GeneWeber
Senior Member
For Sale: The Bee Different, N45575
NOTE: Flying is an inherently dangerous sport that can result in injury or death. The item for sale is an incomplete home built experimental aircraft being sold on an “as is” basis. There are no express, implied or other warranties specific to airworthiness or mechanical condition of this aircraft or any of its components. The purchaser of this aircraft assumes any and all personal and public liability that results from its use or operation.
![[RotaryForum.com] - Bee Different For Sale](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 "[RotaryForum.com] - Bee Different For Sale")
MORE PHOTOS HERE
Hi Folks,
During this project I’ve sold parts that were replaced, and given people some good deals. Here is the final good deal, the whole project.
The Bee Different was Ralph Taggart’s Honey Bee, purchased from Ralph in May of 2003. The decision to do a major rebuild and register the plane experimental was made, and at this point there’s more new than original.
Engine, Prop & Prerotator:
Rotor Head, Blades & Control Stick:
Instruments, Electrical System & Radio:
>> Everything listed here is brand new except where noted <<
Fuel System:
Suspension, Mains and Nose Wheel:
The wheels were Azuzalight and mounted with a bolt that also allowed some unwanted play. The wheels are now tubeless Hegar aluminum (slightly lighter due to no tube, and a lot better looking) and are properly mounted on custom axle inserts.)
Seat:
Tail:
Hardware & Miscellaneous:
So what’s left to do?
I’ve tried to give a thorough assessment here. If anything was overlooked it has been unintentional.
I have $10K invested plus a lot of time. The price is $10K. Buyer needs to pick it up from Emmaus PA.
I’d like to close by thanking the many people in the gyro community who gave advice, answered questions and generally supported me while working on this project. There were so many over a long period that I can’t name them all. Please forgive me for that. But thank you John Landry, Al Hammer, Chuck Beaty, Doug Riley, Chuck Roberg, Tom Milton and others.
And a very very special thanks goes to John Mealey. I would have given up on this project before it even really started without him. I learned a lot from John. He has a broad and deep knowledge of metal working, various fabrication and aircraft construction techniques. John is also a master craftsman. Things he makes aren’t simply done properly, they are precise perfect works of art. If you ever have the opportunity to purchase something from John, DO IT!
Best Regards,
Gene Weber
NOTE: Flying is an inherently dangerous sport that can result in injury or death. The item for sale is an incomplete home built experimental aircraft being sold on an “as is” basis. There are no express, implied or other warranties specific to airworthiness or mechanical condition of this aircraft or any of its components. The purchaser of this aircraft assumes any and all personal and public liability that results from its use or operation.
NOTE: Flying is an inherently dangerous sport that can result in injury or death. The item for sale is an incomplete home built experimental aircraft being sold on an “as is” basis. There are no express, implied or other warranties specific to airworthiness or mechanical condition of this aircraft or any of its components. The purchaser of this aircraft assumes any and all personal and public liability that results from its use or operation.
![[RotaryForum.com] - Bee Different For Sale](https://www.vzavenue.net/~efw/BD.jpg "[RotaryForum.com] - Bee Different For Sale")
MORE PHOTOS HERE
Hi Folks,
During this project I’ve sold parts that were replaced, and given people some good deals. Here is the final good deal, the whole project.
The Bee Different was Ralph Taggart’s Honey Bee, purchased from Ralph in May of 2003. The decision to do a major rebuild and register the plane experimental was made, and at this point there’s more new than original.
Engine, Prop & Prerotator:
- Brand new Rotax 503DCDI with a 2.58:1 “B” gearbox box
- All new engine mounting braces, bushings, hardware
- Brand new muffler has been Jet-Hot coated and has a 90 deflector
- All brand new throttle, cables and linkages
- Brand new 60” three blade PowerFin prop with aluminum spinner
- Wunderlich, brand new lower unit, used upper unit purchased from Ken Rehler, no flex shaft
Rotor Head, Blades & Control Stick:
- Brand new RFD slider head with prerotator gear and brake
- Brand new 23’ Dragon Wings and hub bar
- Brand new Ken Brock control mechanism & stick
Instruments, Electrical System & Radio:
>> Everything listed here is brand new except where noted <<
- Stratomaster Smart Single ALT-2 encoding altimeter Smart Single Info
- Stratomaster Smart Single EMS-503 engine monitor
- Stratomaster Smart Single RV-1 Rotor RPM gauge
- 2 1/4" Air Core (270° Sweep) Electronic Fuel Quantity Indicator P/N 18-260-1F1
- Hall air speed indicator
- Used (like new) Garmin Pilot III GPS
- Industrial grade Cherry gear tooth sensor (GS100102)
- Kuntzleman SC103 strobe
- Kunzleman Precision Power Supply (voltage regulator/battery charger)
- Small (0.8AH) sealed 12v battery
(NOTE: I’m an EE and designed the simple electrical system after some research. I created a schematic diagram of the system. All wire is aircraft grade Tefzel of appropriate gauge. Attention was paid to proper grounding and shielding. Harness is neat and protected. Switches and fuses are Aircraft or Industrial grade)
- ICom A5 radio w/PTT switch (Set up electrical system so radio can be powered from it if desired)
- ½ wave AIRKIT dipole antenna (I couldn’t see how to get a decent ground plane for a ¼ wave, so went with this. My expectation is that it should outperform ¼ wave set ups w/poor ground planes. Inside of instrument pod was sprayed with nickel and is grounded to shield it.)
- I loved John Landry’s motorcycle helmet with earplugs and mic set up, so I purchased the components and built the same. My motorcycle helmet is not for sale as I purchased a 2002 Yamaha VStar Silverado 650 last fall.
Fuel System:
- Brand new 5 gallon tank, with new level sender
- Custom tank cap designed to provide positive pressure, and allow tank to be filled to the top
- All brand new fuel lines, primer and filter
Suspension, Mains and Nose Wheel:
- Replaced and reworked most of this to remove some weight from down low, and to address rumors of squirrelly Honeybee handling.
- Heavy “motorcycle fork” nose wheel and pedals set up with conventional Gyrobee like nose wheel and pedals. It incorporates a Brock axle and wheel and a simple light weigh brake
- Cut 3” off of each fiberglass main axle to shave some weigh. Main width is still 6’.
The wheels were Azuzalight and mounted with a bolt that also allowed some unwanted play. The wheels are now tubeless Hegar aluminum (slightly lighter due to no tube, and a lot better looking) and are properly mounted on custom axle inserts.)
Seat:
- Raised 2” to raise the CoG
- The padding has been replaced with 1” thick Confor foam
Tail:
- Brand new Rotor Flight Dynamics tall tail
- The tail has been mounted with top and bottom horizontal pivot points through small lengths of 1”x2” steel bar. This allows the AoA of the HS to be adjusted by loosening 4 bolts that hold the bottom mount assembly to the keel tube and sliding it front or back.
Hardware & Miscellaneous:
- Every nut, bolt and washer on the plane has been replaced with brand new. They have been properly torqued and then marked with blue paint.
- The rudder tube had holes from the original tail mount, and so has been replaced.
- I purchased brand new aircraft seat belt and harness in blue to match the paint scheme.
- The “lawnmower” tail wheel was replaced with a high quality urethane wheel that matches the color scheme.
- The paint scheme by the way is yellow and metal flake blue. The main components were powder coated yellow. I painted new items with PPG acrylic automotive enamel. I still have paint and reducer, and the cans have the custom mix information.
- Have some miscellaneous extra small parts, such as extra fuel filter, etc
So what’s left to do?
- Make cheek plates to mount the rotor head. What’s on now is just temporary so that the tail mounting angles could be attached with extra length. Once you have the proper cheek plates in place, the tail mounting angles will need to be cut and drilled to mount at the desired location. Strobe light will also be mounted here. I left extra wire so you have some flexibility.
- Mount and set up the rotorhead. This includes mounting the tope prerotator unit, buying the correct length flex shaft and hooking that up. You will want to incorporate a stop to engage the rotor brake at full front stick. You also will need to make up something to hold the gear tooth sensor in position.
- The linkages from the Brock stick to the rotor head need to be finished. The plan was to use a “scissors” linkage. I purchased 8 Heim rod ends for this (not the cheap Arora ones) 8 custom threaded control tube inserts to connect the Heim ends into 3/4” id tube were fabricated. You will need to purchase the remaining items to make the middle “scissors” pivot, and make up the 4 tubes with the pre-made ends.
- Needs rudder control cables. Since the length will change when you slide the bottom of the tail to change the AoA, you need to be clever here. I was going to make a cable with as much adjustment capability in it as possible set up to be in mid adjustment with about 2 degrees down AoA. If that guess didn’t pan out I’d have to make a new cable.
- I replaced the pull start cord with longer cord and purchased an aircraft grade pulley (MS20220A2) to mount on the cheek plate so I could pull start while sitting in the seat. Chuck Irby’s fatal prop strike made me want this set up. You can complete this or change it back.
- And of course you’ll need to fire up the engine adjust and sync the carbs, set up the prop, rotor and all that stuff.
- You obviously need to go over the entire plane and double check things to make sure everything is done, complete and SAFE. For example the carburetors and prop bolts are not safety wired as I was planning to do this during engine and prop set up.
I’ve tried to give a thorough assessment here. If anything was overlooked it has been unintentional.
I have $10K invested plus a lot of time. The price is $10K. Buyer needs to pick it up from Emmaus PA.
I’d like to close by thanking the many people in the gyro community who gave advice, answered questions and generally supported me while working on this project. There were so many over a long period that I can’t name them all. Please forgive me for that. But thank you John Landry, Al Hammer, Chuck Beaty, Doug Riley, Chuck Roberg, Tom Milton and others.
And a very very special thanks goes to John Mealey. I would have given up on this project before it even really started without him. I learned a lot from John. He has a broad and deep knowledge of metal working, various fabrication and aircraft construction techniques. John is also a master craftsman. Things he makes aren’t simply done properly, they are precise perfect works of art. If you ever have the opportunity to purchase something from John, DO IT!
Best Regards,
Gene Weber
NOTE: Flying is an inherently dangerous sport that can result in injury or death. The item for sale is an incomplete home built experimental aircraft being sold on an “as is” basis. There are no express, implied or other warranties specific to airworthiness or mechanical condition of this aircraft or any of its components. The purchaser of this aircraft assumes any and all personal and public liability that results from its use or operation.
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A beautiful aircraft. There is just "something" about simple and beautifully made. 
