightly lower aspect ratio wing)?

thanks.

A lot better! This is the plane to build and fly

[James Mills]

Steve,

The plans arrived today, they look great.

Thanks

[Dave_Trible]

Mine just arrived today.    Looks amazing!  Thanks Steve.    Will start on it once the current creation is done.

Dave

Looks like I’ll be spending as much time on mold bucks and fixtures as on the airplane.   The wing looks like it was designed to be built in a lost foam fixture.   Don’t have one for it.   May have to get creative!

[SteveMoon]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Dave: Yes, it was built using lost foam jigs. I drew every rib
and half rib using the pieces from the jig. If you can make the
ribs, then the plans show the location of each rib. Lay down the
bottom spar on your building table, jig up the trailing edge,
and go from there.

Steve

[Doug Moon]

I got a set of the plans too. I have been flying this plane since 2002, I think I have built it 8 or 9 times, and never once had a plan.    Ya'll better look out now!! 

[Dave_Trible]

Got mine started already....

Dave

[Dave_Trible]

It’s gone together pretty well.   Getting the sticky blue today.   Thanks Steve!

Dave

[Doug Moon]

Dave,

WOW!! do you sleep?  You stated on Feb 2 you were getting started and now it is 15 days later and your about ready to start the finish!  That's awesome. 

Looks great.

[Matt Colan]

Looks great Dave!! You’re gonna like that plane!

[Dave_Trible]

Dave,

WOW!! do you sleep?  You stated on Feb 2 you were getting started and now it is 15 days later and your about ready to start the finish!  That's awesome!

Doug the grass does not grow under my work table.......Just wish balsa trees did.   Being retired in the dead of winter lets miracles happen!

Dave

[SteveMoon]

Holy cow!! That is some fast building. And it looks great.

Steve

[Dave_Trible]

Looks great Dave!! You’re gonna like that plane!

Matt I like it already.  It seems HUGE compared to my other airplanes.   I have no idea how it was possible Bob went for around 60 ounces with this.   My best estimate right now is about 67-68.   Of course wood weight isn't what it used to be.  I did add a bit to it that I felt necessary for my rough grass flying field.   I built it with a regular leading edge to get something to jig the wing to and also to hold the landing gear ply half ribs in solidly.  I also upped the spars from 1/4 sq. to 1/4 x 3/8.  I use 5/32 music wire instead of 1/8 for the landing gear.   Other than that I built it as Steve drew. 

Dave

[Jake Moon]

Dang Dave, you're an airplane factory! It looks awesome.

[Dave_Trible]

Thanks Jake!   I can actually put them out pretty fast-too fast.   I get anxiety when I don't have my table humming along.   I've built three new ones since the Nats.   When you do the same procedures over and over every motion just gets faster.   My fleet is good to go for years....I am going to make a little diversion to absorb time and energy.   I have begun a scale ship and maybe will get going on some OT free flight stuff.   I am out of room for more stunt airplanes.  Those who have been here will attest there are airplanes everywhere in my part of the house and there are six I think in the storage shed I rent to keep the field mower.   Stunt is my first love and I always circle back to building for stunt.    I've followed your projects along-you are doing good work!

Dave

[Dave_Trible]

For the Bear lovers here is my finished airplane.   No engine mounted yet ( RO Jett .67 or .76)

[Dave_Trible]

Nudder pic

[EricV]

For the Bear lovers here is my finished airplane.   No engine mounted yet ( RO Jett .67 or .76)

Nice work Dave, looks great, and you finished it crazy fast too!

I won't ask the obvious question since the engine isn't mounted yet... but I'm thinking it at you, really loud in my mind, can you make it out? 

Looking forward to flight reports.
EricV

[Dave_Trible]

Nice work Dave, looks great, and you finished it crazy fast too!

I won't ask the obvious question since the engine isn't mounted yet... but I'm thinking it at you, really loud in my mind, can you make it out? 

Looking forward to flight reports.
EricV

I deciphered it Eric......let you know.   Probably won't happen for a few weeks yet.    Getting my P-40 trimmed when the wind lets up for our first contest in May.    So it will likely be after that but yeah I'm eager to see what we have here. 

Dave

[Matt Colan]

Wow Dave that looks fantastic!!! Excellent work! If it flies like any of the other Bears I’ve flown (except the Orphan) you won’t be disappointed!

[Dave_Trible]

Wow Dave that looks fantastic!!! Excellent work! If it flies like any of the other Bears I’ve flown (except the Orphan) you won’t be disappointed!

Thank You Matt.   I guess you'll have to tell me about the ORPHAN........

Dave

[Jim Hoffman]

That looks great Dave.  I hope it's a big success.

The fuse side area appears to be plenty big.  Line tension should not be an issue!!

[Matt Colan]

Thank You Matt.   I guess you'll have to tell me about the ORPHAN........

Dave

I’ll let Doug tell you the story about the Orphan. 

My short story with the Orphan is Doug let me fly it. He said it doesn’t do an hourglass…I almost put him out of his misery when I did the hourglass

[Dave_Trible]

That looks great Dave.  I hope it's a big success.

The fuse side area appears to be plenty big.  Line tension should not be an issue!!

Thank you Jim.    I need to go on a diet and lose a few pounds---but maybe I should fly this thing first!  I wish it were a little lighter but I seem unable to accomplish that.   As it was I didn't go heavy with the finish.   It will be about 69-70 ounces.   Strange though that fuselage really is a lot bigger than my standard fair airplanes but the weight is exactly the same.   It really is mostly hollow and thin skinned.  It felt real tender so I doped a layer of carbon veil over the whole thing leaving wide overlaps top and bottom.   It's a much more rigid shell now which I'll need on my bumpy field.  Most of the wood I had available was 7-9 pound with a few sheets of six I scrounged from a couple old kits I have.   Still I think it should be acceptable.

Dave

[Dave_Trible]

I’ll let Doug tell you the story about the Orphan. 

My short story with the Orphan is Doug let me fly it. He said it doesn’t do an hourglass…I almost put him out of his misery when I did the hourglass

Oh my!   I know he will be tell us about how lucky you were...yada yada

Dave

[Doug Moon]

Dave,
That plane looks great! I won the nats with one that weighed 67oz IIRC. Plus finished 2nd with a 69oz one. As long as it is straight and the power is steady you'll be good to go!

The Orphan is terrible. Started life as a standard 03 bear. A fellow modeler saw it in my garage and made a nice cash offer while it was in just wood. It was the light stuff too. I accepted and then it hung uncovered on his shop wall for 10 years! Then I bought it back thinking hey this will be awesome. I sat on it for a few months but I was really into helicopters at the time so I sold it to another club member and bought a new ESC and Flybarless controller or something. Then a couple of years later I bought it back from him. Then I proceeded to make the needed repairs and finish it. The finish was nice. But there was no red on the plane anywhere so it was behind the 8ball from the get go. The plane would not fly worth a crap. No amount of trim would make any changes to the way it flew. LO position, TW tailW nose weight it just sucked. It was light above 45 and dead up top. I like to think I can make a plane fly pretty good but this thing was just off. I checked the elevators and they seemed to have a little warp in them. I cut them off and built and finished new ones. It flew better but still NOT GOOD. I got sick of messing with it. I gave it to the original guy that bought it from me all those years ago. He named it the orphan. He has lots of good names for all of our planes. Salvage Title, The Big Spaghetti and many more.  He cut the flaps off and made new ones. It flys better, manageable, but I still hate it. I wondered the stunt wilderness in darkness for years without a GOOD plane. But now I have a rig (Bear) that is Tip Top.

When Matt flew the orphan I set it on a pretty rich needle on accident but he managed to work his way through the pattern. He did not have good reviews of the plane. Hahahaha.

[Dave_Trible]

Dave,
That plane looks great! I won the nats with one that weighed 67oz IIRC. Plus finished 2nd with a 69oz one. As long as it is straight and the power is steady you'll be good to go!

The Orphan is terrible. Started life as a standard 03 bear. A fellow modeler saw it in my garage and made a nice cash offer while it was in just wood. It was the light stuff too. I accepted and then it hung uncovered on his shop wall for 10 years! Then I bought it back thinking hey this will be awesome. I sat on it for a few months but I was really into helicopters at the time so I sold it to another club member and bought a new ESC and Flybarless controller or something. Then a couple of years later I bought it back from him. Then I proceeded to make the needed repairs and finish it. The finish was nice. But there was no red on the plane anywhere so it was behind the 8ball from the get go. The plane would not fly worth a crap. No amount of trim would make any changes to the way it flew. LO position, TW tailW nose weight it just sucked. It was light above 45 and dead up top. I like to think I can make a plane fly pretty good but this thing was just off. I checked the elevators and they seemed to have a little warp in them. I cut them off and built and finished new ones. It flew better but still NOT GOOD. I got sick of messing with it. I gave it to the original guy that bought it from me all those years ago. He named it the orphan. He has lots of good names for all of our planes. Salvage Title, The Big Spaghetti and many more.  He cut the flaps off and made new ones. It flys better, manageable, but I still hate it. I wondered the stunt wilderness in darkness for years without a GOOD plane. But now I have a rig (Bear) that is Tip Top.

When Matt flew the orphan I set it on a pretty rich needle on accident but he managed to work his way through the pattern. He did not have good reviews of the plane. Hahahaha.

Doug thanks and thanks for the Orphan run down.   I had one of my early Desperados that was like that.   It took off to somewhere unknown every time I pulled the second turn of the hourglass.   Never really did sort it out.   It's long gone now but I wonder if the fuselage had a strange hook in    it.   Couldn't find anything else.   It has always seemed that you get lucky-  one out of five or six airplanes is just magic from the get go- the rest are OK but a little average and one is a turd.

Dave

[Doug Moon]

>>>>>>  It has always seemed that you get lucky-  one out of five or six airplanes is just magic from the get go- the rest are OK but a little average and one is a turd.

Dave

THIS IS SO TRUE!!!  Every once in a while you find that perfect combo and BOOM it just goes where you point it. The rest of them can be a battle. It's madness too when you have built virtually the same plane for 22 years.

[Jim Svitko]

Has anyone done the Gieseke Bear with a fully sheeted foam wing?  I like foam wings.  I can build faster and not worry so much about keeping it straight.  The weight penalty is something I accept.  I think I can do a Gieseke Bear with foam and have it come out around 68 ounces if I am careful with wood selection, amount of sheeting adhesive, and being mindful of other things that add weight.

One of the best performers I have now is a Gieseke Nobler.  With an LA 46, it is a joy to fly.  A bigger Gieseke Nobler would be better, as the larger planes are not so jumpy and can handle more wind.

I have a RO Jett 67 now but it is destined for another plane that is under construction.  But, I am pretty sure Dub would be able to build another one for me if I ordered one.

[EricV]

Has anyone done the Gieseke Bear with a fully sheeted foam wing?  I like foam wings.  I can build faster and not worry so much about keeping it straight.  The weight penalty is something I accept.  I think I can do a Gieseke Bear with foam and have it come out around 68 ounces if I am careful with wood selection, amount of sheeting adhesive, and being mindful of other things that add weight.

One of the best performers I have now is a Gieseke Nobler.  With an LA 46, it is a joy to fly.  A bigger Gieseke Nobler would be better, as the larger planes are not so jumpy and can handle more wind.

I have a RO Jett 67 now but it is destined for another plane that is under construction.  But, I am pretty sure Dub would be able to build another one for me if I ordered one.

I've done built up, sheeted built-up... and used a bunch of sheeted foam wings too (non-Bear variety, but large piped ships nonetheless). To be honest, I think you can build just as light with sheeted wings because of a couple of factors... 1) you don't have dope/filler going through the silkspan and building up on the other side. 2) you can bear down and block sand a sheeted wing much easier and more evenly with less worry of sanding through. If you are careful in your color scheme and paint methods, you can net a very light sheeted wing all up weight. I've seen plenty of chunky monkey built up open bay wing planes, so there is definitely more at play than just the bays.

When sheeting a built-up wing, yes, you can and most likely will eventually get some starved horse effect to it over time if you look close against the light. But who cares? I sure don't, doesn't bother me in the least, and who knows, it might even help act as a VG to some extent, and sure looks better to me than all those plastic doodads on a wing that you will inevitably knock off by mistake loading in and out of your car on appearance judging day.  Sheeted foam is probably the most durable for people prone to hangar rash and has the least amount of flex but sheeted built up is potentially lighter. Ya picks your poison and live or die with it, heh.

EricV

[Tom_Fluker]

Doug thanks and thanks for the Orphan run down.   I had one of my early Desperados that was like that.   It took off to somewhere unknown every time I pulled the second turn of the hourglass.   Never really did sort it out.   It's long gone now but I wonder if the fuselage had a strange hook in    it.   Couldn't find anything else.   It has always seemed that you get lucky-  one out of five or six airplanes is just magic from the get go- the rest are OK but a little average and one is a turd.

Dave

Dad and I learned that over several different fleets.  Build 10 - 1 is great, 8 are good, 1 is never right.  All built at the same time, the same way.  Go figure.  Interesting thing is that it happened multiple times, not just on one set of 10.

[Tom_Fluker]

With these great plans and Jake's new found ability to laser cut parts, is a short kit in the works? 

[SteveMoon]

Great looking plane Dave! Hope to see it at the Nats.

Steve

[Dave_Trible]

Thank you Steve.   I got one test flight in the other day.    Has a completely new engine,  pipe, prop and everything so took it easy and got off with about a 5.6 lap time-slow- but still it felt great,   held the lines well,  was tracking rounds pretty well and went through some soft square corners smoothly so I think we are in good shape.   This wind here right now is a butt every day but maybe it will improve soon and I will sort it out along with a couple other new ships and I'll make some Nats choices.   So far I think this one is a keeper!    Thanks Steve for the drawings.


Dave

[Ralph Fichtl]

What engine/pipe set up did you go with Dave?

[Dave_Trible]

Ralph It has the RO Jett. .67 in it right now but the .76 is interchangeable .  The pipe and prop  (and tank) are my own.   The pipe is the new full wave pipe.


Dave