I got an E-Z Bee II !

Thanks for the reply!

I also had a question about flying the EZ Bee II. Can this model plane perform ROG take offs? I know the Cox Co-Pilot VHS video instructs a hand launch. But I'm in a wheelchair low to the ground and I've always had difficulty with hand launches so I always prefer a rolling take off from the ground.

Hello , i have been looking on the Net and so far can't find a RTO of this plane , But the way i look at is if it has wheels and will fly why would it not take off from the ground? I salute you for doing what you love even with a disability

Thanks so much getback ! !  

I was thinking the same thing that it should work if its able to fly and has wheels. But wanted some confirmation from someone that has tried it. I guess if there is no hard data on EZ Bee II ROG take offs I'll have to try it and report back

Here are some pictures of the EZ Bee II I got. Its in amazing condition considering its 21 years old.



Hopefully the decals are still sticky and will stay on. If not I can always use some packing tape. I had to do that with my Cox Lazy Bee model.


It even came with an extra engine thrown in for some reason. The EZ Bee II engine with the muffler is new never run, but the extra engine appears to have at least been lightly ran at some point. So IDK why or where it came from. But its nice to have an extra!

Hey! That’s a great looking model plus spare engine! I know Tony Accurso has a video of him flying a SD Condor with a Medallion 049 with a ROG takeoff. You will find it in the selection of similar videos when you view the EZ Bee video Co-pilot video posted on YouTube. Pay close attention to the launch training instructions at 7:50 in the video. Practice throwing Adult Beverage cans to perfect your technique. I think you have to empty them first for proper aerodynamics and stability. Oh and ya gotta wear a sweater that matches your plane!
Here’s the Co-pilot video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gvmr0Irh5oc

Here’s Tony flying the 049 powered Condor:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R9XtyievSnE

Congratulations, that is in great condition, the engines too. Decals look perfect, generally they are the first to deteriorate. Your going to have a lot of fun with that. As far as ROG, wind that Cox engine up put it on a flat smooth level surface and see.

Do you have a radio for it?

I have a plane that is similar to the E-Z Bee II.

The Cox R/C Commander:


The planes are approximately the same. Just a little changes and probably cost less because of "red" foam wings over the white foam wings? But the E-Z Bee II had a better radio, but I purchased the better Cox Cobra radio to install in the plane.

Purchased the plane "NEW" back in 1990's. Tried to get my son interested in model airplanes. Didn't last long and got interested in girls and that was the end of that.
Put the plane away and it was stored it in the basement for years.
Took it out last year. Decals no longer stuck to the plane and the sticky side of the decal were gone. Probably from the glow fuel?
I shipped off the decals to get them done by Callie Graphics and she did a great job.

Now for your question of doing ROG with the plane?
It will not ROG off of grass ( I fly at a field where we cut the grass to about an inch tall)
Trying to ROG off of asphalt, it will ground loop fairly easy and the wheels don't have any toe-in to reduce that problem.

The best way is to "hand throw it" (sorry).
My R/C Commander is a nice leisurely flier and the engine usually runs for approx.. 8 minutes and the plane is about 1/4" big when you are looking at it from the ground. Caught a thermal a couple time with it even!

Have fun!

You need to change over the muffler noise/throttle spring. It is on backwards

The muffler is on the engine correctly but the spring part is off 180 degrees!

Thanks guys! Luckily, one of the places where I fly has a nice paved runway. But the ground looping issue does seem like a concern. I will have to give it a try and see if I have problems with that. If I do maybe I can find someone in the club to help my hand launch it.

Also thanks for noticing the spring door is on the wrong way Sosam. That would have been a tricky situation trying to adjust that while the motor is running having it pointing toward the prop. yikes!

That RC Commander looks really neat with the red wings. Glow fuel can be a real problem with decals that use peel and stick type adhesives, that's for sure. When I used to fly only nitro planes in the early 2000s I'd always make sure I didn't place any peel and stick type decals were any glow fuel was likely to get to or on. So the decals on your RC Commander are reproductions ? Does the person that made them have a website? I have some other non Cox vintage ARF kits from Flying Styro kit that I'd love to get some repop decals made. How did it work? did you just send them the old ones that they then scanned and then made new versions of?


Oh also I do have a radio for my EZ Bee II. I'm going to use my FlySky Paladin PL-18. Kind of funny really since I'll only be using 2 of its 18 possible channels. Its the same radio I use for all my models now. I hope its not considered bad form or sacrilegious to fly this vintage model with modern 2.4ghz equipment. I do still have one of my old radios I could use. Its an old Hitec Flash 5. though really that would be kind of a hassle to get that out and working again. Aldo I'm not sure if its ok to use old FM/AM style locked frequency old type radios at my clubs flying field. I'd have to check.

I think that your radio of choice may be sufficient enough. Lol. I too would have liked to have gone back to 72 mHz for them for nostalgia, but 2.4 is here and is personally just that much more convenient to install I feel. Heck, I picked up a short time ago a Radiomaster TX16S myself for my 2 and 3 channel foamies and 1/2a planes too.

Hello FSTP,
I use Callie Graphics to reproduce all of my vinyl graphics.
Her website is: https://callie-graphics.com/

Since the pandemic, she has been swamped with orders. Everyone wants graphics and she's the best!
Her website has instructions on how to apply her graphics. They are easy enough to follow.

The vinyl graphics stick much better than the original peel and stick ones.
So, what I do is email her, and send photos of the graphics attached to the email.
I tell Callie what I want to do and ask for a quote.
She'll respond in a few days with a quote and a request to send the graphics to her.
I'll place the graphics in a large postal envelope with a piece of carboard inside for stiffness.
I will also include a letter with instructions inside as to what I want so when Callie opens it up she knows what has to be done.

When Callie has completed the graphics, she will email you for payment.
I pay her by PayPal. and wait for the "new" vinyl graphics to arrive in a big envelope.

When they come, I check them over and if acceptable, I carefully stick them to the airplane.
(I never had a problem with her work for over 10 years and she has gotten better over the years.)

I hope this is a good explanation of how to do the repo decals for your up coming projects?
Look around Callie's website and you'll see she does great work.

As for the radio, I use the Cox Cobra because it still was installed in the R/C Commander when it was las flown.
The radio runs on 4 cell "AA" on the Rx and 8 cells "AA" on the Tx. and it's a 3-channel radio.

For your situation, I would use the radio that you have on hand.
Just get servos that will fit into the foam cutouts in the fuse to simplify the radio/servo installation
and that should be the old (BIG) standard servos which are cheap for about $5.00 each?
I measured my servos in my R/C Commander and their dimensional size is: 1.5"x 0.8" x 1.42" (39mm x 20mm x 36mm)

One thing you can do to reduce the ground looping is to bend the landing gear where the wheels are, and try to bend in the
wire where the wheels slip on so the wheels will have "Toe In".
Place the long leg of the wire into the vice (with the section where the wheel will mount stick up out of the vice).
Now try ( with a par of pliers) and twist the wheel section away from you ( about 45° angle).
If done correctly it should be bent forward.
Now do this to the other leg of the landing gear. Remember to bend it the same way as the previous leg.
Install the wheels on the wire. Looking at the wheels they should have toe-in.
(not a lot -but a little -about 1/4" will due ---- front of wheel to backside of the wheel).

What this does is give enough resistance to keep the plane tracking straight.
Example: when one wheel is straight (down the runway) the other has more resistance because it is not pointing straight down the runway. So, with that dragging wheel it tries to pull the plane back and the plane straightens up straight down the runway.

Similar like the toe-in on your car.

Hope this helps out?

Thanks for the helpful post that's a great break down! I've had to adjust toe in/out on models in the past so I'm pretty familiar with the process.

Also thank you for the decal link I'm definitely going to use them for a few of my upcoming builds. I had some old arf kits from FSK (flying styro kit) from over 20 years ago and some of the decals have goon bad. So I had them set aside on the back burner as it were. So now I can work on them now that I have a decal solution.