When I incorrectly oriented the FAB top during the first assembly, I drilled holes that will need to be filled with the correct orientation. Many of those holes were close to where the filter retainer angles go, so I just made a few adjustments to help them serve double-duty. This wouldn’t be necessary for someone…
Category: Firewall Forward
Firewall Forward
FAB Assembly
Today started with a few new parts arrivals. As I mentioned in the entry from a few days ago, I drilled the top oval plate for the filtered air box incorrectly. I wrote about much of today’s work back in that entry, but I’ll include pictures here. The folks at Pegasus Auto Racing have an…
Vans FAB
I picked up where we left off last night , attaching the lower right cowl sheet metal. I took a few pictures of it all together, just because it looks so much more like an airplane. From there I reinstalled the carburetor so that I could start cutting the hole for the airbox. Note that…
Cowling Continued Again
This evening Tabitha came out and we worked together on the cowl sheet metal. One of the challenges in trimming the leading edge of the cowl is that the edge needs to match the fiberglass nose bowl, which is hidden underneath the aluminum, and the aluminum isn’t transparent. Tabitha came up with the idea of…
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…
Cowling Continued
Today I kept working on the cowling. I marked the left door for the holes that will become the quarter turn fasteners, and drilled the right door for it’s hinge. This allowed me to position the right bottom channel, and drill small holes for the quarter-turn fasteners on that side. I’m using four per side,…
Left Cowl Door
I used the top cowl piece as a reference to position the left cowl door. I installed its hinge and left it a little bit long in the front so that I can trim it to match the fiberglass. The trailing edge has an even overlap.
Trimming Baffles
I woke up early this morning to try and beat the heat. I made a few more rough cuts to get the baffles clear of the cowling pieces, then positioned the nose bowl as accurately as possible. I aimed for 1/4″ clearance and 1/4″ of additional engine sag. I started the cowl work with the…
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.
Initial Prop Install
Today I connected the blue LED that will become the parking brake annunciator. Since the parking brake valve is just a check valve, it could be especially troublesome to land with it in the closed position. The brakes would apply normally, but they wouldn’t release! I’m planning to make this blue light come on any…
Reversing the Matco Parking Brake
Our spinner came with it’s original white paint, which matched the Husky that it came off of. I knew that we were going to have to repaint it one way or another, but we’ve both always preferred to have a polished spinner. I figured that I didn’t have anything to lose by stripping off the…
Wiring the GNS430
Here’s the rudder. All of the taping is done and it’s ready to smooth. I connected several more wires to the 430 today. It has a bunch of them, and it would have been many more if I were using a remote annunciator and indicator. The connectors on the back are divided into the three…
Rudder Lacing and Taping
These nice weather days have provided an excellent opportunity to spend some time in the hangar. Here’s the rudder after the first coat of polybrush: I finished the rudder rib stitching in about an hour and a half. This is one of those skills that gets faster with experience. I marked the areas for taping…
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…
Dynon Wiring
I started out today by drilling a hole in the firewall for the EMS wires. The thermocouple wires for the EGT and CHT sensors are fairly large, so the hole is about 1/2″ in diameter. I added a serial plug for the HS34, since I learned that it also needs to be able to receive…
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…
Installing the Alternator
In the last installment you might remember that I damaged the ebus alternator by shorting it to the airframe ground. The good news is that I was able to find a replacement for just the diode, and thus reuse the circuit board and mounting hardware that I got from Bob at aeroelectric.com. I clipped the…
Prop Governor Studs
Lately I’ve been fiddling with a Hartzell prop governnor that I got from another builder. The flange is designed so that the studs have to be just the right length, and my existing studs are too long. I spent a little while fiddling with it today before I finally decided to give up on the…
P-leads and Wiring
I finished up the p-leads today for the Bendix mags. These mags require a special terminal, and I was able to find a used set of terminals in good shape. I used a single-conductor shielded cable, which was especially troublesome to strip and separate. The weave of the shield is very tight and it took…
Architecture Wiring
I sold a motorcycle and was able to buy some much-needed parts. The first is this Plane Power AL12-E160/C Alternator. This is the case mount unit since our engine doesn’t have the mounting boss. The parts look great! The other big part of my order was the probe package for the Dynon D180. This is…
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…
SD-8 Wiring
Today I continued with wiring the SD-8 and it’s components. I have a copy of the Z-13/8 drawing in the hangar, and I’ve been drawing lines on the diagram to note wires that are complete. First, I made a hole in the firewall for the alternator output wires. Then I ran the wires to the…
Putting the Wings On & SD-8
After a year of watching, I finally found a good deal on an SD-8 standby alternator. Today Danny and I installed it on the engine. The last of the four nuts was a little bit tricky to get to, but we figured it out after a few minutes. I took a few pictures of how…
Fiberglass on the Wingtip
The weather was nice today so I added a layer of fiberglass to the position light mount on the wingtip. I also picked up some 1.5″ electrical conduit to use for exhaust pipes. Since they’re galvanized and welding zinc is bad for my health, I dipped the pipes into some phosphoric acid. The phosphoric acid…
Cabin Heat Valve
Today I stopped by to visit my new friend Alan Waters. I asked him to weld some flanges onto my adapted cabin heat box, but instead he offered for me to come over and do it myself. This was an awesome opportunity that I didn’t want to miss! This box needed an additional hole and…
Engine Controls and Heat
Today I made another hole in the firewall for the mixture, adding another hole that I’ll need to use or cover. I made some modifications to a cabin heat airbox that Jerry donated, and I’m hoping to be able to use it. That will save a day or more of trying to make one. I…
Positioning the Nosebowl
I can’t make any more progress without getting the approximate position of the nosebowl pinned down. I spoke with the folks at American Propeller about the dimensions of the Whirlwind spinner, and they sent me some nice CAD pictures of two options. The short answer is that the aft edge of the spinner is pretty…
Governor and Carburetor
Today was a good day for staying close to the propane heater. With the topic of the governor installation on hold, I turned my attention to the carburetor. With all of that done, I was ready to figure out where to route the engine controls through the firewall. I wanted to keep the throttle cable…
Baffles and Avionics Support
The new engine baffle piece that I ordered from Vans came in today, along with a plate for supporting the mixture and throttle cables. In the picture below you can see the difference between the new and old baffles. The old piece on top also has bends where I tried to make it line up…
More Panel Holes
I was able to get home for a day or so amidst lots of training. I thought about how to best fix the left rear engine baffle that I cut incorrectly last month, but decided just to order a new one from Vans instead. It was only a few dollars and will save a day’s…
Electric Cables and Polyspray
I made a few more crimps on the large conductors with the whack-a-mole crimper, but none are really any better than the first. On a more productive note, I sprayed one last round of Polyspray on the tail pieces.
Engine Baffles
The baffle kit is, well, baffling. There are lots of little parts, so I started by laying them out and picking out the ones that I needed for the first steps. The sides were easy to find, so I deburred the edges and installed them. I trimmed the back left panel, and did it wrong….
Installing the Starter
After seeing the amount of stress that the Garmin racks would place on the panel, I started thinking about how I can add some bracing to the back. I spent a few minutes today checking to see if that support could be as easy as a piece of aluminum angle across the two diagonal tubes,…
Stainless Firewall Shields
Today I tried a Tony Bingelis technique for making shields for firewall pass-through parts like engine controls and wires. The idea is to provide an equal level of fire protection for areas that use rubber grommets. I started by choosing a “die” from my die collection, also known as a socket set. I’ve found sockets…
Copper Strips, Parking Brake
In the week since I last worked, the JB weld on the ANL mount cured nicely. I filed it flush with the back of the mount and then realized that it hadn’t occurred to me to find out if JB weld was electrically conductive. It turns out that it isn’t, which I was glad to…
Current Limiter
Since the electrical output from the 60 Amp primary alternator is relatively large and relatively important, it gets a special type of over-current protection. The current limiter is sort of a heavy-duty slow-blow fuse rated at 60 Amps. The one that I’m using is a Buss brand ANL type. B&C sells a mount for it,…
Seats and Populating the Firewall
Today I spent time adding more stuff to the firewall. While I was doing that, Tabitha was working hard on shaping the seat foam. I added the nutplates for the battery buss, which is going to provide power to things that will be powered even with the master switch off. I finished installing the shunt…
Nutplates for Firewall
I don’t have any pictures for today, but it was still a productive session. I installed the last gusset for the seatbelt tab, and installed several nutplates for the firewall-mounted electrical accessories including the battery and starter contactors. Today George Carter stopped by to visit too. I met George at the hardware store a while…
Battery Box, Tail Pieces
Today I spent a little bit more time convincing myself that the tail alignment issues aren’t going to be important. I did find a minor difference between the kit and the plans when I measured the length of the tubes that hold on the horizontal stab pieces. The only potential complication from this tube being…
Populating the Firewall
Today I started planning to add a few more items to the firewall. I’d like to make sure that I don’t try and put two things in the same spot, and also make sure that I can have maintenance access to items that need it. Tabitha also came out for a little while and cut…
Brass Grounding Tabs
Today I started making the brass grounding blocks. My orders from Stein and All Electrics came in- great fun! The brass terminal strips were available from Stein for $1 each, so a few minutes of soldering and a $3 piece of brass from the hobby shop saved me $50 or so from B&C. The flux…
Battery Box Continued
As of today the fuel quantity gauges are done, and I drilled, countersunk, and primed the battery box and associated parts. Next time I’ll paint them and assemble the box so that I can add it to the firewall. Once again the pictures are missing until 8-25.
Fuel Lines, Flap Handle
I finished making the wing fuel lines today and started on the fuel quanity gauges. I used files and emory cloth to debur the holes that Wade punched into the battery box yesterday, and used the band saw to rough cut the aluminum flap handle piece to shape. I used files and emory cloth to…
Aligning Tail Pieces
On a recent trip to Harbor freight I picked up another pair of adjustable height support stands to help figure out why the tail doesn’t seem to be lining up right. I leveled the fuselage left-right with a water level at the wing attach points. From there I levelled each stab half with a bubble…
Battery Box and Avionics
Today I finished the last fuel line that I can make without putting the wings back on. While I was at the hangar I also counted the pins on the Garmin racks so that I could make a shopping list for the d-sub parts. I think if I order 50 male and 50 female pins,…
Test Fit Engine
Today was a busy day at the hangar. I started by drilling the holes in my new rudder pedal-cable straps. I wanted to be sure that the four straps were match-drilled, so I used a scrap piece of aluminum angle and some c-clamps to hold the straps stacked in place. After the first hole I…
Cable Guard Nutplates
Today Tabitha came to help. She installed nutplates in the floorboards for the rudder cable guards while I took care of a few loose ends. I was recently reading through the Beartracks newsletters and came up with a few things to check on. The first was the flat plate of steel that joins the two…
Engine Mounts and NACA Scoops
I’ve been watching the price of the engine mount rubbers for the past few months, and the trend seems alarming. In the 2008 Vans Accessory catalog, they were $40 per lug (for a total of $160). Today Vans sells them for $125 per lug, or $500 plus shipping! Yikes! I was surprised to see the…
Seats and Engine Mount
Today Tabitha came out again to finish squeezing some more wingtip rivets. We also tested the glue on the foams to make sure that it wasn’t going to dissolve them. The glue checked out OK, so we glued one of the bottom cushion combinations. Tabitha marked it for cutting and spent some time thinking about…
Tailwheel Spring and Wingtip
Tabitha came out today too and we made some good progress. I was at a stopping point with the tailwheel spring because I didn’t have a drill that would handle larger bits. It had a temporary bolt in place of the AN-7 that is supposed to go in there. With the new drill I was…
Back from Sun-N-Fun
It’s been a while since the last building entry, but I’ve been out of town more than usual. I just got back from Sun-N-Fun with a new list of ideas and a few new parts. One of my SNF finds was these LED position lights. If I didn’t already have the aeroflash lights, I would…