-Behold three versions of your bumble bee...

A4 size voodoo 25motor 90 mA cell , Pboro 1 gram Fet timer  5x3 prop.

A3 size  voodoo 25motor 90 mA cell , Pboro 1 gram Fet timer  5x3 prop.

A2 size  £6.00 brushless ebay motor 300Ma 7.4 VLipo 3gram Pboro fet timer  6x4 APC 'E'prop.

The A4 and A3 size fly beautifully both indoors and outside , the brushless one really turns heads and I always tell people where your Bumblebee shuttleworthi design originates from.

I intend to enter next year's Ebeneezer at Old Warden with the brushless A2 size as it will qualify,  having the flat plate wings and no aerofoil . I have given copies of your modified plan to dozens of people to date and I  flew all three versions  at the BMFA Nats with great success to demonstrate just how well you can fly with depron /electric / lipo combinations.

On another note, I also built your Space Shuttle from the aeromodeller plan about 3 years ago in 6mm depron!

I however chose to make a more substantial tubular depron body and used a brushless 2500kV pusher on 5x3 prop and 3 cell 640mA lipo 11.1v.

I terrorised everyone at the Ferry Meadows flying field trying to get it to fly properly!  

It flew very well once you got the CG right, I remember you had the same trimming diificulties in your article but I eventually got there and it was well worth it.

Many thanks Dave for your wonderful designs which have brought us all  so much enjoyment,   

Ted Szklaruk
Peterborough MFC

From Ian Middlemiss - Nov 2010

Dave,  
I am the perpetrator of the Bee revival. Spotted your design in a 1994 Aeromodeller and could not resist it as it has no section, no reflex , no stab and should not fly. My brushed GWS 12mm 7.4v 200mah LiPo Depron FF version climbs like a demon and is very stable, most entertaining and bounces.

Thought you would like to see my RC version.....almost complete. Note antenna and 6 legs but not wellingtons, alas.

10gm brushless motor from Robotbirds
6 x 3 GWS DD prop
300mah 2cell LiPo
3 x 3.5gm Blue Arrow servos
2.4 Ghz RX

Set up as rudder/elevator but  twin servos on each elevator half just in case I need to go to elevons. (Thought unlikely).

Will finish for trials in Spring 2011.

Thanks for a great design that should not fly.

Regards
Ian Middlemiss PMFC

Hi Ian,  

After todays foray into the continuing adventures of ancient house renovation, I'm now free for a while.

I just love the R/C Bee - any chance of the build/plan details?  After seeing your reincarnation (the original has gone to the great hive in the sky) I have to admit that my interest is piqued and - with a huge gymnasium to fly in - I can see a super-lightweight jobbie buzzing round the lights.  Not only that, but there's a 200Watt, 3750rpm/volt inrunner just screaming (?) for an outdoor model, just laying there in my atelier  (= workshop - posh name for my old caravan that's been stripped of internals) - waiting patiently.

I assume that my e-mail to Ted got copied to you so I'll try not to overlap the blurb within.

Following the 'potted history' and the move to La Belle France for many reasons, it didn't take long for the bug to bite - HARD!  Although I had built just a few models over the 'business' years before 2003, I had almost nothing but my old modelling kit, a small engine collection (remnants of a much larger one) and a pile of odds and sods that could be cobbled into something that would fly.  The old truism; "You can take the man away from modelling but modelling never leaves the man." is very accurate - After 3 years of hard graft on the house I had to pull back a bit and spend some 'me' time, as did my Wife Pat with her Patchwork, etc.  She needed some space of her own after working 'cheek by jowl' with me on some extremely hard renovation work.

It was around this time (late 2006 ish) that I bought a French model flying magazine, just out of general interest.  I was surprised to see that a specialist model builder was advertising his wares and was based just 25km from my place.  I contacted him to ask if there were any clubs locally and was surprised to get - almost by return - an affirmative reply and invite to visit the piste (piste - anywhere sports or similar are performed) to meet the crew on the following Sunday.

I tracked down the area by his description and was amazed at the site/sight - a full-sized 500 metre paved runway with run-off to the 'pits' and - just across the access road - a grassed plain some 3/4 by 1 1/2 km. in size.  It's not perfect, but very nearly so!  The first guy I met was a member setting up his electric trainer - Jean-Michel spoke no English, I almost no French, but we managed.  The guy that invited me - Yann Dobignard - turned up later and introduced me to everyone else.  None of the cold-shoulder that I've been show at many places in England, these guys are very friendly - it's a Breton thing.

It turns out that the runway and grassed area (parachute drop zone) are part of the Military Training School of Coetquidan (spoken Co-wet-kwi-dan), which also lets us use the large gymnasium.  We also have the use of a couple of lakes nearby for floatplanes.  The club Patron (boss) is Roger Nieto, International F4C flier for the French team a few times - he's a Captain at the camp, hence the leverage to use it.

The past 4 years have been a bit of a rush, what with continuing work on the house, doing work for other Anglaises and building my stock of equipment and models.  Despite a couple of bouts of muse withdrawal, the models don't stop coming.  I design, build old Ebay won kits, renovate cheap purchases from others, etc.  Anything in fact to keep the interest alive and the hands working.  The common theme is that they have to be 'interesting' or different.  On the drawing board this winter is a De-Monge Monoplane and a Hurricane - but not the Hurricane of WW2 - this one is much older.  I have to re-wing the Pegna Rondine after substance abuse and wall heater collision.  The virgin HP-Sayers Monoplane is trembling 'on the blocks' waiting for this weekend and its maiden fright.
 

If the weather plays nicely on Sunday, so will I.  The Senior Telemaster I bought - complete with Super-Tigre .61 - for 50 Euros awaits another sortie following its change of clothes, and an engine swap to an old Profi .75.  It flies like a motor-glider and is the nearest thing to aerial Valium I've ever encountered.  The French guys don't get the joke of the logo on the side - do you?  The little blue/white thingy is a Bede BD5 I designed/built 3 years ago.  It flys like a demented dingbat on an ancient OS .10, but is now retired with terminal fuel soakage - perhaps electrickery would have been better.  The two others are (front) a Livesey DL5 which - due to aileron insensitivity - flies only in very calm conditions.  The rear effort is a 'Baron' - I believe an old Belgian design/kit of very many years ago.  I bought the kit for almost nothing on Ebay and it putters around with the draught (couldn't be called thrust) from a 1960's Merco .35 - again, only on balmy days.

Other odds and sods litter the store room and await their call.  I wonder if you saw the photo/reference to the silver biplane - it's a Corcoran 65-1 that I am currently trying to sort out.  The first two flights were clenched buttock affairs, as once over 30 metres away and airborne it went apeshit, acting like a manic Galloping Ghost model (are you old enough to remember them?) and almost out of control.  The problem was signal glitching from the 2 x ESC's to the 41MHz (French standard) receiver.  My mate Don Sim (now the second Anglais in our throng) has given me a 'spare' basic spec. 2.4GHz Tx/Rx to try and conquer the effect.  My Wife - ever the critic - reckons that the plastic pilot looks like a failed porn star...  How would she know?

I think perhaps I'd better end there and await your reply, comment or ribald retort. 

Best regards,  Dave Goodenough.