Tail-Chasing in Marble Canyon | Carenado Gee Bee Z / R2 | Full Flight Review | MSFS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 เม.ย. 2022
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In this video, we test out the Microsoft / Carenado Gee Bee Z / R2 within Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS).
We'll be carrying out a tail chase through Marble Canyon (L41), as usual putting the aircraft through its paces as we go.
Please note this video and all its contents / materials, is for entertainment / simulation purposes only.
PC Specs
MSI B550M
AMD Ryzen 7 5800x 4.7GHz
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
32GB DDR4 3600MHz
Hardware
Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog
Saitek Pro Flight rudder pedals
HP Reverb WMR headset
TrackIR5
Earthquake Shell Shoxx transducer
Enjoy the flight! - เกม
Thanks very much to JoylessTunic738 for the Marble Canyon (L41) run suggestion. Well worth checking out!
On that note; I erroneously referred to the airfield as "Blue Marble Canyon" on a couple of occasions, no idea why haha. I also lost count of how many times I said "Bee Gee", instead of "Gee Bee" - I guess I was on for a bit of a disco vibe XD
Cheers ladies and gents! : )
Well the Gee Bee also has flared trousers so easy mistake.
We've had new prop physics and stuff so some changes has been done to the sim and seem to affect some prop planes a bit, this is not the only one that gotten a bit harder once again to fly. I'm sure it will be sorted. SU9 made the sim work for me again, not been stable for 4 - 6 months for me now and I generally had a very stable experience before and sure as hell got the system to run this sim. Even if the new prop physics are not enabled, most planes dont have that yet, it probably has meant changes to things in the sim either way. Personally, I'm done buying the basic planes, the Junkers JU52 was it for me, loved it, but you can put sand in the tanks, set fire to it and ram it through a barn and it will still fly, and I'm a bit tired of that. On the other end we got the 247D, lovely but my god, I might have bitten off more than I can swallow... DC6 seem simple at that point! xD But yea, first time this sim just works all night for me since forever...
Well on that note it's good to see the channel is Stayin' Alive ;)
HAHA! I did that so much, I just leaned into it and made this little vid for the Gee Bee Z's fictional younger brother!
th-cam.com/video/pntORv3yU7M/w-d-xo.html
Being a fan of The Rocketeer and seeing Delmar Benjamin fly his R2 replica several times when I was younger this was a must buy for me. Great vid as usual. Loved the canyon run.
Thank you very much sir, glad you enjoyed it! : )
Someone else mentioned The Rocketeer, is it worth a watch? Another viewer also mentioned Delmar Benjamin; quite unbelievable that he was able to get an airshow display out of the aircraft! : O
Cheers and all the best!
You should have seen the airshow that Delmar Benjamin put on at Oshkosh for some years in his R2 replica. Absolutely amazing, far beyond what everyone thought the airplane could do!
Hi Anthony,
Haha, well the fact that you're talking about "airshow" and "Gee Bee" in the same sentence already blows me away! I would never have thought this was an aircraft that would want to do anything more than go straight, maaaybe the odd turn XD
Must have been spectacular to watch!
Cheers and all the best : )
I watched delmar fly the r2 on many occasions years ago. When I was a kiddo he even let me sit inside of it at the Arlington air show. One of the coolest moments of my life delmar is a very nice guy and he did a fantastic job with the geebee. He also flew the z model that Kermit weeks owns
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I'm sure there are some videos on TH-cam of his show back in the day. He and the GB were a featured attraction at Oshkosh for a number of years after he built it.
Haha, that is indeed very cool Alan! : )
Indeed there are Anthony and I’ve watched a number of them subsequently haha - very impressive stuff!
All the best : )
Awesome video! Nice touch with the chase of the other model
Thanks very much Mueflo! Glad you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
As soon as I saw a Gee Bee was available I thought "can't wait to see ITBS butter the bread with this one!" I was somewhat impressed to see even you having to work it down onto the deck.
Having said that, what spells disaster for mere mortal sim pilots is "oh dear, didn't quite nail a 3-pointer" for ITBS!
Great stuff as usual 😀
Haha, indeed Roland! The Gee Bee (or Bee Gee as I apparently like to call it haha) is a great way of testing one's mettle if nothing else! XD
A reeeal challenge to get off the ground in a dignified fashion and getting it back on the deck again isn't a whole lot easier. I enjoyed it for that reason alone.
Maybe this video will have to go into the "unlisted" TH-cam playlist, lest anyone see that slight bounce on the landing : P
Hope you're well! All the best : )
Great flight and review. For most of us, as you said, this will not be a primary aircraft but one for a fun flight now and again. That being said, it is a good plane to have in the hangar! !! !!!
Thanks very much once again Mark!
Yes, I can't say I have dipped into the Gee Bee again since the review (although I haven't had time to be fair), but I certainly enjoyed the challenge at the time.
These sorts of aircraft are certainly fun to have in the hangar, if only for historical reference and the Carenado stuff is done to a standard where they are enjoyable (whereas I find some of Asobo's other historic offerings have been a bit too lackluster for my tastes).
Have fun taming the beast haha! : )
That is a beautiful art deco piece of machinery there.
Haha, very much so.
Actually, I never much used to like the look of the Gee Bee, but it has really gown on me having picked up the addon; the Z has anyway, I still don't care much for the look of the R2.
Cheers! : )
G.B. Granville Brothers. Gee Bee, phonetically of course.
When I saw these in the marketplace, I had to get them right away, and the price made that decision very easy. I got them for the challenge and I was not disapponted! Took me hours of practice to get the Z under reasonable control but it is very satisfying once you do. Next up is wrestling the R2 into submission...lol.
Since I got them, my Sim is only about the Gee Bees, I don't fly anything else anymore...lol. Some people may have issues with these models, I don't and I am extremely pleased with this purchase. And no, I'm not affiliated with Carenado in any way.
Hi Norm,
Glad you're enjoying the aircraft! I too really enjoyed the challenge that the Gee Bee brought and although I haven't flown it much since (I haven't had the time), it was a fun ride whilst it lasted haha. It also encouraged me to go away and watch some real life footage of these crazy aircraft, very interesting indeed!
Thanks and happy flying! : )
I learned from watching Delmar Benjamin that bringing the tail up as soon as you can really helps with the directional control on take off and same goes for keeping the tail up as long as possible during landing. I also find it is best to "fly" the plane onto the runway to keep it on the mains just like Delmar. My greatest respect to that guy, he really knew what he was doing...!!!
Yes, haven't tried that myself yet Norm, but I noted it when watching a video of his takeoff.
I'm sure it takes one heck of a pilot to fly one of these things; Mr Benjamin certainly seems like an interesting character, but then I suppose one would have to be to willingly climb inside one of these beasts haha XD
All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations .. yeah, I have the greatest respect for this guy. I guess he must be a heck of a pilot to be as confident as he is to fly the Gee Bee. I have the feeling he is the kind of guy who absolutely takes no risks. If he had any doubt about his ability to wrestle that beast into submission, I'm convinced he wouldn't have gone near it.
In one of the development updates one of the Asobo guys talked about why the physics are so wonky with tail draggers. Basically the issue is that the two wheels dont stop the rolling motion when they should (as they are obviously pushing against the ground). I tend to fly a lot of them, so I hope they address it at some point! Love the review, keep up the good work!
edit: It took me about 4 attempts before I could get this thing in the air!
Hi Geoff,
Well it's great that Asobo know what the issue is, that's a good starting point haha. Since there are so many historical / tail-dragger aircraft in the sim, it is certainly an issue that could do with fixing up (although some devs do seem to have managed to work around it somewhat).
Really glad you enjoyed the vid and are indeed enjoying the content in general : )
Thanks and all the best!
PS. Haha, sounds like you're having the quintessential Gee Bee experience then! : P
Wow, such a skill!
Thanks very much Moyse, much appreciated! ; )
All the best : )
I love how the cockpit vibrates.
Yeah, it's a really nice little touch isn't it RM! It makes the Gee Bee feel even more aggressive than it already is XD
All the best! : )
The plane that convinced Jimmy Doolittle to never air race again, haha l. Yeah they're known to be a bit of a handful.
Haha, well if it's enough to put him off, I shan't feel so bad about almost stuffing it into the ground every time I take off XD
@@IntotheBlueSimulations I believe it was an even more hopped up version than usual but I wouldn't be ashamed at all either. The story is recounted by his granddaughter here if you're interested:
th-cam.com/video/6tkr3UaIkDk/w-d-xo.html
Thanks! Yeah, I’d definitely like to watch that when I get the chance! Loved the intro music XD
Looks like an interesting channel in general. I see they have a Robin Olds video as well. . .
Cheers, much appreciated! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations there's a good video of Bob Hoover on there and a video about Howard Hughes called something like "crazy like a fox"
@@IntotheBlueSimulations also a truely bizarre video of a guy in what I can only describe as a third tier cosplay quality WWII Luftwaffe uniform talking for a solid hour about the Fieseler storch. I imagine some memorable reactions from the vets in the room that day...
I probably wouldn't fly this often enough to justify buying it, but that was some amazing flying and I definitely plan on trying Marble Canyon myself.
Yeah, I haven’t touched the Gee Bee since haha; but I certainly enjoyed the challenge at the time and I might give it another go further down the road. . .
Marble Canyon is definitely well worth checking out - great fun in most aircraft : )
Thanks and all the best!
The music... Wouaw !!!!
Haha, glad you enjoyed it Didier! Thanks for watching and all the best to you : )
Nice review, thank you. Not for me, but I expect many will enjoy a short flight in this interesting aircraft.
Thanks very much Peter! Glad it was of use : )
Haha, they may do. . . but they’ll have to get it off the ground first! XD
I hope you’re keeping well. All the best!
Stunning review. I'm buying this for many challenging reasons involving canyon flying and maybe mountain valley flying, Albeit it's service ceiling is 11,000 ft.
Thanks very much ST! Glad you enjoyed it : )
The Gee Bee certainly provides a challenge if nothing else haha; certainly great fun for this sort of flying.
Enjoy!
It's a Gee Bee, not a Bee Gee...lol. very nice landing though!
On the takeoff roll at full power the tail will fly itself off the ground almost immediately full power is applied allowing better cowards veiw and directional control.
That's exactly what I found too. I'm raising the tail asap and she seems to be much happier that way, both on take offand on landing...
@@normg2242 Exactly, Not all taildraggers like the 3 point contact all the time. The DC3 is another example. Fly the tail up first, this allows you to maintain directional control easier with a better forward view, faster acceleration and prevents the tail plane stalling before the main wing has achieved sufficient speed for lift adding to the mushy feel at low speeds.
Cheers Kikiwdiesel,
Yeah, having watched some real-life videos of the Gee Bee, I see they do almost exactly that. Counterintuitively, I've also found that jamming the throttle forward (as opposed to gently applying it) helps with controllability; maybe it's as a result of more airflow going over the control surfaces, maybe it's just an MSFS quirk. . .
Thanks and all the best! : )
He keeps calling it a Bee Gee. He must be thinking of the band Bee Gees.
Haha! Yes, that was very much what was happening XD
This is a strange looking thing. But I do like the gutteral, throaty growl of the engine. And it's interesting in the sense that it appears to have been designed and built with the express purpose of trying to kill the pilot, particularly on take off haha.
Not one for me personally. But, an intriguing plane.
Great video as always. 👍
The strange look is in part due to the aft position of the cockpit which was designed to give the pilot better visibility while making tight turns around pylons in crowded formations during air races. Jimmy Doolittle, an absolute legend, flew it like a champ and said it was no problem. Everyone else had issues. Every airframe made eventually met its end in spectacular crashes that involved no survivors and lots of trees and explosions. Definitely the kind of plane you want to fly in the sim, and not in real life.
Indeed Michael, the Gee Bee is definitely not an example of "form over function" haha!
It's a funny old machine, but I like having these historical aircraft in the sim and Carenado do them to a standard where they are enjoyable (as opposed to some of Asobo's other offerings). I enjoyed the Gee Bee, if only for the challenge of trying to get it off the ground in a dignified fashion XD
Cheers and all the best!
Ahh, I wondered why the choice was made to have the pilot sitting so far aft - I had assumed it was perhaps for CofG reasons. Thanks once again Austin!
It's sad to hear that the Gee Bee had such a dark history, but just looking at the things design, it doesn't come as any huge surprise. As you say, great that we can enjoy these sorts of machines in the sim, as you probably wouldn't want to do so anywhere else!
Cheers once again, all the best : )
Love the geebee just wish the exterior prop animations were better
Hi Motskater,
Yeah, the Gee Bee is a fun, crazy little machine haha. The prop disk itself looks alright, but I agree that the hub animations look a bit iffy. I can’t imagine Carenado is going to do anything about it at this point, but given what I paid for the aircraft, I shan’t feel too aggrieved. . .
All the best! : )
I left a comment but it seems to have disappeared, something about an error showed briefly. God knows what's going on there but here's another comment and if the earlier one pops up again you have my apologies!
These birds look quite fun. Will definitely be picking them up once I'm back in the air and will be checking out that canyon too. Quite weird and ugly looking (and I ain't looking in a mirror), but that just gives them character! Great modelling though by Carenado. I also saw a freeware Wedell-Williams Model 44 1930s racer released over on the flightsim tee oh by sal1800 that looks quite decent as well and I'm looking forward to trying that out too. Love these odd things (again, no mirror gazing is involved here).
That Canyon Run was pretty great as well. I'm not usually one for music in my review videos but it worked out quite well here. Great flight and review as always.
Cheers!
Yeah, TH-cam is forever deleting comments from dodgy characters, but I'm glad your second one managed to sneak though the system ; )
The Gee Bee is absolutely a fun little offering overall. A nightmare to get off the ground in a dignified fashion haha, but I enjoy it if only for the challenge. It's great to have these historical machines in the sim and Carenado put in enough effort to make them enjoyable - unlike some of the other historic offerings that we have seen to date. It's also had me watching some videos of the real-world Gee Bee's / replicas (not an aircraft I had much interest in before) - what a crazy machine! A shame that it is a bit marred by tragedy. . .
I'm glad you enjoyed the canyon run and the music! Not my style either generally of course, but I just felt is hit the spot here.
Hope your joystick issues (eww err) aren't too far off being solved now.
All the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations yeah quite a few deaths in these machines. Kinda shocking from todays view how they'd just rebuild a plane a pilot crashed and died in and a few months later be at it again with a new pilot. It's kinda like that if you read anything about early aviation though, truly a different era.
Still waiting on my new joystick. The joys of ordering from smaller boutique companies eh. I did find a really old joystick from the mid 90s hiding away in a drawer the other day, think it's one of my earliest sticks. A whole two buttons and trim tabs. I'd give it a whirl if it wasn't an old school gamepad port type controller. I've resisted the evil temptation of using the xbox gamepad in flight sims so far although I did mess about in the classic crimson skies with it for a few hours for some mindless fun. With a few tweaks and fan patches it works pretty well on modern systems.
Great video! I'm very happy with my purchase and the R2 is easy to figure out getting in-and-out with the little trap door on the side but how do you do it with the Z model? How did you get the canopy to come off?
Thanks very much EW!
Apologies for the slow reply. I expect you may have things figured out by now; but to remove the canopy, you can click on the canopy frame, right in front of the pilots line of sight.
Cheers and all the best! : )
Whilst I'm sure it should be pronounced Gee Bee Zee given it's an American aircraft, I approve of the Zed :)
Haha, the same thought did occur to me - it obviously rolls off the tongue more readily as a "zee".
I'd hate to say "zee" though and for the Queen to have to come and personally arrest me! : P
All the best! : )
Nice chose of music
Thank you sir! Glad you enjoyed it : )
All the best!
I hated these type of planes... Even t6 Texan has huge circular cowling and engine cover...
So freaking hard to land in crosswind bcoZ of visibility and heavy front end, very easy to lose traction in rear wheel and spin 😑
Great landing by you 👍
Haha, I love the Texan! Did a whole around the world trip in it actually haha.
The T6 certainly has its quirks (and does take some getting used to), but it is a complete baby compared to this thing : P
Thanks as always! : )
Great review 👍🏻 how did you remove the canopy on the GeeBee Z ?
My question too???
Thanks very much Thijs, glad you enjoyed it!
Apologies for the slow reply. You may well have figured it out now; but you can remove the canopy by clicking on its lower frame, right in front of the pilots viewpoint essentially.
I hope that helps! All the best : )
Hi EW,
Hopefully my reply to Thijs is of some help : )
Cheers!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations No I still hadn't figured it out yet because I stopped flying that plane as soon as all 4 of those Carenado planes on xbox came out this weekend and I bought all 4 of them and had a great time with them so now I will go back to the GeeBee and see if I can open that canopy. Thank you for the information!
How do you remove the canopy in the Z variant? I've looked all around the cabin for a switch/lever, but haven't found it.
Hi Erik,
If you click on the lower rim of the canopy, right in front of the pilot, the canopy will be removed for you : )
Hope that helps. All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Thank you, kind sir!
You’re most welcome! : )
I believe that one’s hard to fly not for me. Looks like you enjoyed it though.
LOL the flying is the easy part, it's the colliding with the earth part that gets you.
It's a bit of a tricky monster to say the least! Fun for sure, but probably not one you're going to be taking out for a relaxing cruise, unwinding after a tough day XD
Cheers! : )
Haha, in this case very much so! It's not a bad little aircraft to fly, so long as you don't try and put it anywhere near the ground XD
That can tend to become quite inconvenient after a little while though. . .
So I've had quite a bit of fun with this plane, and Fair or unfair, I don't hold other devs to Carenado standards on the modeling and texturing, and I don't hold Carenado to MilViz / A2A / JustFlight standards on the flight model and systems depth. But I can't help but be a little disappointed that the only differences between the planes are cosmetic.
My suspicion is that Carenado modeled them on the existing replicas rather than the actual Gee Bees, so that may be a good excuse for the lack of historicity, but there were huge differences between the actual Z and R-2. The Z was the first model, and had a 535 hp Wasp Jr. and would cruise at 200 kts and top out at 230 kts. This matches the performance of the Carenado planes. But the R-1 (and original R-2) had an 800 hp Wasp and cruised at 225 kts and topped out at 256 kts. These speeds are accurately reflected, albeit in MPH, on the green and yellow bands of the R-2's airspeed indicator, but if you actually test it in the sim, it's performance turns out to be identical to the Z. Another missed opportunity is that the R-2 was eventually upgraded with some pretty clever two-hinge flaps designed by the Granville Bros. and made it MUCH more manageable on landing, as they reduced approach speed to 60 kts.
As to the flight model in general, I find the left turning tendency persuasive - big radial, lots of torque - but I'm not sure whether or not the right-turning backlash seems more like a typical MSFS / Carenado quirk. I'm trying to persuade myself that it is some kind of torque induced ground loop but honestly it just feels like the same problem I've seen on a lot of MSFS tail draggers, only worse. On the plus side, both GBs have some of the most aggressive wing loading issues of any plane in the sim. A lot of MSFS planes won't even perform an accelerated stall, and instead just wallow or oscillate even in a steep bank with no power. Not so with the GB. You start getting stall buffeting as soon as you turn, and will absolutely fall out of the sky if you don't maintain power in the turns, which is realistic to the original aircraft, that were designed for pylon racing and thus making turns at more or less full power.
I do believe that the Z is actually modeled on the Rocketeer replica that is now in the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which isn't precisely true to life. The wing span is wider to reduce the flutter induced at high speeds that caused a lot of the GeeBee crashes. The original Z was destroyed in a spectacular crash that was one of the first airplane racing crashes captured on film, and was played in news reels all around the country, and you can see it here: th-cam.com/video/1KTyYVnSyq4/w-d-xo.html There is speculation that the gas cap (which you can see in the sim) came loose and crashed through the bubble canopy, incapacitating the pilot. That's why the R-2 has a much more conventional reinforced windscreen, and no gas cap on the top of the fuselage.
Haha, well your first statement is far too reasonable I'm afraid Austin - we all know that Carenado must be denigrated for anything they try and do (I jest, that seems to be prevalent attitude sometimes though)! XD
That is a shame about the identical flight models. The Gee Bee is an aircraft I know almost nothing about, but I was certainly expecting the two variants to perform differently and was a little bit surprised (but also not haha) when they didn't. On the one hand, for the price I wasn't expecting a lot but then again, bumping up the power a little bit etc wouldn't have been much work for them. . .
I'd wager that departure out to the right is typical MSFS behavior. I know these aircraft were known for their "tricky" handling characteristics and having now watched a couple of videos, you can see how skittish they are during the takeoff, but that takeoff handling feels pure MSFS. The sim clearly still has issues on that front, Carenado seem to struggle with it more than most AND they then went and made a big, beefy, stubby, radial-engined beast haha.
The wing loading behavior feels great though. I'm not sure how true to life it is, but it feels appropriate and I was pleasantly surprised when I was first caught out by it!
The Gee Bee obviously isn't an historically accurate masterpiece, but Carenado do a good enough job with their MSFS efforts to make them enjoyable (unlike some of the other historical machines we have seen in the sim).
Thanks very much as always for an informative and interesting post!
All the best : )
No idea if you'll answer since it's an old video but just wondering if the other aircraft you're tailing is another player or if this is part of an activity included with the aircraft?
Hello Aditya,
For this particular scene, I used a 3rd party recording tool, which can be found here:
flightsim.to/file/8163/flight-recorder
Amongst other things, you can record a flight in whichever aircraft you like and then play it back as an AI profile later on (results will vary). It’s a neat little trick and can be good fun.
I hope that helps. All the best! : )
i use bind tail lock for this demon, but as i understand it's a cheat, because you don't use it, because if tail lock would be possible you'd use it :)
Ahh, that’s a good little trick Einherz haha!
I’ve no idea whether the real aircraft has one or not, but I didn’t see any mention of it in the checklists, so I assumed not. . .
Cheers and all the best! : )
@@IntotheBlueSimulations after your video i take off and landing without lock the tail:)
all the best👍
The Rocketeer brought me here!
Wasn't a movie I had heard of before QB - I just googled it. Is it worth a watch then? : )
All the best!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations Definitely worth a watch!
@@IntotheBlueSimulations It's campy AF...pure 1990's cheese, but a 90s version of 1930's serial adventure series cheese. I absolutely adore it. It also has one of the greatest movie posters of all time. I made this little video a week ago, and used the soundtrack, which I also find to be quite good: th-cam.com/video/AsFW7XYYb6k/w-d-xo.html
Haha, sounds like it’s worth a watch then XD
Cheers!
PS. Found a little bit of time to dive into your vid - really enjoyed the music and left a like ; )
Haha, cheers bwc! I’ll try and find it when I get the chance then ; )
Me, staring at the manifold pressure gauge: IDK buddy the RPM doesn't look like it's changing to me.
The aircraft does have a constant-speed prop Joe - you can see the needle hunting around a little bit as I adjust the power : )
Please don't add music to your videos. Totally destroys the immersion for me. No pilot flies with heavy metal blasting in the cockpit.
I absolutely loved it. It's not right for all videos, but it felt perfect in this one as he dropped down into the canyon!
I don't listen to heavy metal all the time but once in a while I like to listen to it when I'm flying and I was a pilot in the Air Force back in the eighties.
Hi Kenneth,
I'm afraid that's not a promise I would be willing to make. I certainly take your point and I know the addition of music isn't for everyone, but I like to try and mix things up a little every now and then and personally I felt it worked quite well here. I very rarely add music into the actual flying scenes of my videos (this may even be the first time I have done it) and I wouldn't ever do it for a more "serious" video; but here, blasting down a canyon in a Gee Bee - it was all about having some fun! ; )
I thank you for your feedback though (genuinely). As I say, it won't be an issue in videos too often I can assure you.
Cheers and all the best! : )
I'm glad you enjoyed it Josh! As you say, I think it went quite well with the vibe as we headed into the canyon : )
Cheers!
Oooo, Air Force, in the 80's. . . what were you flying (if you don't mind me asking), it's almost certain to have been something good? ; )
Cheers!