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…
Category: Bearhawk 1063 Building Log
Building log of Bearhawk 1063
Shaping Wing Light Mount
Today was a short day in the shop without any pictures. I started filing and sanding the superfil down to a nice smooth curve. I think I might have had some sort of reaction to the dust on my hands, so next time I’ll wear some gloves. I used 150 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water,…
Wingtip Light Mounts
I started today by filing down the fiberglass from yesterday. I added another layer of smurf extract to fill the voids in the cloth: My hangar neighbor Danny got his RV back from the paint shop recently too:
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…
Making Electronics
Our Bearhawk is going to need two little circuits that I’m going to try and make. The first is a low-voltage warning module. They Dynon EMS has a built-in warning for low voltage, but this little circuit will be a stand-alone warning for a system that is fairly important. I used the Bob Nuckolls designed…
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…
Cutting out the Windows
Tabitha has wanted to change the window layout ever since she saw an airplane with bigger back windows. Today she cut out the existing frames on the left side. While I was at Matt’s hangar he sent me with a length of spring to use for the rudder return springs. While Tabitha was working on…
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,…
Instrument Panel
Today I finished enlarging the center hole in the instrument panel and attached the two Garmin racks. I added the Dynon trays, but did not yet cut the left flange off of the right tray. I’m planning to wait until I get the HS34 and its mounting hardware. Next I enlarged the holes for the…
Instrument Panel
I started off today by getting some silver polyspray onto the patches. Don brought up the instrument panel, so I started with the deburring process while I waited for the polyspray to cure. I added the ELT controller to the left side, since it is something that is low on the ambidexterity priority list. I…
Polyfiber Patches
I stopped by today to smooth out the patches with the iron/teflon combination and to add a bit more polybrush to fill the weave. At this point I’m waiting so that I can get the patches ready for the next spraying.
Second Polyspray
I masked off the area where I sanded through on the last work session. I used a rag with MEK to clean the fabric in that area down to a bare surface. I can see why the polyfiber products are so successful- this whole process was much easier than I expected. The damaged area needs…
Seats Ready for Covers
I started wet sanding the first silver coat today while Tabitha carved the last bit of foam. They are ready for transfer to Mississippi for covering. I also spent a little while carving down the wingtip foam to prepare for the first layer of superfill that I added to the wingtip for the position light….
Seat Foam and Silver
Tabitha came out today and we glued the foam together for the back seat cushion. I had planned on a 3″ thick bottom cushion for the back seat, but with a little bit of testing we realized that the headroom would be limited with a full 3″ cushion. Instead, Tabitha carved out much of the…
Spraying More Polybrush
The Polyfiber manual suggested that small runs or imperfections in the polybrush could be fixed with a sheet of teflon under the iron to spread out the sharp spots in the iron shoe and reduce tracks. I tried the technique on a few little runs and had good results. I also sprayed the next coat…
Position Lights and Brakes
It was too humid this morning to spray the next coat of polybrush, so I worked on the wingtip instead. I mixed up a batch of epoxy and used it to attach the position light mount and the wingtip aluminum strip. I also made a short brake line for the left side and hung up…
Spraying Polybrush
The Polyfiber manual suggests spraying a diluted coat of polybrush in cases where the the brushed coats have been sitting for a long time. I sprayed that coat this morning, then sprayed the first regular coat this afternoon. This schedule works out well with the temperatures, since it is usually too hot in the middle…
Finish Heat Smoothing
In two sessions today I finished the heat smoothing on the rest of the parts that are ready to go. I rigged up a way to hang the parts from the ceiling so that I can spray them all in one round. One strategy that I came up with for handling the problems with the…
Heat Smoothing
More ironing! Today I spent an hour and finished heat smoothing and ironing the tape edges on one elevator and both trim tabs.
Fabric Covering on Tail
One of the elevators still needed a little bit more reinforcing tape, so I finished that up today. Now I’ll just need to finish heat smoothing and I’ll be ready to spray.
More Position Lights
I stopped by Laney’s fly-in towards the end of the event, but there were still a few airplanes left, including a new Maule. I liked the step on the landing gear, and perhaps it’s worth investigating. In the hangar, Tabitha worked on getting the seats while I started roughing in the position light mounts. The…
Positioning Position Lights
Here’s the antenna block that I was working on in the last session. I couldn’t figure out how to clamp it for drilling, and even if I did, I don’t think I’d have enough room between the elements to get in there and install the nuts and terminals. Meanwhile, I did make some progress on…
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,…
Brake Lines
I spent an hour today installing the brake lines. I think that they’ll work fine with a little bit more support.
Priming and Wingtips
After spending a few minutes making holes in my aluminum welding practice pieces, I got back to productive work. I cleaned up the skylight parts and sprayed them with some temporary primer. I also trimmed the little grounding bus off of one of my fuse blocks, since I’m going to be using the brass forest…
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…
Firewall Layout
More new tools! Maybe this is part of why I like building planes. I noticed that the Dynon ammeter shunt has 1/4″ holes. I hate to use 1/4″ bolts to hold the shunt to the firewall, because of the wasted weight and expense. 3/16″ bolts are overkill too, but at least I can use clip…
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…
Seatbelt Tabs, Flap Aluminum
The flap handle is primed and ready for paint, once we decide for sure on an interior color. I’ve also finally finished the aluminum flap handle crescent, after making it twice. While I was at the bandsaw I cut out a piece of plastic in an attempt to make a center insulator for my VHF…
Seatbelt Tabs, Skylight Tabs
Here are the tabs that will support the shoulder harnesses for the front seat passengers: Most of the time today went to working on the flap handle and the seat foam, but I didn’t take any pictures. Tabitha is getting pretty good with the electric knife!
Welding Skylight Tabs
Since I used round tube for the skylight structure, I’m welding little tabs onto the tubes. These tabs will get nutplates and will hold together the aluminum-acrylic-steel sandwich. I originally sized the tabs so that they would fit a standard nutplate, but then I realized that I really don’t need to install nutplates on the…
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…
Seat Foam and Brakes
Tabitha came out today and started working on the seat foam while I made some of the rigid brake lines. While she was working with the electric knife, I installed some nutplates in the firewall. For such a big sheet, the blind dimple die is really useful. It’s very important to stay focussed with this…
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 Elevator Trim
The Vans battery box instructions include provisions for optional 2″ lightening holes in the box iteself. Since the box is steel, I didn’t want to bother with a hole saw or fly cutter for all 8 of the holes. The better solution was to get some help from Wade, since he has a set of…
Battery Box
Today I spent most of my shop time wrestling with the broken drill chuck in my cheap cordless drill. I did spend a few minutes working on the top strap that holds the battery into the battery box.
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,…
Installing Fuel Lines
Today was a full day of making fuel lines. I’ve remade a couple, and need to remake a couple more. There are a few noteworthy points that I’ll pass along about the process. First, bending the 5052 is a one-time operation. Since it work hardens after bending, if you bend it to 90 degrees when…
Elevator Trim Pushrods
Today the river of airplane parts is flowing again with the arrival of my Oshkosh Aircraft Spruce order. I added the dimpled nutplates to the little boot cowl piece, and used my new fuel lube to install several NPT thread fittings that were on hold pending its arrival. Since my repaired elevator trim pushrods didn’t…
Reinventing the Window
Another suitable title for this post would be “Defenestrating the Stock Window Design.” Tabitha and I have been discussing windows ever since our cookout and during our visit to Oshkosh. She says that the existing stock windows aft of the front doors are too small and too few, while I contend that they are completed…
Fuel Selector Installation
Today my goals were to install the fuel selector and gascolator, and to run as many fuel lines as time and supplies would permit. As I mentioned last time, locating the fuel selector has been tricky. The best location interfered with the little trapezoid-shaped tab that came from the factory. That tab is made out…
Starting Fuel Lines
Since I’ll be on the way to Oshkosh shortly, I wanted to spend some time figuring out the fuel and brake systems again. This will allow me to buy the few remaining parts that I don’t have. I have had some 3/8″ .035 5052-0 line for a while, but I figured I should try bending…
Instrument Panel Layout
While we were on vacation with Tabitha’s parents, Tabitha’s dad and I spent some time working on the instrument panel layout. He’s going to try to cut it on one of his CNC routers, so we were measuring and researching the hole dimensions. If it works, this will save some time of cutting and filing…
Try Swapping Stab Halves
Just to be sure, I tried swapping the left and right stab halves today. It didn’t seem to work out well. The holes in the front mounting tube did not line up correctly. I’m going to keep investigating, though my working time will be limited for the rest of the month. I’ve got to go…
Welding and Priming
The only parts that didn’t survive the move when we purchased the project were the tail struts. I haven’t been able to find them anywhere, and neither has Richard. This is unfortunate, since they are fairly expensive. I was able to buy another set from Mark, though he cautioned that they may need a length…
Test Fitting the Tail Pieces
Before I proceed with any of the covering steps, I want to be sure that I understand exactly how the tail goes together. To check all of this out, i tried a test fit. I repositioned the engine lift over to the downhill side of the airplane so that I could level it left-right. Our…
Rudder Pedal Springs
Sometimes building an airplane involves taking three steps forward, sometimes it means taking a couple of steps back. Today I spent a little while adapting some springs for the rudder pedals, but I don’t really like them. I also spent a while making the third version of the boot cowl panel, and also made it…
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…
Rudder Pedal Geometry
In our last episode, I was moving the rudder pedals forward to address the potential over-center problem that Mark at Avipro brought to our attention. Back when Richard was building, the consensus was to locate the rudder pedals for ergonomics. Subsequent experience led to a new recommendation to locate the rudder pedals exactly as depicted…
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…
Patching and Taping
Today was another reasonably cool morning, so I did more fabric work. I didn’t take any pictures, but I was able to get almost all of the taping done. When I first started applying the polybrush, I realized that something wasn’t right. I had mixed three parts of reducer to one part of polybrush instead…
Elevator Patch and Cable Guards
Today’s efforts include a morning session of fabric work and an evening session of sheet metal work. Richard had started the taping process on the tail pieces, but some are still in the works. Since one side still had exposed rib laces, I figured that I would check to be sure that they were spaced…
Boot Cowl and Tail Examination
Today I cut out a new piece of aluminum to replace the one that I made wrong (and that I would make wrong again) while Tabitha dimpled the stainless exhaust tunnel and installed nutplates on the appropriate sections. I also calibrated the iron in preparation for covering and started to evaluate the tail pieces to…
Drill, Debur, Dimple, Nutplates
Today was a day with lots of hours and not a lot of pictures. I finished the work on the left air intake, which included dimpling the boot cowl and cutting countersinks into the plastic vent. I also dimpled all of the holes in the boot cowl skins that will get rivets, except for the…
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…
Headset Jacks and Door Sill
I started out today by finishing something from last week. While I had the torch out, I also added a few more parts to the skylight area. First up were some plates for the headset jacks. This plate goes on the spanwise mini-bulkhead that I’m creating at the aft side of the skylight. This is…
Repositioning Door Area Flange
Today was a two-part day. In the first session, I used a dremel tool to remove the weld on the vertical portion of the door threshold at the forward end. This was to allow for repositioning that piece so that it would attach properly to the aluminum piece that goes there. This also involved cutting…
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…
Nutplates on Panels
Today was a short day, but I was able to spend some time on the nutplates that will hold on the “optional” aluminum panel under the door. I learned about a few complications. First, the nutplates won’t work well on the top unless I bend out the steel piece at the bottom of the door….
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…
Seat Foam Ergonomics
Today Tabitha came out to help. With the seat pans finished, it was time to start thinking about cutting the foam for them. But first, the flooring supplies came in, both the foam padding and the top layer. The plan for the seats is to use one inch of firm tempur foam on the bottom,…
Welding Skylight Tubes
I started cutting and adding in some of the new skylight tubes today. I cut a notch into the tube to make it match the mounting area. Mysterious note from the future! I learned in retrospect that the following picture shows a tube that is ground a little too much. It should have been a…
Skylight Modifications
Today I finished the back seat covering. Now it’s ready for some airplane noises. After I finished the back seat I took a little lunch break. Fellow EAA 731 member Kevin Ball stopped by and we spent an hour or so talking about the airplane, then I went over to Bart’s to take a look…
Welding, Casting, Covering
asting complete on 1, elt brscket on, control sticks done, cast 2, cover front seat bottoms and backs 1800 lunch? With one aileron balance tube done, the second was easy. I’ll elaborate more on the process this time. I used tire weights that were really dirty. I would tilt the pan, and direct the torch…
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…
ELT Antenna Bracket
Today I was in the mood for some welding. First, I noticed back when I primed the headrests that I had missed a problem with one of them. I had started to cut one of the horizontal tubes, then realized that I was cutting in the wrong place. This left a scored line around the…
Bending Cable Guards Again
I needed to bend the new aft cable guards again, so this time I took some pictures of the process that I described earlier. Thanks again to Brad and Joel for letting me use their machinery! The weather was nice, so I put the blanks into the car that Dad was driving down to the…
Cable Guards and More Parts
Today I spent some time going through a big order of parts and hardware. This order included lots of stuff, including the rest of the screws for the wing inspection panels. Dad was in town, so he cut out some new strips of aluminum for the aft section of the rudder cable guards. I also…
Slave Labor
Dad was in town today so he stopped by to drill out some rivets. Tabitha was also there with us. In the picture she is working on her practice toolbox from Van’s. She said that she should get to work on the real airplane since dad gets to work on the real airplane, and said…
Cable Guard vs Baggage Door
This was my first attempt at making a transition for the rudder cable guard. Since this piece was too short (see the left side of the picture) I figured it was expendable. I think that the best solution is going to be a combination of a piece like this one (but longer) and a door…
Rudder Cable Guards
Today I drilled and clecoed the rudder cable guards in place. The aft guards are too short. I tried to make them 24″ long each so that they would come out of a 48″ piece of stock. Since the aft bulkhead forms an obtuse angle with the floorboard, the cable guard needs to be longer…
Burn Testing Nautolux Decco Dot
I have been looking for some good material to use as a floor covering. Bob uses bare aluminum, and that method certainly has some merits. It is light, simple, and durable. Tabitha would rather have something that looks a bit more finished, but also something that dampens vibration a little bit better. She says that…
Priming the Seat Frames
Today I was able to get away for a few minutes to finish prepping the seat frames for paint and apply a coat of epoxy primer. Today was one of the first days that we’ve had lately with a warm enough temperature. This was my first time to use the little Chinese paint gun that…
Prepping Seat Frames for Paint
My plan was to use my cheap little sand blaster to prep the seat frames, but it didn’t work so well. The sand blaster needs some attention, but I was able to use it to clean most of the weld beads. Since the rest of the areas were flat and mostly straight, I used the…
Bending the Long Guards
Since my toy brake only bends pieces up to 18″ wide, I had to find another way to bend the longer rudder cable guards. They are 25″ and 29″. Brad was nice enough to let me use the brake at his shop. It was a combination roll/shear/brake from Northern tool, and the dies were really…
Finished Right Wingtip Mount
Today I drilled the top mounting holes for the right wingtip and clecoed everything in place. I’m still going to have to do some work on the gap between the fiberglass and aluminum to try and get something that is rain tight. I walked over to Danny’s hangar to see how Vans solves the problem,…
Rudder Cable Guards & Skylight
I wanted a break from the wingtips today so I started working on some guards for the rudder cables. Since the cables run along the inside of the cabin, I wanted to protect them from passengers who are children, passengers who act like children, and shifting cargo. I also plan to use the guards to…
Wingtips and Seats
I was able to get some good working time in today. The two areas of interest were the wingtip and the seats. Back when I was at Bob’s this fall, I noticed that the fiberglass wingtips on his new Patrol LSA prototype were really smooth, with no waves between the rivets. I asked him how…
Increase Wingtip-Aileron Gap
Today I was working on the wingtip mounting strip. I had originally put it in place with about a 3/16″ gap between the strip and the aileron, but I was re-reading Eric’s Building Manual and saw where he recommended a 1/2″ gap. This made a lot more sense, especially because it would be pretty stinky…
Tiny Bubbles
Today I didn’t have much time to work, but I did want to start the zinc removal on the headrest nuts. Welding zinc plated parts can lead to the discharge of zinc fumes, which can lead to zinc poisoning, which is not any fun from what I hear. So today I dropped a few of…
More Headrests
Today was just more of the same work on the headrests. This entry is just to preserve the hours and the date. I’m having lots of fun and getting some good welding practice on the whole headrest operation for sure.
On to the Back Seat Headrests
Today I added the vertical receiving posts for the back seat headrests. By now this is getting to be fairly routine, though I do find myself craving welding. I really could just sit around and weld stuff for hours.
Making the other Headrests
I’ve been really busy lately, so to stay on track I started today with working in one-hour increments on the principle that one hour is better than no hours. We’ve had some exceptionally good weather, so I was able to get together with Dave for some motorcycling and wood cutting. I can build airplanes inside…
More Time Welding Front Seats
Tonight I got back into the shop and worked on welding the horizontal supports and headrest receiving tubes on the front seats.
Welding Headrest Structures
With all of those tubes cut, it was time to start welding. I started by installing the horizontal pieces. This was just a matter of measuring the height on the left and right side and tacking the tube in place. After I had installed the first vertical tube I remembered about how I should have…
Allowing for Headrests
I should add some background information here about why I would want to mess up a perfectly good set of Avipro seats. In my research about how to make safe seats, I read about how important headrests are. Most pilots and builders that I talk with about this disagree. They say that most impacts in…
New Goodies
Today I spent an additional 1.5 hours on the wingtip, but the more exciting news is that an order came in from Wicks. I ordered some 5052 Aluminum to make fuel lines out of, along with some foam for the seats. My plan for the seats is to use tempur foam for the bottom layer…