I’ve been having some GPS problems that I suspect might be related to the box getting hot. The first step was to install a vent in the boot cowl up above the stack, but that didn’t seem to help. After considering options like fans and extra exterior vents like Cessna did for a while, the…
Category: Cabin and Cockpit
Work in the Cabin and Cockpit
Exchanging the Flightcom 403b Intercom for the PSEngineering PM3000
One of the complaints that I have had from the start with our airplane is the inadequate audio system. This is no surprise, since the audio system was one that I understood the least about, and it was the most difficult to integrate. Further complications came from our project coming with the Flightcom intercom already,…
Weather Stripping
This morning I added some weather stripping to the cabin doors. I also installed small rivets on either side of the front window latches, as Eric Newton did. Hopefully these will keep the window from coming open on its own. I also endorsed the logbooks with all of the required endorsements. Now it’s just a…
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…
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…
Moving the Fuselage to HKY
Our little airport is going to be a great place to base our Bearhawk, in part because it is really close to the house. It’s a small airport though, and not really well suited for a safe first flight. As such, the plan has been to move the airplane to the municipal airport about 5…
Instrument Panel Labels
Since the roof and skylight materials are done, it’s time to get the windshield in place for good. I used the felt tape that came with the windshield to pad the bottom. The left and right post fairings worked pretty well, and the fiberglass fairing fits nicely. I used a bead of Lexel to try…
Doors and Locks
I made a little bit more progress this morning on the rubber seals for the front baffles. I decided to make an attachment for the horizontal portion of the front baffles that starts on the nosebowl, allowing the rubber to extend to the aluminum portion of the baffle and float freely there. So far I…
Pulling Off Tapes
This morning I stopped by to pull off the blue tapes and make sure that I didn’t have any problems to clear up. I had a few spots to clean up, but since the paint is so fresh, it was not entirely crosslinked and MEK wiped it off well.
Removing Tapes
Today I made a quick visit to remove the masking tapes from the door and window frames. I wanted to be sure that there weren’t any other peeling problems with those parts, and to minimize the time that the masking tape and papers were on the polycarbonate. Everything looks good.
Painting the Last White
Before painting time I worked on two dangling firewall forward tasks. The firs twas to make a support for the tailpipe where it passes under the firewall. This is totally made up by me, so it may not work. I started with a few inches of angle aluminum. Two holes are matched to the holes…
Preparing for White Paint
The primed parts are still in the booth from the last session, but I have a few that are due for white paint but not primer. Today I prepped those so that I’ll be ready to paint in one batch. These parts included the front door and window assemblies that peeled due to inadequate abrasion…
Skylight and Cowling
I had some help today from Tabitha and her dad. They started making the plates that will go on either side of the new VHF nav antenna. These plates are basically the same as round inspection covers, except that they have a slot in the middle to clear the antenna puck. While they did that,…
Boot Cowl Rivets Continued
I’ve noticed that the control sticks have a little bit of play around the fore-aft aligned bolts that they pivot on. I thought it would be worth trying to correct this, and after considering several options, the most viable seemed to be to enlarge the hole slightly and use a specially-made bolt of a larger…
Boot Cowl Riveting
Yesterday’s black paint was dry, so I riveted on the windshield support angles. I reinstalled the now complete boot cowl pieces and riveted the front. Since those front rivets are through the firewall flange, they are very easy to get to for squeezing. The back rivets are a little bit more difficult, so I’ll do…
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…
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…
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,…
Reassembling the Front Seats
This afternoon I reassembled the front seats, and changed the routing of the transponder antenna feed. When I was routing it last time, I had forgotten that I’d already drilled a hole for the antenna, which the old routing didn’t reach.
Door Assembly
Yesterday’s painting included several door parts, so today I riveted the front cargo door together. I prepared the lower front doors and rear cargo door for their exterior white paint, with the interior paint already having been applied.
Pieces to Bend
I thought of a few more pieces to bend, and I’m planning to make a visit to another bending brake soon. I stopped by today to cut them out.
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…
Final Boot Cowl Continued
This morning I started by drilling the holes in the lower boot cowl and belly panels to final size. I cut out some new aluminum for the roof, and the strips that will retain the left rear window. I drilled the holes in the firewall station of the boot cowl (and the firewall flange) to…
Roof and Boot Cowl
I started off today by finishing the bend that I started yesterday. I only bent the roof piece to about 90 degrees on the brake, because that was all it would do. This morning I used the dead blow hammer to bend it the rest of the way over. Unfortunately, it’s too short. When I…
Bending the Roof
Today was a quick stop by the airport in Lincolnton to borrow a friends bending brake. I bent the roof piece over to about 90 degrees on the way back from work. There was a bit of confusion initially, as my mechanic friend wasn’t there. His boss was, and when I confirmed that it would…
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…
Making Windows
Today I continued work on the lower right door, and assembled the frame to the skin with the Makrolon in between. I cut out the blanks for the skylights and drilled holes in those pieces. I mentioned last time that I needed to get another bolt for the carb/airbox attachment, and today I brought the…
Straggling Wires
Today was a day of rounding up loose ends. I finished bundling the wires aft of the firewall, and made a few more connections forward of the firewall. I installed the weather pack connector in the landing light wires that will allow for easier removal of the cowl. I also connected the oil pressure wire….
Bundling and Securing
I’ve done enough wire tying today to make the sides of my index fingers sore. I started with adding cotter pins to the brake cylinders in the cabin. Then I installed back shells on the instrument panel connectors that didn’t already have them. I added a few more nutplates to the boot cowl area. I…
Engine Installation Again
I picked up where I left off yesterday by continuing with engine preparations. I added safety wire to the bottom of the baffles, to hold the front and back curved sections inward. I also added safety wire to the oil filter, tachometer drive cap, and oil pressure relief valve. Then I reinstalled the engine and…
Engine Preparations
As I prepare to put the engine on for what will hopefully be the last time before we fly, I took advantage of the easy access of having it on the lift to finish up a few jobs. One was to install the oil line that will run from the prop governor to the fitting…
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…
ANR Headset Jacks
I’m glad to be back in town for a few days and am looking forward to lots of hours in the hangar. Today was a good start. I started taping the left wing for the upcoming blue paint. I also installed LEMO ANR headset jacks on the panel, since they came in from Bose. I…
Final Wiring
Today was a short day, but I was only in town for a little while. I had to order more wire to use for the aft SAE jack and the landing light, and since those wires arrived while I was gone, I started routing them today. There are only a handful of wires left to…
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…
Audio Problem Finally Resolved
Today was a good day for progress- I finally got to the bottom of the last audio problem. I isolated all of the inputs from the audio amp except for the music, which works fine. The circuit is designed to use resistors to control the volume level of each channel. I gathered from the directions…
Audio Troubleshooting Still
The results of yesterday’s ground problem correction were good. Everything in the system works except for the channels that go through the iso amp. I took a break from troubleshooting to install the aft 12v SAE jack, and run a few cabin wires. I installed the dimmer for the instrument panel flood lights. The dimmer…
Audio Troubleshooting Continued
The audio problem still continues. The good news is that today I have a better troubleshooting plan, thanks to the AeroElectric list. The most frustrating thing about this problem was that I just didn’t have a good plan for how to isolate the problem. One list member suggested pulling all of the pins out of…
Instrument Label Planning
This evening Tabitha and I both came out to the hangar so that she could see how the panel is coming together. We worked some on making a list of labels that we’ll need for the panel. I plan to use a label printer that we have on hand, at least at first. We may…
Audio Troubleshooting
Today the audio troubleshooting continues. First I swapped the power supply. My fancy battery charger has a “power supply” mode, so I had been using that for test power. Just in case that was related to the audio problem, I installed a temporary SLVA battery and tested again, with no change in results. I tried…
Spraying Blue on the Tail Pieces
This afternoon I was able to get the correct combination of software, drivers, and cables to update the firmware on the Dynons. The D100 had been in service before, so it was only a few versions old. The D180 was factory new, and the firmware was very old. I also updated the HS34. Then I…
Reinstall Intercom
I was feeling pretty good about my wiring, right up until I hooked up the intercom. All of the audio is just really weak. I did a little bit of troubleshooting before tabling that problem, pending more research. I installed the aft dome light, which will be able to serve either the baggage area or…
Powering Up the Avionics
I started today by preparing and painting the tailwheel spring. I suspect that the paint will be somewhat short-lived on this part, but if it starts to come off, I’ll just paint it again. I cleaned off the light surface corrosion and applied a flat black rustoleum. All of the tailwheel parts were ready to…
Painting White Pieces
This afternoon my Mom was in town again, so she helped by adding the masking paper to tail pieces. I use 3M fineline tape to mark the final edge, and then use regular cheap masking tape to hold masking paper onto that tape. It can be a little bit confusing sometimes to make sure that…
Rudder Pedal Changes
Yesterday’s efforts to strip the tailwheel fork were not fruitful. The abrasive that I was using was too fine and the coating was too tough. Today I was able to remove it with the die grinder and a scotchbrite wheel. I had previously painted the rudder pedal assembly, and while it turned out quite nicely,…
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.
Still More Fuselage Reassembly
Today I tied up a few more loose ends of wires. I started with the ELT remote. The remote uses a cable that looks just like a phone line. I wanted to shorten it, so I clipped off the old end several months ago. This also made it much easier to fish the cable through…
Fuselage Reassembly Continued
It’s nice to have enough painting done so that I can start putting things together again. This morning I started with the firewall. When I painted the fuselage, I just balled up the wiring and wrapped it in a plastic bag. Today I untangled that big ball and started reconnecting the connections on the firewall….
Reinstalling the Landing Gear
This morning I used a little bit of fuel in a steel bowl to clean the old grease out of the wheel bearings. Then I packed them with fresh Aeroshell grease and put the wheels back together. While I had the wheels in my hand, I checked to be sure that they would fit in…
Preparing for Landing Gear Assembly
This afternoon I finished assembling the cargo door latch that I started yesterday. I also made a little aluminum plate that will cover the center of the mechanism, hopefully reducing the odds of getting a finger caught in there on a cold and windy night somewhere. Then I drilled the holes in the front cargo…
Assembling Parts
One important mental changeover is switching from a temporary assembly mode to a more permanent assembly mode. In the past, I knew that anything that I put together was going to have to come apart again. Now I’m starting to assemble some parts that will probably be together until at least the first flight. Today…
Spraying the Interior
I’m thankful for being able to spend some serious hours in the shop this month. Today was a good painting day, at least in the afternoon, so I spent the morning wrapping up a few more prep tasks on the fuselage interior. I couldn’t come up with an easy way to mask the floor area….
Prepping the Interior
The fuselage paint has had plenty of time to crosslink, so today I started masking so that I can spray the interior. I didn’t spray it back when I was spraying the white on the outside of the fuselage, in part because we hadn’t decided on the interior color. In retrospect it would have been…
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…
Door Frame Preparations
It has been too cold to paint, and I haven’t been spending many hours in the hangar. Today I finished cleaning up the tiedown rings, and started drilling the door skins and frames to final size. They were all drilled to #40, but I’m planning to use 1/8″ rivets to hold the skins on the…
Fuselage Blue Prep
Today I removed the masking tapes from the fuselage, and started adding paper to the front end of the fuselage for the upcoming blue painting. Here’s the result of the taping:
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.
Polyspray on the Fuselage
This morning Tabitha came out to help with laying out the masking tapes on the right wing. We are planning to only paint the areas that are going to show, so instead of painting the whole wing white and then masking off the blue areas, we’re going to mask off the white areas, spray white,…
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…
Last Polybrush
The pile of empty cans is getting bigger and the pile of full cans is getting smaller! Today I did a little bit of touch up ironing and sprayed what will hopefully be the last of the Polybrush on the fuselage and landing gear.
Spraying the Fuselage
This afternoon I finished the last bit of heat smoothing in the interior. I had to add a little bit more reinforcing tape to one spot on the left side of the cabin where the large window is. That’s a complicated transition and a seam in the fabric makes it more complicated than it should…
Interior Smoothing
I only had a few minutes to work today, but I was able to finish the smoothing on most of the interior. All that remains is the left side of the baggage area.
Fuselage Smoothing
Today I finished heat-smoothing the exterior of the fuselage and one side of the interior. I found that the iron shoe was getting pretty gummy with baked-on Polybrush, so much so that MEK wasn’t really getting it off. The green scotchbrite pad in the die grinder worked pretty well though, and left behind a nice…
Still More Fuselage Tapes
A full day of adding fabric reinforcing tapes to the fuselage has just about finished that process. I have just a few left to do. After applying the last of the 1″ wide reinforcing tapes, this is how much I had left on the roll.
Visitor Day
I hadn’t planned to have so many visitors today, but it sure was nice! I started out early in the morning with the rest of the remaining fuselage cementing. Skip stopped by in his Kitfox and visited for a little while. I had sent a message out to our EAA chapter members to invite folks…
Still More Cementing
The new can of cement came in so Tabitha and I resumed our covering. While Tabitha finished the fuselage edges I started to prepare the horizontal stabilizer for a new patch. This was an area that I’ve patched before, but needed to patch again after grinding off the sharp edge on the elevator trim mechanism….
Cementing Continued
This covering stuff takes a while! Today I worked until I ran out of cement (two quarts so far in the project). I installed a piece on the lower right side under the cargo door. Since I’ll have to order more cement, I spent time today to make sure I have enough reinforcing tapes too.
Fuselage Covering
This morning I finished cementing the belly fabric in place. I shrank the fabric to 225 degrees and it looks much better. With the distractions of the rest of the fuselage hidden by the fabric, I see that the stringers aren’t quite straight. I probably managed to bend the standoffs a little while handling the…
Shrinking Interior Covering
I started off by installing those two remaining triangles in the cabin area roof. Those were the last pieces of the interior, so I started shrinking those areas to make sure that it was all going to work. I didn’t shrink the ceiling pieces yet, since they aren’t stitched. Next I started cementing the belly…
Anti-Chafe Tape
There are a few more things that I need to have done before we can start covering. For example, the lower fuel lines that cross under the front door sills need to be in place. I installed those lines and added a nutplate for a clamp that will support the right rear vertical line. With…
Covering Prep
This morning I mixed up a batch of epoxy, which I used to laminate a strip of unidirectional carbon fiber to the inside of the wingtip. Hopefully this will keep the scalloping down. I also used the epoxy to secure the wooden ribs to the vertical stabilizer steel rib. Here are a few more nutplates…
Priming Small Parts
The new can of catalyst arrived today, but I couldn’t get the top off. The neck broke free from the can and was spinning with the lid. I poked a hole in the cap and forced the cap and neck off in one piece. I had a clean empty can from another product and was…
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…
Sand Blasting
We had a great time at Oshkosh as usual. We saw several old friends and met new ones too. It was hot, as you can see in this picture: I found a great deal on a set of Cessna style wheel pants. I’ll have to make the inboard brackets, but that shouldn’t be too hard….
More Disassembly
Today I carried on with the disassembly, in a marathon building session that would indicate that Tabitha is out of town. I took out the control sticks, elevator bellcrank, rudder pedals, headset wires, and other things like that. The wiring was going to be too much trouble to take out completely, so I just balled…
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…
Photo Session
This morning I reinstalled all of the sheet metal on the front end, especially the tunnel and lower boot cowl. This is all part of the plan to make sure that I don’t have any interference problems. With those parts and the cowl on, I rolled the airplane outside for a few photos. It looks…
Adjust Seatbelts
I found a great deal on a set of seatbelts on eBay. These are military surplus Amsafe units that were stocked by the military for off road vehicles. These are almost the same as the ones that I use in airliners, with the only difference being that these don’t have a release option for the…
Seatbelt Tabs
This morning I made and installed some mounting tabs for the front seat belt crotch straps. I used 1/8 inch 4130 steel. I removed much of the metal to save weight. I had a hard time coming up with a good mounting method that would put everything in the right place. This is the best…
Final Fuel Lines
Tonight I finished making the last of the fuel lines, hopefully for the last time. I put the stainless steel tunnel in place and it looks like it just barely touches the fuel valve: I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to try to make a bump in the tunnel or try to secure the…
Fabric Aft Cabin Bulkhead
Back when we picked up the seats we had Russell save us a yard or so of the tweed fabric that he used. This will make a fabric version of the aft bulkhead, which will be lighter and quieter than the current aluminum version. My mom was in town to visit, so we put her…
Measuring for the Seatbelts
Now that the seats are in I was able to measure how long our seatbelts will need to be. I used the form from the Aero Tuff website. A few entries ago I made the oil cooler lines. Today I applied some high-temp RTV to the ends to help keep the oil and debris out….
Installing the Seats
I only had a few minutes free today, but I had to take out the seats and see how they looked in the airplane. They fit just as they were supposed to, and it was nice to see them back home again. Back when I made the headrests I intentionally left the vertical pieces a…
Fuselage Features
I mentioned yesterday that I was going to add a fairlead for the elevator trim cable at the aft end of the skylight. This morning I welded that tube on, and while I was there, I also welded on tabs for the front and rear flood lights. Those will be LED spotlights on the battery…
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….
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…
Baby Building
Tabitha came out today and worked on deburring the window frames. While she did that I started making a new bracket for the prop control at the governor end. Our used governor came with a used bracket, but it looked fairly well abused. It made a good template for the new bracket, which will support…
Patrol Doors
Today Tabitha joined me to work more on the doors and windows. We worked specifically on the lower front door skins, which will be mostly cut out to make room for windows. Some folks call these “patrol doors,” which makes for some especially confusing terminology, since there is a 2-place airplane called the Bearhawk Patrol…
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-…
Window Lock
I only had an hour to work today, but I was able to get the right window lock structure cleaned and primed.
Priming Left Window Frame
This afternoon I cleaned up and primed the left window frame. It looks much better now! I also welded on the support structure for the front right window lock.
Cargo Door Planning
This afternoon Tabitha came out and we spent a while working out the plans for the right rear windows and for the lock on the cargo door. The challenge with the cargo door lock is trying to work out a few conflicting goals. The most important goal is to be sure that the door will…
Left Rear Window Continued
This morning I finished welding the top track for the aft window. The more difficult section is the aft side of the window. I started that section by moving the stringer attach points. THe lower stringer is going to be out a little bit further, while the upper stringer is going to be in a…
New Aft Left Window
I started welding the aft window frames this morning. The bottom was easy, so I did that one first. I trimmed the top to length, but found that I needed more oxygen. I took a break to drive into town and then came back and tacked the top piece in place.