Tinhawk cowling install

[EricP]

If you have been following the adventures of the "Tinhawk" you know Brent has been hand building our engine cowling from sheet aluminum. So here are pics of the last major pieces being fit into place, the top cowl and cowl hoods. While this is not the final fit for everything many parts are now in permanently.

Forward-Lower-Cowl.jpgrsz_lower_cowl (1).jpgrsz_test-fit-spinner.jpg

[EricP]

A couple more pics..

. rsz_right_cowl.jpgrsz_1left_cowl.jpg

[Gerhard Rieger]

This is just done well done, I was thinking to make my wing tips from aluminum, any comments regarding this will be welcomed.

[Zzz]

That nosebowl is some amazing sheet metal work. Did he figure out a way to press it? or is it hammered/english wheeled?

[EricP]

This is just done well done, I was thinking to make my wing tips from aluminum, any comments regarding this will be welcomed.

This is all done by hand by Brent. He has his own professional fabrication shop but this is still pretty hard stuff! The wing tips are actually still being made. He is about 90% done on the first and 10% done on the second. He should finish them by this summer. The wing tips look great (for how much is done) but they are HUGE! We made them rounded instead of squared off as we wanted a "retro" look and because we can. Anyway, the Bearhawk wing is so big that rounded wing tips almost seem like little canoes! However, we love them. It is a labor of love for Brent and I am enjoying learning as we go. We created a "buck" to shape them over. I took some fiberglass nose bowl sections that we were given and they were used to create the bucks. We used foam filling to harden up the fiberglass. Brent would have to give you the details but it was a lot of work. The aluminum is great but it is easy to see why fiberglass is used as it ends up being so much faster and cheaper. However the aluminum is stronger, lighter and prettier!

[EricP]

That nosebowl is some amazing sheet metal work. Did he figure out a way to press it? or is it hammered/english wheeled?

All hammered, tapped and wheeled by hand. To press it would require making a mold or form and that would be way more work for one cowling than just making it. He made a form from a fiberglass nose cowl we were given (it was not good enough for actual flying) and made a buck form for it.

[EricP]

Pics of the Tinhawk becoming reality. Here are pics from when Brent was making the nose cowl last year. He is using a slap hammer, hammer form, english wheel and plenish hammer. Notice the fiberglass nose cowl that was used to make the buck form in background where he is hammering. He is using a leather bag with lead shot to hammer against.

slap hammer.jpghammer form.jpgenglish wheel.jpgplenish hammer.jpg

[huntaero]

Looks good Aluminum forming is an art

[Bcone1381]

It would be fun learning how to do that....nosebowl, wing tips, wheel pants, strut fairings.... maybe spinner. Very cool, talented!

[EricP]

Here are pics from the final install of the right cowl hood. We added a 5th Dzus fastener at the front of the cowl where it joins the nose bowl as it was tending to bow out. We are still working on the left cowl hood. Looks like we need some Dzus fasteners with longer shanks on that side. Right side is fitting pretty well at this point. I'm sure Brent will do some more "tweaking" at some point but it is working pretty well now. We like to say this is the Prototype for the Tinhawk!

5th dzus front.jpg5th dzus.jpg