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Irv Cooper's ESSO BEE - mmmpc535@cpinternet.com
The ESSO BEE is a mutation of the Clancy Lazy Bee, Speedy Bee, and the Latest Yard Bee.
I love my Lazy Bee and My Lazy Bee special, and had to be one of the first in line to get the plans to the Yard Bee. But the Yard Bee did not have the looks of Clancy's other bee's. So I started work on a Mutation of three bees.
The final ended up with the Proportions of an extended Wing Lazy Bee Special, the Mid Wing and cockpit style of a Speedy but the size of a Yard Bee.
The Wing is a hot wire cut foam core 3" leading edge with balsa ribs going the rest of the way back. The tail feathers are laminated like the LB out of 1/16" X 1/8" strips and the Wing Tips are laminated out of 1/16" X 3/16" strips. The covering is a combination of Mylar Laminating film and Aero Span (Solar Film). The trim and letters are all cut from 'Zagi' type tape.
Specs:
35" span 10"cord under cambered airfoil - Yard Bee airfoil but under cambered with 1 1/2" strip ailerons.
Weight as a park flyer with Speed 400 2.1:1 gear & 8X6 Graupner & 8 500ar cells, is 15oz.
Weight as a Indoor Flyer with Speed 280 4:1 gear, 10X7 APC 8 500mah Nimh cells, is 12.5ox .
(Note: I have a Astro Brushless 7T with 3:1 box coming, watch for the results with this hi-tech power plant !)
Flies like it looks, slow and sometimes comical, like my good friend John Swetland says, "If you fly a Bee the first thing you have to learn is to say", "I meant to do that". Its maiden flight was within a baseball diamond on the first still evening I could find. As in all these light weight slow flyer / park flyer type things, every ounce you can save will just make the grin bigger when you fly it. I am kind of a sloppy & heavy builder, so I assume a good builder could take 2 oz's out of the plane.