Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[rodsmith]

Made mounting structures for a GPS/SXM antenna for Garmin G3X, GPS antenna for Garmin GTN 625 and the ELT antenna on top of the fuselage. Used .032 aluminum and mounted them directly, flush to the top of the aluminum stringers. Garmin recommended 8" square mininum ground plane for GPS. I will use copper tape radials under the fabric to increase the effective ground plane for the ELT antenna. Garmin provided very detailed patterns for mounting the antennas so I don't need to buy them yet.

[davzLSA]

Today I got flying wires fitted and the bottom struts attached, got the trim system fitted, still have to finish it.

[Chewie]

Hinge mounts finished. These took a while!

[BravoGolf]

Those are looking great. I'm sure glad there done

[davzLSA]

those are some good looking welds Chewie

[Chewie]

Thank you gents! Coming from you guys that means a lot.

[Gary Wallace]

Today i finally finished my wings. Still waiting on wingtips though. So many hours from scratch...very happy with the result!

[rodsmith]

Thats a huge accomplishment!

[tailwind]

With those completed it should be down hill now. Nice accomplishment.

[rodsmith]

My Stewarts "practise" pieces before starting fuselage interior. Decided they were keepers.

[Bdflies]

Seeing those trim tabs reminded me of something. Do your best to keep the hinge line interface (front of trim tab and the tab pocket on elevator) as thin as possible. I don't know if mine were fatter than normal, but I struggled a bit to get the tabs in place when everything was covered and painted.

Bill

[robcaldwell]

Hope you don't run into the same problem I did AFTER covering the trim tabs. You can see the issue and what I did about it here: https://bearhawk4place.blogspot.com/...trim-tabs.html

[Bdflies]

Beautiful work Rob! You are a craftsman! But no. My issue was the hinge barrels to tab and elevator. Sorry, I don’t have pics. I had a hard time pushing the pieces together enough to get the hinge pins in.
I guess the take away is that there are gremlins lurking back there...

Bill

[PaulSA]

Well, not exactly today but over the last couple .......

Modded the wing to make a flush fitting for the tip. Bit of work, but worth it I think .....

Fired up the panel
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[davzLSA]

Looking good Paul, keep up the good work!!!

[jim.mclaughlin924]

Finished wiring and panel, time to finish this plane

[davzLSA]

Very neat looking panel, good job!!

[geraldmorrissey]

Paul, can you give us some info on modifying the wing tip ro get rhe flush fit.
Thanks
Gerry
Patrol #30

[PaulSA]

Gerry

I am working away at the moment. I'll take some more photos and put something in the "Building Tips" section later in the month.

It's not difficult. If you have quickbuild wings, you have to de-rivet the last rib. Then you insert a 1 1/8" piece of 025 (1/2" on the rib, 5/8" exposed). Match drill and rivet. Fitting the tip requires that you trim out 1/2" ahead of the tip rib so you have a recess. Then match drill the tip to the support and tip rib at about 3" spacing for #6 nutplates. The photo above pretty much shows how it's done. Not difficult - just takes a few hours.

Good Luck!

[jaredyates]

In a career first, I scotchbrite wheeled my finger on the bench grinder. It was most uncomfortable and not recommended.
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[Chewie]

Ouch. But on the "brite" side, it sure looks smooth though!

[PaulSA]

Try catching your finger in the jaws of the rivet squeezer with 90psi ........

[svyolo]

Paul, I haven't done that yet. But it has crossed my mind. I am religious about disconnecting air before changing anything on the squeezer.

Imagine a 12 inch drill bit, catching your jeans, close to your nether regions. Don't imagine it for long, it will give you nightmares.

[johwiltb]

Oh no Jared!

Today, I decided to Debt-Avalanche by moving over to Flap Nose Ribs. Made me feel good to get something fully done (for now)

[svyolo]

Did some work on the Van's baffle kit. I mounted the engine on its mount, and then onto a big engine stand and added a thin plywood firewall mockup. I didn't want to spend 3 or 4 months at the end of the project figuring out one detail at a time. I should have a whole FWF mocked up and ready to transfer to the fuselage when the fuselage is ready.

[robcaldwell]

Occasionally I will make a video like this one describing my build status. This is as of August 8, 2019:

[AKKen07]

Nice work! Appreciate the added tool section too.

[rodsmith]

Great video as always, especially appreciate the info on the helmet and prop wrench.

[svyolo]

Rob,
Love your videos. You are a bit ahead of me on the fuselage. I have the space, and didn't want to wait till the end for the FWF so I mounted my engine to the mount, and then to an engine stand.

[svyolo]

Got my avionics this week. I had my instrument panel cut to outline, and some CF panels laminated. I cut them today. Used a 2 inch hole saw to round the corners in the aluminum. I used an abrasive jigsaw blade to cut the curved parts of the CF. The abrasive blade worked awesome. instrumet.jpg

[robcaldwell]

I finished installing the engine side baffles and created a plenum made from carbon fiber. The expectation is for the plenum and coved (rounded) inlets to increase the high pressure side to help keep the CHT’s down. I used SkyBolts on the side panels for quick access to the cylinders and spark plugs. I still need to make a door to access the oil filler tube. I will set the C channels before making the door. This was my first experience working with carbon fiber. Overall, I am pleased with the results.
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[BravoGolf]

That is just beautiful. How did you work up your molds for the carbon fiber?