Windrider Bee2

[sherchoo]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but does anybody know if this model is available in Singapore?

[Forbes]

Sherchoo,

I don't know about Singapore. I ordered my Bee2 directly from Hong Kong. Shipping to Japan was very cheap and I have to say that I received excellent service from the company owner, Mr. Ming Lou

[URL="http://www.windrider.com.hk"]

Hope this is useful.

Ian
in Japan

[Forbes]

Well, my Bee2 flies on the slope!

The first time I went up there to fly things did not go well. Wouldn't respond to control inputs, wouldn't fly straight, and refused to climb despite the good wind that day. I went home rather dejected after half a dozen complete failures to fly.

The all-up weight was 660gm.(23 oz.) so I thought about that for a while. I had used the supplied packing tape for strength as per the instructions but didn't use the supplied colour tape for the covering. The supplied colour tape just wouldn't stick to either the foam nor the packing tape so I used coloured cloth tape instead. As an experiment I put some acetone on a scrap piece of the foam and waited to see what happened. Nothing! Then I wiped the scrap foam with the acetone, waited 10 minutes for evaporation, and stuck a piece of the supplied colour tape to it. Boy, did it ever stick, so much so that I ruined the tape trying to get it off.

Next I removed all the cloth tape from the wing upper and lower and cleaned it all with a towel and acetone. Next was to apply the coloured tape and trim, install the battery (4 AAA Eneloops), and see how much nose weight would be needed to put the CG at 8.5 inches back from the nose. To my surprise the CG was dead on, no additional lead weight was required. All up weight ready to fly is now 500gm (17.5oz). plus about 1/4 oz. for tape to hold the battery in and the cover on. The control throws were set up again to match the recommendations.

Today I launched from my usual spot with great trepidation in my heart and very shaky knees as the wind was quite strong and I'm on my own as far as learning goes. The Bee2 sailed out of my hand level and straight with a nice rate of climb. Only a couple of clicks of down trim were needed for penetration.Turning was quite positive and I even managed a couple of messy loops. The decrease in weight made a difference like night and day. Got four 10 minute flights in before calling it a day just before the rain started.

Conclusions: The Bee2 flies very well
Even a total novice like me can fly it
Only use the supplied covering and fiber tapes ie follow the instructions
It seems almost indestructible
Keep it light!!!!!
A bit of down elevator really makes it move when the lift is good

Now I have to learn how to land in a less embarrassing manner. How does one lose altitude without gaining speed? I have to land on the slope face because the back side has terrible rotors and lots of small trees. Everybody else uses flaps, butterfly, and spoilers and yet may require 3 or 4 go-arounds to get back safely on the ground. And they fly RCRCM or Art Hobby gliders which are very sophisticated. The Bee2 goes up very well but won't come down again, not for me at least.
Any suggestions?

Thank you for all the help and advice I received on this forum. Without the worry of breaking my model, I am really able to enjoy the learning experience.

Ian
in Japan

[sherchoo]

Sherchoo,

I don't know about Singapore. I ordered my Bee2 directly from Hong Kong. Shipping to Japan was very cheap and I have to say that I received excellent service from the company owner, Mr. Ming Lou

[URL="http://www.windrider.com.hk"]

Hope this is useful.

Ian
in Japan

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the info.

[Twyl]

Congratulations Ian! That's wonderful! Taking away the "break factor" from flying and *poof* the stress is gone and learning to fly takes on a whole new level of fun. Once you get the knack of it, working your way back into the built up gliders will be just as fun.

Regarding landing, I think the simplest answer is it will get easier with time and as you get used to the wing and possibly in your case flying period

Giving landing advice for a slope I've never seen is kind of difficult, and in most cases it's best to follow how the regulars do it. To over generalize, there are 3 types of landing approaches in what might be the most common order 1) Go behind and come back towards the slope with plane facing into the wind to reduce speed. This can be bad if the particular slope generates a large rotor 2) Lose as much altitude as you dare out in front of the slope and land coming up the slope at an angle. 3) Parallel approach, coming from either your right or left, and generally works best with flaps or spoilers as otherwise you will come in at cruising speed.

Here's a few of my videos that have landings in them. Skip to the end (or not if you're bored) for the approaches. In my opinion the #2 approach is probably a good bet for most slopes as you can generally go back around for another attempt if you are unsatisfied with the approach.


The Dom (Flying wing, Landing type #2) (If interested check out the history behind this wing HERE)
A ridiculously long uncut video with some pretty poor flying in the first half as I got used to it's controls. Skip to the end for the landing.

EPP Windrider Fox (Landing type #2 inverted for style points :P)

Genesis / Flying Fish (Landing type #1, with flaps)

-Jonathan

[Forbes]

Great videos, I learned a lot from them and the explanation of the three types of landing approaches. Thank you.

I learned something this week that I'm sure you all take for granted - don't move the stick and hold it. I accidentally discovered that to make a turn, pulse the aileron a couple of times, then pulse up elevator for the turn and opposite pulse the ailerons to complete the turn and level out. I have yet to find this vital point mentioned in all the reading I have done about learning to fly a model. It seems to work very well as I no longer do a death spiral into the ground when I try to turn. What a revelation for me!

Now if I could find a way to change the wind direction so that it hits the face of the slope......... North winds forecast for the next week and where I try to fly requires South winds.

Ian
in Japan

[Twyl]

Sounds like progress Ian. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, for turns or other inputs, think of it as being similar to driving a car. If you turn the steering wheel and keep it turned the car will go in circles. In your car when you have initiated a turn and then accelerate, although you can sometimes relax your grip on the steering wheel and the car will straiten out some on it's own, in most cases you will still need to turn the wheel back the other way a bit to get it going strait again. It not a perfect analogy, but helps a little to mentally get the point across. You sound like you are doing just fine though. Keep up the good work.

-Jonathan

[chiadennis]

Sorry to sidetrack Bee2 thread a bit.

I bought Windrider QueenBee early this year. Started to build when our season ended and almost abandon the build. Mainly because the wing joiners are a little flimsy and it's huge. With the coming season, I thought OK let take a look at it again.

I wanted to glue the joiners together into a 1 piece wing so I thought better bring down to the car and see if I can fit it into my car, well it way too big. I probably have to fiber tape the wings really tight before flying it. Anyway I wrote to Ming (founder or windrider) asking how he setup the controls (4 servos on the mother of bee). He said to use all the control like normal bee setup except that you can use the inner controls as flaps.

Hopefully I can finish by this weekend and winch the big mama up.

Slope gang, 1 huge target for this year combat.

AUW: 2.2kg

[sherchoo]

I've never combat before but I would imagine if anyone that tries to knock her will just bounce off.... right????

[Twyl]

Nice one Dennis. Careful with her when combating though. We had one lose control during a combat midair and it crashed into the pilot deck and smacked one of the fliers in the head. He was bleeding pretty nicely and lost the plane he was flying (really lost it, i.e. it was never found).

Not the best picture but if you zoom up you can see the poor chaps face.



-Jonathan

[randomtask]

With the Queen Bee in the air, we should try doing spot landings on it. On?

Cheers,
Adnan

[Pang]

With the Queen Bee in the air, we should try doing spot landings on it. On?

Cheers,
Adnan

hahahaha great idea, i will try landing alula on the mothership.

[Ghostfit]

That would be a real sight ! ...a big bird with lots of Alulas chasing it !


...Its a date then ! ...all of us with Alulas, we go down and chase the big bird !

[Twyl]

Hey Ian, did the weather cooperate with you this weekend and did you get a chance to fly more?

I haven't been able to get out for a couple weeks since my latest goto glider is in the ER after it got tired of flying and decided to try it's luck at swimming. Remarkably it's still in once piece after plummeting about 150ft in a inverted spin after I flicked it, a stall cause by too much elevator throw, while trying to do an inverted loop. It got a slightly cracked up nose where all 1.5lbs of ballast it was carrying decided to exit the and a few fried electronics, but it should fly again once I find enough spare time to give it some TLC.

It landed a bit further out in the water then this, but this is where the waves deposited her and how I found it.



-Jonathan

[Ghostfit]

Hey Ian, did the weather cooperate with you this weekend and did you get a chance to fly more?

I haven't been able to get out for a couple weeks since my latest goto glider is in the ER after it got tired of flying and decided to try it's luck at swimming. Remarkably it's still in once piece after plummeting about 150ft in a inverted spin after I flicked it, a stall cause by too much elevator throw, while trying to do an inverted loop. It got a slightly cracked up nose where all 1.5lbs of ballast it was carrying decided to exit the and a few fried electronics, but it should fly again once I find enough spare time to give it some TLC.

It landed a bit further out in the water then this, but this is where the waves deposited her and how I found it.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]117240[/ATTACH]

-Jonathan

Ouch ! ...I feel your pain, Bro !

But I'm sure she'll fly again !