As we prepared for our first trip to Oshkosh, we were concerned with preparing the airplane to live outside for a while. This involved making plugs for the air intakes, weather stripping the windows and doors, and coming up with a way to hold the flaps in the retracted position. Since the Bearhawk uses one-way…
Category: Wings, Flaps, and Ailerons
Anything that attaches to the wings except the fuselage
Compass Module Direction Swap
I’m back to working solo today. I started by making some extensions for the rear seat center seatbelts. I used 1/8″ 4130 to make little dog-bones, which would move the attach bolt outward by 1″. Then I cut a piece of tubing that was as long as the attach bracket in the seat structure. I…
More Odds and Ends
Today we worked more on the odds and ends. Dad installed seatbelts while I took the stainless tunnel under the boot cowl off. This part was vibrating when the engine ran, so I adhered a piece of 1/4″ thick closed-cell foam to try and dampen the vibrations. The rear seat belts have fairly large fittings…
Engine Adjustments
It has been really helpful having my dad in town to help with these final preparations. Today we drilled holes in the outboard aft corner of each fuel bay hatch. These holes will allow the fuel to drain more readily if the tanks begin to vent like they did yesterday. I also added the labels…
Filling the Fuel Tanks
This morning dad came out to help again, and we finished up the wing root fairings. I used pliobond to attach velcro to the fuselage tubes in the area where the back cabin bulkhead attaches. I noticed a very small oil leak around the prop governor control head, and a few days ago I ordered…
Final Tech Counselor Visit
Today my dad and I worked on shortening the list of final things to do. We started with installing the top wing root fairings, which I designed to use nuts. Nutplates would have made the work a one-person job, but since these will only come off when the wings come off, I figured that the…
Rigging the Ailerons
I started to set up the ailerons for their final rigging, and realized that when I routed the cables yesterday, the ends at the turnbuckles were twisted and not quite right. This made the cables about 1/2″ too long, but I was able to correct this by carefully removing the nicopress, shortening the cables, and…
MLG Width Adjustment
After a few days of work at my regular job, I was glad to get back to Bearhawk preparations. I installed batteries in the ELT and armed it. I set up to make the adjustments to the landing gear width as instructed by Bob. First, I tied a rope around the bottom of one axle,…
Adding Oil to the Engine
While I wait for the new aileron cable to come in, I removed the old cables and used one of the front cables to make a replacement for the left rear. This will allow me to get the flaps on. Doing more things like this helps increase the odds that I’ll find unforeseen errors. Fortunately…
Final Wing Bolt Torque
Today an order came in from Aircraft Spruce. When I ordered the new aileron cable, I ordered 3/32″ diameter instead of 1/8″. This was a frustrating mistake, but fortunately they are going to accept a return on the 3/32″. I installed the wing tiedown rings at the top of the wing strut, which required removing…
Pitot Tube
This morning I finished with installing the pitot tube, and connected the AOA and pitot lines. I installed the VHF comm antennas in the top of the wings, and secured the wires for the right side wing rooth. I finally connected the front left upper fuel line at the wing root, since it needed a…
Installing the Wings
The timing of this whole relocation effort has worked out pretty well. Tonight was the EAA meeting, so we made it a project visit. Before the meeting, I spent a few minutes checking out the cowl clearance problem, and installing the rigid tube portion of the engine breather line. Lots of folks came out to…
Installing the Ailerons
Back at our first hangar, I loaded up the flaps, ailerons, wingtips, and a few other things to move to our second hangar. I unloaded those things and started making the connections that had been waiting on the wings. I connected the flap cables and fuel lines, excepting the front left fuel line, which wasn’t…
Moving the Wings
After the harrowing fuselage move, we left town for a few days of vacation. Now that we are back, it’s time to move the wings. These should be easier to move than the fuselage. The process included taking each wing off of the rack and putting them on saw horses. Then we put the rack…
Installing the Exhaust
On the day that I was planning to leave to drive to Oshkosh, we got a huge amount of rain, and part of our driveway washed away. We had a big mess in the yard and lots of things to clean up, so I’ve lost a few weeks worth of building time. Today I was…
Horizontal Stab Fairings
Tabitha and Felicia came out to help today. We installed the new tubing in the sight gauges and reinstalled them. We deburred the previously-made wing root fairing for the right wing. The girls went home for supper while I stayed to make the root fairings for the horizontal stabilizer. They attach to the inboard rib…
Left Wingtip Fitting
Today I finished fitting the left wing tip. That involved installing the strobe power supply and the left aileron, then drilling with the hole duplicator strap. I countersunk the holes, which will also have special countersunk washers to help distribute the load on the relatively vulnerable fiberglass. I also sprayed flat black paint on the…
Fuel Tank Prep Continued
I needed to finish up a few more jobs before I could put the left tank back in. One was to install the Dynon OAT probe and reconnect the wires. Another was to get the end of the antenna lead sorted out. I have plans to mount an antenna on the left wing that will…
Clean and Reinstall Left Tank
This morning I set the tension on the elevator turnbuckles to 30 pounds and safety wired the buckles with the double-wrap method. I made some aluminum strips that will attach to the perimeter of the hole in the back of the cabin, which will give me a better surface to attach velcro to for the…
Reinstalling the Tail Pieces
Today was a fantastic productive day in the hangar. I started by applying a little bit of superfil to yesterday’s wingtip extension. That is really some great stuff. The jig holes in the nose ribs on the left wing were 1/4 inch. This was just enough room for the AOA lines to fit through the…
Wing Rotisserie Removal
Today I started early in the morning by rearranging things in the hangar. I made a pair of large saw horses to support one of my temporary work tables, which will free up the plastic factory-made saw horses for paint booth duty, and more immediately, support the left wing. With the rotisserie parts out of…
Striping for Blue
Since the boot cowl parts and door parts have their white paint in place, today I started laying out the stripes for the blue coat. In the case of the upper front windows, they didn’t get any white, since they will be all blue. I also started working on a mount for the pitot tube,…
Painting White
Today I sprayed white paint on the parts that I primed a week ago. I added to that pile the rear cargo door, front cargo door parts, and other window parts.
Priming Wingtips and More
Today I prepared for a big round of priming, which meant more fabrication on boot cowl parts. I drilled for nutplates, which I’ll rivet on after priming. I made a support ring for the rubber gasket that will seal the shock strut. On the left side, I extended that support forward several inches. This hatch…
Nutplates and Wingtips
Today I worked on the wingtips yet again. I have really made the whole wingtip process much harder than it needed to be. I added the nutplates back for overlap mounting, and reinstalled the strobe power supplies. I also added a bit of window screen to the lightening holes in the tip rib. I also…
Fairlead Pliers
I started re-installing the control cables today, and after a little bit of trying it became obvious that I was going to need to be able to get the fairlead clips on with the limited access that I had in the fuselage. I came up with the idea of modifying my snap ring pliers so…
Brake Lines and Blue Paint
Today was a marathon day in the hangar that spanned from 8:15am to 2:00am, with a break for lunch of course. Here’s a nice overview picture of the parts hanging from the ceiling, each protected from dust and over spray by a sheet of clear plastic. I started working on the inspection covers for the…
Preparing to Spray Blue
I spent a little while today getting ready to paint the blue portions of the left wing. I taped the rest of the white areas and it is ready to go.
Painting White on the Left Wing
Today was a good painting day, so that’s what I did. I was able to get the white paint on the left wing and flap.
Masking the Left Wing
I had a long weekend break and was able to get home for a few days. Tabitha came over to help install the inspection hole covers on the right wing. I measured the right wing’s tip and root sections so that I could transfer marks onto the left wing tip and root. Then I connected…
Priming the Left Wing
Yesterday’s high humidity complicated my painting plans, but I have to leave town for a while and wanted to get the wing primed before I left. This morning I got it all done in about 2 hours, which is much less time than it took me to prime the other wing.
Fuselage Plumbing
I was getting ready to prime the wing today, but it started raining. Instead I started routing the static line from the back of the fuselage up to the instrument panel. I also reinstalled the rest of the cabin fuel lines. I had originally planned to route the wires for the manifold pressure sender through…
More Wing Preparations
Today was a productive day with help from Jack and Vince. In the morning I put the casters back onto the wing rack in preparation for moving the right wing off of the rotisserie and on to the rack. Above you can see the left wing out in the sun. The problem with talking about…
Parking Brake Warning Light
Today I made a few software adjustments to try to get the EMS data to show up on the D100. I had to call Dynon for advice, and they pointed out that while the DSAB was working fine, I had to configure the default screens on the D100 to allow the EMS pages to come…
Another Round of Primer
The weather today was good enough for priming, and I finally have a big enough pile of parts ot make it worthwhile. I etched all of the parts and the instrument panel, then primed them. On the items that will need both sides painted, I only painted one side today.
Painting Little Parts
I’m taking advantage of this relatively warm weather to get as much painting done as possible. Today was a long but productive day that started with getting the ailerons and right flap safely stored in the ceiling. I covered those parts with plastic to protect them from dirt and overspray that might escape the booth….
Blue Paint for the Rudder
Today I moved the fuselage out of the paint booth. In the cool hours of the morning I finished drilling the rear cargo door skin holes to final size (#30) and prepared the rudder and right flap for painting this afternoon. I also have a new paint gun to try. The previous coats have been…
Making Tiedown Rings
I have always had some reservations about the durability of our Maule tailwheel, so when Georg was selling his lightly-used Bob-designed tailwheel for a good price, I was glad to buy it. Today I did a trial fit to the spring to make sure it would fit, then disassembled it. I’ll paint it white to…
Wingtip Prep
It was too cold to paint today, but I was able to work on preparations for the wingtips. I filed some of the filler off, and also cut out the aluminum skin on the front cargo door for its window.
Spraying White Parts
Here’s a picture of yesterday’s masking work: This afternoon I cleared out a few small parts to make room for the fuselage. Today’s parts include the main landing gear legs, shock struts, rudder, right flap, elevator trim pushrods, tailwire brackets, and the right hub cap.
Laying out Fin Stripes
Today we both came out so we could get the wing moved out of the paint booth. Then we spent a while laying out the white stripes that will go on the vertical stabilizer and rudder. We’re using Bob’s measurements so that our stripes will match his, but even with those measurements it was still…
Wing Blue Paint
Today was a fun day, removing the tapes from yesterday’s paint. It’s nice to see the two colors together with crisp lines. Tabitha and my dad both helped. We also removed the tapes from the fuselage, since I won’t be spraying any more silver.
Spraying Blue on the Right Wing
Today I carried on with the spraying theme. I put the new tapes on the top of the wing in the morning, and then wet sanded that second coat of Polyspray. Later in the day when the temperature was back up I sprayed the final coat of Polyspray, then sprayed the blue paint on the…
Second Coat of Polyspray
This afternoon I did a little bit more prep and sprayed the second coat of Polyspray on the fuselage, landing gear, rear seat back, scrap panel, and the patches on the tops of the horizontal stabilizer. I also removed the tapes from the right wing and started taping for the blue coat.
White Paint on the Right Wing
As promised, I added paper and masking tape to finish preparing the right wing for spraying. Then I sprayed the first of our Aerothane. I learned several things, some of which I’ll include here. First, I set up the fresh air box inside the hangar, near the HVLP turbine. This was acceptable, but it makes…
Wing Paint Prep
While the Polyspray is drying a little I worked on wing preparations. I built the left wing rotisserie so that I could get the wing off of the rack, and made a few parts for the pitot tube mount. I’ll see if I can get my friend Alan to weld the aluminum parts, since that…
Repairing the Small Iron
One downside of using model airplane irons to smooth covering imperfections is that they really aren’t designed for that kind of pressure. I’ve damaged a few of them now. This wooden handled iron failed right in the very thin spot where the shoe top joins the handle. To reinforce that area, I brazed in a…
Priming the Right Wing
This morning I added some fabric tapes to the right side of the fuselage, then prepared for a round of priming. Since we have a complicated striping pattern, I’m priming the access hole covers now, so that we can apply the top coats with them in place.
Wing Masking
Since I’m not planning to paint the wing root, tip, or trailing edge areas, I added some masking paper and tape to block them off. I finished the metal prep on the top of the wing: Then I moved it into the paint booth with some help from Tabitha, Danny, and Jeff. I finished the…
Wing Preparation
Today I continued with paint prep for the right wing, while Tabitha worked on more fuselage taping.
Wing Rotisserie Continued
Today we were both back out at the hangar. Tabitha continued with adding tapes to the fuselage, while I continued with getting the right wing onto the rotisserie. Here’s what one end of the rotisserie looks like. The double 2x4s stick into the wing by at least two center ribs to spread out the load….
Wing Rotisserie
Tabitha came out today to help get the right wing ready to go on the rotisserie. That involved riveting the tip rib back onto the skin, since I recently drilled those rivets out to remove the flush mounting strip. My strategy for getting the wing onto the rotisserie was to start with it on sawhorses….
Wing Repair Continued
Picking up where I left off last time, I finished the wing repair While I had the air drill over on that side of the hangar, I also removed the metal strip that I had installed in the wing tip to allow for flush mounting of the fiberglass tips. At this point it just makes…
More Priming
I went out today to touch up a few more paint spots, but when I reached for an unopened can of catalyst I was surprised to find it was empty! Unfortunately it leaked sometime in the past couple of years, so I’ll have to take a break from painting until I can get more. Instead…
Wingtip Light Mount
I stopped by today for one more measurement to make sure that the landing gear alignment is within tolerance, and it is. I cleaned up the hangar in preparation for round 2 of sandblasting, and applied a coat of smurf extract to the right wingtip position light mount and the stringer that required a relief…
Taking it All Apart
My last session in the shop included putting almost all of the parts on the airplane, and my last entry here included flying in Dave’s Bearhawk. From those two highs, it’s time to carry on with progress and see a few lows. First I dug through my tubing scraps and was pleased to find one…
Antenna Planning
I was only out for a little while today, but I cleaned up the hangar and measured for a few of the coax cables. I was planning to use RG-58, but it turns out that some of the low-cost cable that I found wasn’t very good quality. Additionally, Bob Nuckolls has a pretty good deal…
Preliminary Control Rigging
With the flap cables in place, I was able to work on adjusting the flap rigging. I adjusted the pushrods until the flaps came up to zero degrees under spring tension. I started to adjust the aileron cables and realized that my loop is just a little bit too short, and I’ll need to make…
Oil Cooler Lines
A few days ago when I finally got the right oil filter installed, it became pretty obvious that the straight AN fitting that I was going to use for the oil cooler line wasn’t going to clear the filter. I swapped it out for a 45-degree nipple instead, which works much better. I made the…
Control Cables and Fuel Lines
In the last entry I mentioned that the lower right fuel line was going to need an extension. This morning I added that extension and made a line from the fuel valve to the gascolator. Next I routed the upper flap cables, made new rudder cables, and routed the elevator trim cable. It became immediately…
Flap Cables
Today was a brief session, but I was able to drill the left flap tube up to the final 3/16″ size for both bolts. I measured the length for the upper flap cables and made both of those, and started on the latest rework of the left aft fuel line that runs from the tank…
Aileron Cable Turnbuckle
I noticed that the turnbuckles that come in the Wicks hardware kit (or at least, the ones that came in ours) are all the same. They have a pin eye on one end and a cable eye on the other. In all but one of the cases on this airplane, that’s exactly what is needed….
Flap Shackle Bushings
Today I welded more on the oil cooler support tube. I made a nice little foot on the end that should help distribute the force and vibration. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the flap cable terminates at the torque tube in an interesting way. Bob specified a shackle with a 1/4″ hole, but…
Drilling the Flap Tube
Yesterday I installed the oil filter adapter, but didn’t have a socket big enough for the vernatherm. Today I have the socket, so I torqued it to specs and installed safety wire. I welded the aft end of the brace tube for the oil cooler, which will go between the engine case above the number…
Aileron Control Cables
This morning I finished replacing the last of the hinge bolts for rivets. I made the aft aileron cable, which goes across the back of the cabin. When I made it, I put the turnbuckle right in the middle. This turned out to be a mistake- I should have put it off to one side…
Improving the Nicopress Crimpers
After some consultation with more experienced builders, I found what part of the problem with my cheap nicopress tool is. If you look at this picture, you’ll probably see it too: The outermost contact point on the inside of the jaws is too big. That’s making an air gap between the contact points at the…
Checking the Wings
Last time I set the big rivets in one of the aileron hinges. I started out today by polishing the faces of my hammers so that I could do the same job without leaving any marks on the shop heads of the rivets. I started at the belt sander, removing enough material to get a…
Aileron Hinges
The aileron and flap hinges are made from rod ends that are attached to steel tube structures, which are bolted to the wings. Eagle-eyed John Wigney was visiting our hangar last spring and pointed out that the plans call for 5/23″ rivets in that joint, but our previous builder had 3/16″ installed bolts instead. After…
Aft Wing Root Fairing
As I mentioned yesterday, the aft portion of the wing root fairing is the most difficult to make. One challenge is that the must intersect the fabric, which isn’t on the airplane yet. I used contact paper to simulate the fabric: This allowed me to mark and trim the inboard side of that fairing and…
Wing Root Fairings
2012 is going to be the year of fairings. And hopefully the year that we fly this airplane! Today was a step in the right direction, with a few advances in the nebulous realm of “90% to go.” Fairings are some of the little parts that have to be made, but yet standing next to…
Dynon Remote Compass Sensors
Today I spent a few hours of my birthday doing one of my favorite things, building airplanes. While I had the airplane leveled for wing measurements, I installed the Dynon compass sensors. The Dynon instructions say that the compass sensors and the D100-series units should be aligned within one degree or better. I’m using two…
Checking Wing Alignment
I started off with what has become a bit of a hangar ritual, sanding the fiberglass parts and adding more filler. It’s looking better, but still needs more work. We didn’t drill our wing attachment points, since our project’s previous owner already had. I wanted to be sure that the wings were lined up correctly-…
Landing Light Bracket
This morning I sprayed the last coat of polyspray on the flaps, ailerons, and rudder. I came back to the hangar after lunch to debur the left door skin and start making the landing light bracket. For a while I wasn’t sure if I was even going to install a landing light. It certainly isn’t…
Covering Continued
I only had a few minutes to work today, but I was able to finish preparing the control surfaces for their next coat of Polyspray.
Spraying Silver
This morning I sprayed the last coat of Polybrush on the parts. I cleaned up the fuel flow sensor that I wrote about in the last entry: This evening I sprayed the first coats of the silver poly-spray on the parts.
Spraying Continued
I’ve been on the fence about wanting to install a fuel flow sensor. Eric Newton found that he wasn’t able to get the required fuel flow when he had the sensor installed. I asked him for more details about that while we were at Oshkosh, and he said that when he took the sensor out…
Covering Spray
Our seats are at the upholsterer, so I need to hurry up and finish the headrests. I cut out some 8×8 .032 aluminum squares to use as the face and top. I used the bench grinder to remove some of the larger bits of the weld bead from the exhaust pipe. Since the temperature has…
Making Exhaust Pipes
Making Exhaust Pipes This morning I finished the heat smoothing on the last flap, so now those parts are ready to spray. While I was thinking about it, I also made a couple of cable guards for the flap cable pulleys. These are the final pulleys before the flap cable ends at the torque tube….
Finish FAB Assembly
I attached the steel (alloy?) reinforcing ring on the bottom of the FAB, and used a little bit of high-temp silicone to make an airtight seal. The weather was nice so I also did a bit more covering work. I brushed the tapes on the right aileron, whch gave the RTV a little time to…
Taping Right Aileron
This morning I applied the tapes to the right aileron.
Right Aileron Stitching
This morning I layed out the rib stitches for the right aileron, applied them, and drew the layout lines for the reinforcing tapes.
Right Aileron Covering
Right Aileron Covering Today was a good covering day, so that’s what I did. The first step, as with the other primed control surfaces, was to wet-sand the outer surfaces to smooth the paint. Then I carefully cleaned off two years (at least) worth of dust and spider webs. Next I applied reinforcing tape to…
Dynon Compass Module
I had to start by removing the carburetor this morning. This will give me plenty of room to work on the lower cowling pieces. I started preparing the sheets for the bottom. I think I’m going to start from the top and wrap them around, making the middle cut last. I took a break from…
Covering and Baffles
Tabitha came out today and resumed work on the left aileron. She finished up the tapes and applied the top coat of polybrush. We both worked on that for a while, then I started trimming the baffles to clear the cowling pieces.
Antenna Mounting
6/21 1015 ground shields, drill left com antenna, add tab to tail post 1235 2.4 hours This morning I connected the rest of the audio shields to each other. I didn’t have any of the one-ended crimp-on terminals so I just used one half of a yellow crimp-on splice. I found a good spot for…
Wiring and Covering
Tabitha came out today to help with the covering. She drew the pencil lines for the right aileron tapes while I worked on more wiring stuff. I installed the bracket for the HS34, which was far more difficult than it should have been. For some reason Dynon pre-drilled the mounting holes. This means that I…
Covering Ailerons
The weather is starting to get warmer, so I’m starting earlier and finishing later. Today I recoated the tapes on the right flap. Now it is ready for smoothing I added the rest of the fabric to the left aileron: And used the iron to shrink the fabric: Then applied the first coat of poly-brush…
Rib Stitching
This morning I stitched the ribs on the right flap and layed out the tapes with pencil lines. After lunch I used the iron to smooth the left flap, added tapes to the right, and started covering the left aileron by cementing the sides in place.
Parking Brake Adjustments
Today I made a bracket for the parking brake valve. This will support the end of the cable. I installed a cable control and found that I had a bit of a problem- it was backwards. I definitely want for the cable to be pushed forward when the parking brake is released, but in my…
EAA Chapter 309 Visit
This evening the EAA chapter from Charlotte came up for a project visit. I’m a member of the Charlotte chapter too, and I was glad to have so many folks drive so far to see our Bearhawk. It’s always great fun to talk about our project with other airplane builders, and of course the pizza…
Taping Wing Surfaces
Today I finished the taping on the left flap. I used the gallon can as a template for making a round patch. I brushed the first coat of polybrush on the right flap and added the rib reinforcements. Next step is stitching. I also finished the wiring for the strobe and position lights, and next…
Covering Continued
Here’s another short entry for a few hours of work. I cemented the fabric onto the right flap, finished stitching the left, laid out the lines for taping on the left, brushed on the taping precoat, and shrank the right flap. See what I mean about this being pleasantly monotonous?
Covering the Flaps
Today was almost all covering work. The great thing about covering is that I have very little “thinking” time. With wiring I work a while and think a while. With covering, I walk in, pick up where I left off, and work until something needs to dry. It’s therapeutic in the sense that it requires…
Flap and Aileron Covering
I’ve been busy with work and that sort of stuff for a little while but I was glad to get back into the shop today. I started at lunch time, took a break for dinner, and finally left at 1:10am! I covered the left flap, starting with the ends: Then the rest, all in one…
Flap Trailing Edge
This morning I used the irons to smooth the rudder and prepare it for spraying. I’ll wait until the flaps and ailerons are done before I start spraying, since that process is better suited for larger lots. Speaking of the flaps, I started on those today too. I put the left flap and aileron on…
Wing Wiring
Today I finished wiring the D100. The last step was to splice together the DSAB wires, which are the wires that allow the three Dynon units to communicate with one another. I also started working on the wires that run through the wing conduit. I realized that I need to order more cable for the…
Aileron Balance and Wiring
Today I had a visit from fellow Bearhawk Builder John Rheney. It was great to have him stop by, since most of my visitors are not Bearhawk builders. We were able to talk about several of the special challenges and hard decisions in the building process. My Aircraft Spruce order from Sun-n-Fun arrived, and I…
Battery Bus & P-Leads
Today I continued with more wiring. I finished the SD-8 ammeter wiring that I started yesterday, and made a cable for the starter: I found a covered fuse block to use for the battery bus. Since it is on the engine side of the firewall I was worried about an uncovered block getting dirty. The…
Wire Routing
I started out today by putting the control sticks back in. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the left stick that will allow the push-to-talk switch to fit through. Next I attacked the 0.025″ aluminum panel that I’ve spent the last few days making. I didn’t weigh it before and after, but hopefully…
Window Planning
Tabitha came out today and we did some planning for the windows. With the top of the fuselage uncovered it was hard to realize how dark the back seat area would be with small windows. So we used a few blankets and such that we had around to serve the role of the covering material….