randy randolph bee tween build

nico010 Sun Mar 22, 2020 7:14 pm

Hello friends. I will take advantage of the fact that thanks to the quarantine I have time and I will share with you the construction of my bee tween, designed by Randi Randolph.
When I was very young I knew this model thanks to a modeller who had built it from the plan published in MAN magazine.
I had a copy of the plan but I have lost it. Not long ago I had the pleasant surprise of finding the plan on the OUTERZONE page again and do not hesitate a minute to print it.
Firstly, I built one for a friend (the model they will see in red), and I built it just like the plan, with the only exception that no landing gear would be fitted. The model flew extremely well, fulfilling everything said in the article.
The only drawback I had was that due to the control rods that I used for the tail surfaces, I found myself needing to add almost the same weight of the plane, in lead, in order to achieve a correct CG.
With all that lead added, the weight of the model remained at approximately 24 OZ. the model flew with a recycled babe bee. the behavior in flight was outstanding, the stability, the response to the controls and the behavior to handle strong winds are incredible. the glide was good but a little degraded due to excess weight.
Seeing all these positive and negative points, I decided to build another one, with just a couple of modifications:
1) F1 was moved forward to approximately the distance of the wing cord.
2) the controls are made with lighter materials
3) add landing gear
This new model (the white one) ended up weighing 14 oz. it flies much better than the first.
It is powered by a shure start with a fuel tank made from a syringe. With 20cc of fuel I have approximately 7 minutes of running, so the model goes to the stratosphere.
after that .. the glide is eternal ..
without further adieu I'm slowly putting the images I have of the construction and the videos of the flights I have.
I hope you enjoy.
Cheers
nico

nico010 Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:09 pm

As in all models, start by making a cardboard template of all the pieces to be cut.
then I cut the bulkheads in plywood and the sides of the fuselage in 2mm balsa wood.

to give a bit more rigidity to the structure use the same pieces of wood to make some internal reinforcements, as well as the doubler on the front

with all the cured glue I put the F2 and F3. F1 I leave it for the last.
I have the habit of marking on the fuselage the lines that I then use as a reference to locate servos, take as a reference to align things etc. This is seen in the following images.
after gluing the bulkheads I place the uprights for the servos.

nico010 Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:20 pm

After that I place the F1 with the holes for the engine, and close the top of the fuselage with balsa wood.
the bottom is the last thing I close after installing and testing the controls rods.

the construction of the tail surfaces is quite simple. the only precaution is that according to what I read in various forums, one half of the stabilizer is bigger than the other in the drawing, so I redrew it before putting it together. except this question, the rest is to cut and stick sticks.

it already begins to look like a plane

gkamysz Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:28 pm

Great! It was one of my first models. I'm looking at building another myself, but maybe scaled to .020 size.

NEW222 Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:42 pm

Very nice work. Loogs good. What do you plan on covering it with?

nico010 Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:56 pm

all the model is covered with top flite- monokote .
I share a couple of videos of the start-up of the engine and the flight of the plane.
I do not know why it is not seen in hd.
Tomorrow I will continue with the publication of the second plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unXZ6aHBLQw

GallopingGhostler Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:28 am

Very nice work, nico010. The aircraft flies very well and very enjoyable to watch your construction fotos and flight videos.

balogh Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:04 am

Nice build and videos, nico10..make me want to go to the filed and fly my planes..unfortunately following an early spring season of 20+C temperatures, this week winter is back again and as I write this post from my home office, I see the snow falling outside.

By the way, do you plan to swap the Surestart with the Black Widow you won on the T-shirt competition? I would expect a major power upgrade by the Black Widow because it has a SPI cylinder contrary to the non-SPI of the stock Surestarts unless you have changed the cylinder on it.

getback Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:53 am

Thanks for bringing us along on the Build and Flight , enjoyed the pics and the flight was very stable . Looks like a plane you can have fun with for awhile ! Stay safe . RC Plane

akjgardner Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:14 am

Very Nice , I enjoyed Watching the video . RC Plane

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 11:49 am

balogh wrote:Nice build and videos, nico10..make me want to go to the filed and fly my planes..unfortunately following an early spring season of 20+C temperatures, this week winter is back again and as I write this post from my home office, I see the snow falling outside.

By the way, do you plan to swap the Surestart with the Black Widow you won on the T-shirt competition? I would expect a major power upgrade by the Black Widow because it has a SPI cylinder contrary to the non-SPI of the stock Surestarts unless you have changed the cylinder on it.

Andras
how are you??
At the moment I have no intention of changing the shure start. For the type of flight I intend for the plane is more than enough.
the other day inspecting the piston I saw that it has a small crack in the joint with the connecting rod. more or less I could fix that things with the piston reset tool. Later (when the world situation improves due to the covid-19) I intend to buy a black widow piston and cylinder set on the cox international website and exchange it.

Mike1484 Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:12 pm

That is a very nice plane and you have done a great job on the building . I always liked that plane and I should build one but I am not a big fan of three channel set ups . Good to see people making the most of this lock down time by building and sharing on this forum .

Mike1484

balogh Mon Mar 23, 2020 12:14 pm

Thanks Nico..that crack you refer to is probably a gap between the socket and balljoint end of the conrod that, once properly reduced to the desired small value with the resetting tool will make your engine good again.

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:29 pm

balogh wrote:Thanks Nico..that crack you refer to is probably a gap between the socket and balljoint end of the conrod that, once properly reduced to the desired small value with the resetting tool will make your engine good again.

no .. unfortunately no. It is cracked. the break in the piston socket is perfectly noticeable.
I have used the piston reset tool to accommodate things a bit. I will use it in this way while it lasts

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:38 pm

Continuing with the bee tweens saga, I pass some photos of the second model.
I remind you that the main modification was the relocation of F1. In the following images you can see the difference between the templates of the first and second models.

internal reinforcements are identical to the first model

in the last photo you can see the new fuselage with the wing of the first model

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:53 pm

Now ... I leave some photos of the landing gear bending, the construction of the wing is exactly like that of the first model, and some photos of the almost finished model. so far almost nothing new.

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:05 pm

now is where it gets interesting. The engine is a set of new and used parts from other engines. I had to make a wooden extension to be able to adjust the engine to F1 and that the air intake does not disturb.
The fuel tank is manufactured by cutting a syringe and installing a pair of pipes for the fuel load and the air inlet, in this way, the outlet of the syringe where the needle is placed comes out from under the fuselage and is directly connected to the engine, without the need to disconnect this line every time you want to load fuel.

As I mentioned before with this fuel tank I have a running time of approx 7 minutes, which is more than enough to have fun in the air

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:13 pm

again the model is coated with monokote, the hinges are also made with monokote and the control rods this time are made with 1mm steel rods that move inside thin nylon tubes.
in this way I managed to reduce the weight of the rear of the plane.

nico010 Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:30 pm

Unfortunately I don't have any more photos of the model under construction, just a couple of the model finished.

Here I want to tell you an interesting story. the second Sunday that the plane flew, after the fuel was consumed and close to landing the plane, the model caught on a thermal current and gained such altitude that I lost sight of it, along with other modelers and after looking for a while upwards we managed to see the plane.
Luckily that story had a happy ending since I did not lose the model.
back at home, place under the wing and the stabilizer a pair of orange monokote strips, to make the model a little more visible.

I am going to share some videos of the model's flights.
after several flights try to perform some acrobatic maneuvers. the model flies perfectly in inverted, makes some great loops and the maneuvers like rollers go out quite well for being a 2 ch model

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randy randolph bee tween build

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