Build Post For A&D Aircraft Gee Bee R3
What's in the Box?Getting StartedI needed a few supplies. Most of these are standard:
CA (thick and thin)
Epoxy (5 and 30 minute)
Mixing cups
Popsicle Sticks (various applications)
Napkins
Denatured Alcohol
Hobby Knife (Xacto)
Blue Thread lock
Various Screwdrivers and Hobby size ball end drivers
Velcro (hook and loop)
Heat Shrink Tubing (3/8")
Zip ties (various sizes)
Q-tips
Heat gun
Clamps (various sizes)
Airplane work stand
Tylenol
Before I start, I'd like to say a few words about the kit itself. At first inspection, everything seemed fine. The plane was ding free and there were only a few wrinkles in the covering. The parts were all there and there was even an extra hardware bag with a few of the essential items. There was an issue with the canopy latch as seen in the "Unboxing" video above (if you watched it), but it seemed to be an easy fix, so I wasn't real worried. In fact I was pretty impressed with the beauty of the plane.
It wasn't until I started putting the plane together that I realized how much heat over time damage there was to this plane and it's hardware. The kit originated from China, but was distributed by Troy Built Models. Troy Built Models drop ships for Giant Model Products, from whom I bought the plane. Troy built models is located in South Florida (read: Hot). I'm not sure where they keep their planes, but this one was so heat damaged that I chose not to use any of their plastic parts except the gas tank. Zip ties snapped like twigs. CA hinges were yellow and brittle. The glue in some areas needed re-gluing. So as beautiful as this plane is from the outside, the ugly truth comes to light when you start to assemble the plane.
Unless there is new information that either Troy Built Models or Giant Model Products is willing to give that explains the condition of this plane, I am not prepared to recommend either company. However that's a story for another thread or a private message if you're interested.
Also, I've installed a 30cc engine in this airplane. It's meant for a 20cc. It will be nose heavy if you use a spinner or even if you don't. The DLE 30 is 8 oz. heavier than the DLE 20 (without the mufflers). I've also added a Pitts muffler, and an aluminum spinner which make the plane extremely nose heavy. I'm not flying 3D so weight isn't big issue as long as it's not excessive.
Putting it Together
First things first. I needed to make sure my servos were working correctly. They went through a pretty rough crash. I took them apart, regreased them, then tested them to make sure they were working.
I wanted to attempt to go by the manual... It starts with the wings. Supposedly this plane comes pre-slotted. That was hit or miss, and mostly miss. There were always marks, but most of the time you had to make your own slots. Sometimes the marks were wrong. I found using a hobby knife to make the slots was easiest, but care needs to be taken not to split the wood too much.
These are the CA hinges that come with the kit. They are small and really thin, but that was not the reason I chose not to use them. If you look close, you can see the heat damage around the edges. Would they have worked? Probably. Would I have peace of mind flying with them? Not a chance.
I had some Hangar 9 hinges hanging around, but because I need to make my own slots, they were pretty tight. So I would need to use "T" pins to hold the center. There is no center to the Hangar 9 hinges. As you can see, the H9 hinges are bigger and beefier.
But this is what happens to the hinge when I pin the centers. I didn't want to risk this.
So I traced around the edges of the Hangar 9 hinges, and made my own from Great Planes hinge stock.
Setting up to glue in the Aileron hinges
Because there's no hole in the hinge, I drilled a hole in the center of the slot to allow the CA to spread in.
You have to cut 3 holes in the covering. I used a hot soldering iron so the edges of the covering would seal. One hole is for your servo, the other two are for the landing gear, since the gear is wings and not connected to the fuse.
The servo openings are set up for standard size servos. You could use some Popsicle sticks and install minis if you choose. The Metal Gear mighty mini should work if you want to cut weight. I'm using Hyperion DS20-UMD's. They are high torque servos, but they are a bit on the slow side. That doesn't bother me, but it might someone else.
The control surfaces all have pre-drilled holes for your hardware.
Top Side of the wing. These are the two hatches that you use to strap in the landing gear.
I laughed a little here.
This where you strap in the landing gear. I recommend re-pre-drill the holes, and drill out the holes for the hatch screws. The wood is very weak around these hatches and one slipped driver could be a disaster.
Now install the control horn.
Kit Hardware
If you choose to use the hardware that comes with the kit, they'll be some drilling and bending, and the manual doesn't explain that you'll need to do any of that.
In the above image, check out the color of the hardware as compared to my servo horn. This is why I chose not to use it. Yellow means brittle when it's supposed to be white. The tab on the clevis is plastic. If that snaps, down comes $1K worth of airplane over a $1 part. I had metal clevis' left over from my Pitts crash, so I used those.
With this kit, get used to poor quality control.
Landing Gear 
Now it's time to attach the landing gear. You'll need two of these straps for each axle. One goes on either side of the wheel.
Set your support wires up like this.
You'll have two collars and two straps with wires for each axle. I didn't take the picture of the completed process, but it is in the manual.
Now you'll need to slip the wheel pants over the axle, then strap the struts in the wings like you see above.
Above is the side of the wheel pant. There are two slots to feed the wires through
The above pictures show installing the support wires from the wheel pants to the bottom of the wing. Important: Don't crimp the wire until you have enough threads showing on the turnbuckle. If you crimp it, and the turnbuckle is tightened all the way down, you'll have no way to adjust the tension on the wire. If it's loose, you'll need to spread the crimping tube (copper tubing) back out and try it again. I wouldn't use the same tube over again.
The wheel pants do not fit perfectly to the wing. So I used a few extra screws where I found hard points on the wing. Remember to pre-drill.
Once you've got the support wires attached, finish strapping in the strut, the lock the hatch up. Remember to pre-drill the holes on the latch. Even if it looks like it's been pre-drilled for you. The wood is not the strongest around these hatches... especially the front hatch. I know.......
Aileron HardwareBecause the hardware in this kit was heat damaged. I only used what I had to use for fear of failure. After I crashed my Pitts, I salvaged as much of the hardware as I could. I was able to use quite a bit from that kit. Not everyone has extra hardware like that so use what you feel is safe should your kit come heat damaged like mine did.
I found the bolt for the control horn that comes with the kit to be too short. If you want to make your throws more than 5mm (5mm is the recommended throw) then you'll need to extend the bolt so the clevis pushrod does not hit the bottom of the wing.
In the picture above is the bolt for the control horn that comes with the kit is on the right. I'll be using the one on the left
As you can see, there is now plenty of room to increase your throw should you choose to do so.
I'm using silicone tubing to keep the clevis clamped shut.
Because the clevis and pushrod were so short, I had to flip the servo around so the spline was toward the trailing edge of the wing. This is how it looks.
Installing the Engine
The DLE 30 comes with engine standoffs so you don't need to use the mount that comes with the kit. However, if you choose to use the DLE 20 the engine mount that comes will work just fine. The mount box comes pre angled with right thrust to counteract prop torque.
Once I got the engine measured up, I drilled the holes for the choke, throttle and fuel tube.
The kit comes with a spare servo box in case you don't want to mount your throttle servo so far from the engine, which I didn't, so I used it. So for the choke servo, I had to fabricate a mount. Crude... but functional.
I mounted both servos close to the firewall and the right hand side. I mounted them on the pieces of plywood that are to be used if you are mounting a gas engine. It takes some aligning so that the servos horns don't interact with each other.
This picture shows the the choke servo, and the gas tank placement.
Because the canopy is quite large, and easy enough to remove. I installed the fuel line this way instead of punching a hole in the fuse.
Engine installed just working on the plumbing
The plane is turned upside down, and this is the vent tube. It comes through the mount box and into the cowl area. I extend it when I'm fueling, then push it back in when I'm done.
I added cowl screw supports. The manual doesn't call for this, but it makes the cowl fit tighter. It also make the canopy fit tighter on the plane because the cowl overlaps the canopy.
WIKE IBEF Instal and Ignition Install. Again, the WIKE IBEF is an Ignition Battery Eliminator and Filter (ignition noise filter). You do not need an ignition battery with this set up. You only need one battery. I plug this into Aux2 then use then use Aux2 as a kill switch.
Ignition placement
Ignition Armed LED
Tail Installation
You can't see it, but there's a dot right where the "T" pin is. This is the center line. I use this to make sure that my horizontal stab is aligned correctly.
Horizontal Stabilizer goes here. I dry fit the stab, then mark the area where I'll need to remove the covering.
You have to be very careful not to punch through the balsa but you need to press hard enough to cut through the covering. I tried just scoring it, but that didn't work.
Again, I had to cut my own slots.
Finishing Up
Flipped it to install the support wires to the fuse
Use blue thread lock for the strap screws on the wing because the screw into blind nuts. Use thin CA on the strap on the fuse because it uses a self tapping screw directly into wood.
Electronics for Tailf
This kit uses a pull pull rudder system. Again, I didn't trust the hardware that came with the kit because most of the hardware was plastic and yellowed. I went with a DuBro kit.
Crossing the wires. Not optimal, but in this case was the only solution given my hardware.
This came out of my Pitts which also used one servo for the elevators.
It was extremely nose heavy. I had to add 8oz. of weight to the tail in order to get it to balance. I glued it in, and the CG is perfect.
