The King Bee

 Just some planes on a work table.....

 Bring On The Bee

I live in northwest Ohio so when the FAA anounced their new regulations like many others I flipped.  One thing did remain clear, I would not register(personal prefrence).  Since I didn't want to take the chance of getting arrested I was left to go in one direction, small.  The question remained, how much fun could I have under 2 sticks of butter? I went on to build a few small light planes but as the winter of 2016 passed somthing was missing. Sure these planes handled well but I wasn't satisfied, thoughts of ripping fast low passes and crisp aerobatics entered my mind.  I had foam and hot glue to burn, time to build some stuff.  I brewed an enormus pot of coffee and charged to my workshop.  The first plane I produced that night was a mini twin which was slow then a 4ch trainer also slow.  Then I thought "tiny bloody wonder".  With more late night building the 20inch span version of the wonder took shape, it had a conventional tail as I like my rudders.  This plane also had a similar airfoil to the wonder, we will get back to that one.  The mini wonder was powered by an 1806 2300kv motor spinning a 4.75x5 speed prop linked to a 12 amp speed control and 450mah 3s battery.

The next day I walked out to the field gunned the motor and tossed it.  What I expected was a series of streaking low passes what I got was 2 minutes of terror.  The plane imedately shot verticle, man nothing could hold this thing on a line it was all over the place.  The ailerons were way too touchy the elevator was vague and unpredictable and the thrust angle was way off.  Let the frantic tuning begin!   The first thing I did was take the slop out of the elevator by reinforcing the push rod, this only marginally improved the handling.  Next I gave it down and right thrust, another marginal improvement.  At this point the plane was flyable under half throtal but at full power it would try to loop so hard that holding a line was near impossible, these attempts at speed often resulted in crashes.  The foam was geting soft and I was about to give up the concept when a thought occurred to me "durr you should use a symetrical airfoil".  A few minutes later I had built a wing of similar plan form to the bloody wonder only with thinner ailerons and a symetrical airfoil.  I smacked it onto the old fuse and stomped out back launching it before my doubts could catch up with me. I was ready on the the trim tabs after a few frantic moments it was flying... to my amazement it was flying well.

When that amazement wore off I knew this was the plane that I've been looking for, it was stable at high speeds, all the controls were imedeate and accurate.  This was a plane that was always at my finger tips.  Then I flew the snot out of it, low fast and hard.  This was the first King Bee but by the time it earned Its' name it was already on its' last legs.  One morning I was flying the Bee naturally at full power, I came out of a dive right into a soccer goal post.  The resounding ding of impact seemed to hang in the morning air even as I approched the carnnage.  Goal!  I thought, that was the good news the bad was that the fuse had disintegrated and I was left once again picking up bits of one of my creations.  Now it was time for a decision should I rebuild the fuse or start from scratch.  I elected to build a new airframe as  there were still some things that I wanted to improve.  I set to work.

The new Bee was my attempt to make this design a bit more stable and a bit stronger.  It featured a fatter fuse, larger tail surfaces and a reinforced wing.  The build finshed I headed to the field and prepared for flight. feeling all the pre maiden aprehension I opened up the power and tossed it...  I was flabergasted the thing flew right out of my hand and traced a yellow streak through the morning air.  It flew like the preveous Bee only it was more stable and predictable all the controls just seemed right, it was the perfect plane for fast acro.  Huge loops lightining rolls and long low passes and oddly enough it could slow down too with no nasty habits.  Over the summer I flew the Bee almost every day and it didn't let me down.  By the time flite fest 2016 rolled around I was becoming accustomed to its' flight envelop It was almost beginning to feel ordinary.

First day of Flite Fest I walked out onto the flight line staring at a sky full of planes the King Bee under my arm.  "Taking Off" I yelled as the Bee joined countless other planes defying the 19mph gusts.  Flite Fest was awesome I flew, talked about flying and helped people build for hours.  By the second day peolpe began to notice the the angery litle yellow plane I've been flying and to my surprize they seemed impressed.  Before long I was asked by many for plans to these requests I gave vague promises that I knew i couldn't keep.  Saturday was another long day of flying I was ripping the Bee between over and under everything in the air. After this flight nerdnic saw the King Bee on the flight line and asked who had built it, we met and I asked him if he wanted to put a battery through it.  He was amazed at how this little plane flew then he asked me if I was going to make plans for it when I said that I probably would't be able to; he offered to write the plans for me.  After sunset we met back in a build tent and started translating what I had built into repeteable plans.  What resulted was the final version of the King Bee, it was only possible with nerdnic's advice and imput not to mention the plans themselves. 

Specs

wingspan: 20 inches

length:14.5 inches

power setup:power pack A with a 450 3s (for a better top speed use a 4.75x5.5 speed prop paired with power pack A)

servos: Emax 4.5 gram digital 

skill level: the build itself is intermediate as this is a high performance plane details are important, flight i'd say is intermediate to advanced simply becase of the speeds this thing is caplable of.

 Let's Build ! 

It's time to build so first download and print out the king bee plans.  Now that  that's out of the way it is time to decide on a foam covering this is not nessisary but could bring this build to the next level.  I recommed removing all the paper and covering one side with monocoate or similar, before you cut the components make sure you are scoring into the bare foam NOT the covering.  Such a covering will make your plane more durable and potentaly cut down some drag.

Here's the components, the next step is assembling the wing spar: take the one of the 1cm strips of foam, lay a thin bead of glue down it then stack it flat on its' twin.  You should have a 20in by 1cm two layer spar.  This must be suplimented by somthing stiff ie. a carbon strip, fiberglass rod wood strip or simmilar.  You will install this after the main spar; gule it  acrossed the layers of spar.  Below you can see the finished wing spar it is aproximatly 1cm thick.

Now install the wing spar 2.5cm back from the leading edge on the side without ailreons.  In this pic you can see the spar position and my full length carbon strip.  Just be sure not to cover any creases.

Finish that wing!  Run a bead of glue along the inside of the leading edge, along the top of the spar and along the trailing edge of the non aileron side.  Now carfully and quickly fold the the top surface over the bottom.  You need to make sure all  the surfaces have a good solid join and that the top and bottom of the airfoil have the same curve.  It helps to use a ruler to keep the trailing edge straight, be sure to give this joint a little extra time to cool.

Fuse Time!  Clear out the channels marked by score lines then run a bead down one channel and subsequently along the edge of the top plate.  Then fold the side over the top plate and as the glue cools remember to straighten the side.  Repeat on the other side.  You should have a three sided fuse blank as in the image above.

Before the wing...  The plans only have two wing saddle pices I recomend cuting out two more (just trace the oridganals).  This will add strength to your wing joint which is nessiary if you crash as hard as me.... onwards!

Saddle that wing! run a bead down the bottom of one of the outer wing saddles then attach to the fuse, the pointed end should be flush with the front of the fuse.  Now repeat ont the other side of the fuse, make sure the saddles are alingned properly then add your doublers to the inside of each wing saddle piece.  The result can be seen above.

STICK IT TO EM!  First dryfit your wing; make sure it fitts happily in the saddle at 0 degrees incidence also check for proper contact of the wing to the saddle.  Carfully sand as needed when satisfied run a genorus bead down each wing saddle piece and fit wing.  Rember to check the incidence and alingment with the fuse BEFORE the glue cools.

Tail Feathers!  Please bevel your hinges before you assemble the tail.  Now that that is out of the way you need to find the center of the horizontal stab and run a bead from the hinge line to the leading edge.  Remember that the bevel faces up.  Then attach and take care to alighn with the rest of the plane before the glue cools.  Now run a bead along the bottom of the verticle stab and instal into the keyed slot but still make sure it is alighned.

Airframe's Finished!  Now the electronics first dryfit the two servos into the fuse then find buy or make control horns I recommed gift cards as they are light and strong.  My control horns are 1.5cm in length.  Now it's time to create the rudder and elevator pushrods mine have simple z-bends on both ends.  The wire I recomend is .047in pianio wire (avilible at flite test) even this wire should be reinforeced with balsa strips or a substitute.  When finished remmember to glue in the servos and control horns.

Ailerons locate the servo at wing ceter 4.5 cm back from the leading edge.  Cut out a servosized hole and dryfit the servo then dry fit the control horns and bend the pushrods when you are happy with the movement remember to glue in the servo and horns.

With all the controls functatal it's time for the motor.  Find the two small motor shims.  Glue one to the underside of the top plate with thewide end on the left side of the fuse, the narrow end should be flush but there should be a few mills of overlap on the wide side.  Glue the othe shim to the left side of the fuse with the wide end aginst the top plate the result can be seen above.

Power up!  Now it's time to attach the motor.  It is a good idea to have a prop on for this as it makes judging the thrust angle more simple. the angle must be 3degrees right and 3degrees down.  Finally you can tuck your reciever into the fuse and glue a piece of foam in front of it (this separates the rx and battery also holds battery in place).  An opptioal step is to glue a piece of foam on the top of the fuse bettween the nose and wing.  Remember to read my pre flight check list it's important!

Preflight

• Check that all controls have no deflection or slop, everything should be straight, true and stiff
• Make certain tha the cg is at the leading edge of the spar, if not adjust the position of the battery accordingly.  This cg is a good stable starting point.
• Check you're low rate throws they should be adout 20 dgrees for high rates I don't recommend going too far over 30 degrees. It is a pretty good idea to maiden on low rates

Flight 

2/3 power is enough to launch but you should probably have a friend launch this plane on the maiden, if somthing is off this plane can be a handful.  I recommend keeping it relaxed until you get a feel for this crazy little plane.  Once you get the feel for it this plane is predictable and confidence inspiring so go for it!

 It's done

This has been one of my longest projects and I'm glad I didn't do anything differently as my fiddling allowed me to learn some of the tricks of high speed flight.  This build also forced me to develop an effective prototyping process making changes one at a time and noting the results.  All this trial and error was worth it in the end, everything I learned was put into the final bee.  So what goes into a light fast plane that can actually hold a line? First slop is the enemy if the controls are even slightly loose the plane will seem twitchy and unpredictable. Second is the wing section, as many probably know the faster you push a flite test style wing the more lift it produces.  In the form of the oridginal Bee this caused an obnoxious tendency to loop under power but a symetrical airfoil realy put this thing on rails.  Lastly the smaller, lighter and more powerful the plane the greater effect that trust angle has.  Thrust angle is what desides the tendencies of a plane on and off power as I found too much down thrust felt ok under power but as soon as I powered down the plane fell like a brick.  For this airframe 3 degrees right and 3 degrees down were the magic numbers.  My advice to those building this model is, details matter.  This is by all means an uncomplicated build but It rewards careful construction, as long as all the angle are right this little plane should fly awesome.  I anyone takes on this build please give feedback below even ranting is apreciated.  I will also answer any build or tuning related questions and am open to any advice so feel free.