Republic Seabee Scratchbuild

[pd1]

Gee Bill, When I saw your name listed on this thread again I was hoping to see some more progress on the Sea Bee.
Always like seeing your work.

Looks like someone at the other place is out to make life more difficult for you.
Are there reviews by the owners? Or even appeals?

Good luck
Paul

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by pd1

Gee Bill, When I saw your name listed on this thread again I was hoping to see some more progress on the Sea Bee.
Always like seeing your work.

Looks like someone at the other place is out to make life more difficult for you.
Are there reviews by the owners? Or even appeals?

Good luck
Paul

One thing the mods at RCG and God have in common, is that they are both NEVER WRONG. Must be quite a life.
I'd like to never be wrong. Wouldn't that be pretty cool.
Probably works out real well in their married lives.

Bill

[FlyingMonkey]

I quit a forum that was like that. I am so glad this one isn't

[Chris F]

Hi Bill,

Sorry to find they are still giving you a hard time at RCG, it appears they have no sense of humour. I can't believe they would ban you for that, well on second thought maybe I could .

You must be on the home straight with the Seabee. Have a good break from it, but please don't make us wait 2-3 years .

[Bill G]

Actually Paul I'm going to try to get back on it this weekend. At least finish covering the wings. Covering's something I'm good at putting off,
so if I can get past it, I'll probably keep going.

RCG
It was something, to logoff one day with my new profile statement posted, then logon the next day, only to see that Mr. from Hell had replaced it with their "on a vacation" crap.
When you look at all their new and highly insulting warning point categories, it makes them guilty of worse personal attacks than anybody else on the site has ever done.

Bill

[FlyingMonkey]

Do share, Bill, what are the categories?

I don't post there enough to learn these things. Always disheartening to see sites like that go in that direction.

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by FlyingMonkey

Do share, Bill, what are the categories?

I don't post there enough to learn these things. Always disheartening to see sites like that go in that direction.

There's millions of them. Go look over there at the categories page. I'd be typing for an hour to post all of them here.

[FlyingMonkey]

I can't find the categories page.

I did go to the support page, and was making myself ill reading all the complaints about the system.

And reliving the problems of mods sticking up for the problem causers, while the victims are made to look like the bad guys.

Seen that happen more than once. Experienced it when I made the mistake of speaking up against it as well.

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by FlyingMonkey

I can't find the categories page.

I did go to the support page, and was making myself ill reading all the complaints about the system.

And reliving the problems of mods sticking up for the problem causers, while the victims are made to look like the bad guys.

Seen that happen more than once. Experienced it when I made the mistake of speaking up against it as well.

I can't remember exactly how I got to that page over there.
Probably was linked automatically to all the warnings I got.

Bill

[FlyingMonkey]

that's because you're a bad man, Bill...

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by FlyingMonkey

that's because you're a bad man, Bill...

That's a line in an old Bad Company, or maybe Foghat song, isn't it?
Well it was just the first thing that came to mind

Bill

[Bill G]

About time I put a Seabee build pic back in this thread.
Covered the bottom of the wing, which is the tougher side, with all the cutouts. The balsa spars that were added to simulate the ribbed sheetmetal do not show very well through the covering, but still better than no simulated ribbing at all. If I was completely out of my mind, I could have ironed the covering down to the sheeting between each spar, but that would have taken days.
The covering should show the sparring underneath much better on the wing topside, since the airfoil curve will cause the covering to dip between the balsa spars, and do a better job of simulating the ribbed sheetmetal on the real plane.

The pic of the assembled plane is an older picture, posted to show the wing sparring.

Bill

[Biplane Murphy]

Hi Bill......Nice Build......I always wondered about the "Needing seabee motivation" user title.....then I came across this thread...
Looks extremely cool as usual!!!

[pd1]

Hey Bill, I flew into Newport RI, yesterday and one of the old Sea Bee's I used to fly was there.

I tooks some pictures, so if you want any for detail or what not, just say so and I'll post them

Paul

[ripster327]

Bill,

Today I attended the Curtiss Seaplane Homecoming on Keuka Lake in Hammondsport and snapped a few of the Seabees pulling in. They are attached. That's Jim Poel and his blue one shown in two pics. Thought you'd enjoy seeing it. (It looks like your colors are exact!) The twin is a turboprop. Shown also is the "America" built by the Curtiss Museum volunteers (including Jim) over the past year plus. It should be flying soon. Glenn Curtiss built this in 1914. Wing span is 72 feet. It was built to fly the Atlantic but WWI broke out. Several were then sold to the U.K. for sub patrol. BTW, I along with several hundred others have been following your Seabee build. Fantastic!

Paul

[Biplane Murphy]

Hi Bill...... "Ripster's" photos look like some pretty good motivation.....

[Bill G]

Yeah, I see the photos of mine that he included. I really need to finish this build. Really not much left to do, although nothing goes quickly on it.
Noticing that the landing gear is still in the water on "my" plane, in the photos. He must have just taxied in from/ready to beach onto land, since you don't want to land in the water with the gear down.

I would have really liked to be there too, since we used to have a cottage on a neighboring lake in NYS. Nice country. You have to be there to experience it.

[E-Challenged]

I stumbled upon a lot of You Tube videos featuring Seabees, nice interior views during takeoffs and landings, plane to plane views, waddling in and out of the water, etc. Great inspiration to get that Seabee finished and hopefully flying.

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by E-Challenged

I stumbled upon a lot of You Tube videos featuring Seabees, nice interior views during takeoffs and landings, plane to plane views, waddling in and out of the water, etc. Great inspiration to get that Seabee finished and hopefully flying.

This family video is entertaining. From the 40s or 50s.

http://web.mac.com/chankwitz/iWeb/Bl...ons/Movie.html

[E-Challenged]

Full of nostalgia for me, I was ten years old living in south Milwaukee in 1949. My folks and I moved to CA in '53. My friend Jim and I used to ride our cruiser bikes out to Mitchell Field and watch P51's and later F-80's practice flight ops there. Wonder how they kept boaters from blundering into the path of the Seabee at Lake Okauchee. All those shots flying over Milwaukee brought back a lot of memories. Thanks!!

[E-Challenged]

Are we ever going to see the Seabee fly? After 25 years I am finishing a Sig 1/6 scale Cub that I let languish in a closet with wing and fuselage framed up while I built a series of fun-scale P-51's. Instead of the .40 glow power, I am using an old geared Astro 25 and two 2200 3cell lipos in series for power. I expect 5-8 minute flights. My point is , that if you let your Seabee sit too long, a mental block against finishing it can set in. Even if you don't fly it, you can taxi it and run it around the pond. My Peashooter is flying well but still has a tendency to snap roll out of loops and rolls. It's happiest just making antique pursuit plan ciruits of the field

[Stan-the-Man]

RE: The Seabee

Your photos of this plane brought back a family treasure for me as this style plane, or a close earlier relative, was docked at Lake Tahoe on the east shore back in the 60's, offering rides. It was taxi cab yellow. My dad treated us to a ride over the lake which I recall took close to 20 minutes.

There was a medium wind blowing, which later produced medium size waves when we landed... It sounded and felt like being in a metal trash can as we skipped like a stone across the water. I thought we were going to break apart.

That's the one big lesson I learned about seaplanes... You may take off in calm water, but when you return, Mother Nature may have raised the ante, and you may opt to turn into a submarine. The experience, however, is one of my favorite and most treasured memories.

Thanks for the pics.

[Stan-the-Man]

Originally Posted by ripster327

Bill,

Today I attended the Curtiss Seaplane Homecoming on Keuka Lake in Hammondsport and snapped a few of the Seabees pulling in. They are attached. That's Jim Poel and his blue one shown in two pics. Thought you'd enjoy seeing it. (It looks like your colors are exact!) The twin is a turboprop. Shown also is the "America" built by the Curtiss Museum volunteers (including Jim) over the past year plus. It should be flying soon. Glenn Curtiss built this in 1914. Wing span is 72 feet. It was built to fly the Atlantic but WWI broke out. Several were then sold to the U.K. for sub patrol. BTW, I along with several hundred others have been following your Seabee build. Fantastic!

Paul

I've just posted my story about the Seabee, but I wanted to thank you for the photos. The plane we rode in was quite rounded in the nose, typical of early models of most designs, before they become more streamlined.

You sure brought back memories of a fun ride.

[ripster327]

Stan,

Thanks for the nice note. I'm happy those pics brought back such warm memories. Yeah, when you do things like that with your dad 40 years ago, those memories grow fonder and fonder as the years go by. They are real treasures. Glad you could do that with your pops.

Paul

[Stan-the-Man]

Originally Posted by ripster327

Stan,

Thanks for the nice note. I'm happy those pics brought back such warm memories. Yeah, when you do things like that with your dad 40 years ago, those memories grow fonder and fonder as the years go by. They are real treasures. Glad you could do that with your pops.

Paul

You're more than welcome. You don't realize that I've gone all of these years never knowing the name of the plane we flew in until I saw your pictures. I've been looking through Flying Magazine and other sources, but haven't seen it. The Seabee or Sea Bee seems to be a rare plane as I've often seen other types of seaplanes, but I think have seen only one Seabee since our flight in all that time.

It was a little tin "bucket", but you just couldn't help but like it. If I remember correctly, the plane docked head on and the whole front end opened up like one large canopy so we could get in through the front, like those mini-cars.

Since then, I've always been fond of seaplanes and push props. My Aerobird 3 reminds me of the Seabee. When in flight, I took pictures with my little Brownie Starflash camera, and got a little woozy from trying to see side to side. I took pictures of the newly developed Tahoe Keys resort area, at that time.

I wish I could share them with you, but I don't have the computer means. I even took a pic of the plane as it brought the other half of our family back to the dock from our separate flights.

I remember this plane being a two passenger plus the pilot in front. As I remember, it had split red pin striping down it's yellow sides. What a crate, but it had a cuteness to it like a favorite Teddy Bear or model plane. I've always wanted one since then, however, there are sleeker types I've drooled over, too! It was one event in my life that really spawned my interest in aviation. I had made all sorts of plastic plane models and knew every Air Force plane in their '60's fleet, but I never found a model of the Seabee until your posting. It's especially nice to have these thoughts back at this time of the year.

Thanks, again, Paul.

As a surprise update this December 4th, I Googled the Republic Seabee to find a picture resembling the very plane I described above. I tried pasting the picture of a yellow Seabee marked "sold", but the photo wouldn't transfer. You can see it (the N2TB) at:

http://www.republicseabee.com/Buyseabee.html

Strange how my memory remembered the two red pin stripes exactly as pictured in this photo for at least 40 years -- never seen since that time except for my black and white photo on occasion, when I've gone through my pictures a couple of times. Anyway, thought you might like to see it.