Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[Nev]

I think Kydex will take the knocks well, it’s flexible but doesn’t dent easily. The heat forming has a learning curve, but not difficult. I’ve been working on the interior door panels which need a formed bulge and several 90 degree corners, so this is proving challenging. I’ve got one almost spot on, but then over heated it. Yesterday I tried heating a small sheet in the oven (while the wife was out) and this was quite successful - I draped it over a wooden mould and pressed it into place. It also glues well with a primer and PVC adhesive. Once I’ve finished everything I’ll post some pics and a short video.

[Airplane3472]

Where are you buying your Kydex material? Amazon and some other suppliers I googled only had small sheets or were offering sheets much thicker than the .028 you are using. Thanks for the info!

[TimTall]

Passed what feels like a major milestone today. The Dynon system, including the radio, intercom, and transponder are all up and running. The rest of the wiring harness with switches, breakers, and fuse panels is done aft of the firewall. Everything checks out on the bench. I was actually pretty surprised that the radio works as well as it does from inside the garage. I was easily talking to planes in the circuit at the airport 4 miles away and that's with the antenna mounted to the work bench with a 6" piece of scrap for a ground plane.

The wiring felt like a daunting task going into it. I've wired houses but I'd never done any 12v more complicated than a small utility trailer. The Aeroelectric Connection is a life saver!

I considered paying for a pre-made panel but, having done it now, I'm very glad I didn't. I have a far better understanding of how wiring in general works and know my system inside out.

The panel in the photo is just a mock up. Next step is figuring out how to finish the panel and labelling. Anodizing with laser etched letters? Anyone done that? File_003.jpeg

[Nev]

Nice work !

[spinningwrench]

Be careful using your radio as a transmitter with an insufficient ground plane. Your SWR could really be out of wack without enough ground plane and damage to your transmitter is possible. I would recommend you get a friend who is a ham and borrow their SWR meter.

[geraldmorrissey]

Set 50 rivets on my Patrol rear spars. No cuts, all within spec.
Gerry
Patrol #30

[AKKen07]

I went ahead and modified my seat for more headroom. The major downside that I accepted is that I will no longer be able to adjust my seat for anybody else (without the use of cushions). I literally maximized the airframe's useable space - at least vertically. Though I am just over 6' 3" I have "short" legs for my height and a long torso. Something I learned from this experiment is that there are three things to keep in mind for seat placement. Leg room, headroom, and reach to the panel. The fore and aft position of the seat was the biggest factor for legroom with a slight headroom change, but the seat angle had the largest effect on headroom and reach to the panel. The largest obstacle to placing the seat wherever I wanted was that big crossbar that passes left-right under the front of the seat pan. In the end I made the 1/4" of room between the crossbar and my head into 1/4"+ between the crossbar and a helmet! I am very pleased. A few flight hours will be required before I can really judge the results of course. The mod kept the use of the stock seatback. I should have an eye-line just under the top of the window. The pic with me in it shows the tiny gap before the mod. Here the stock seat with a pretty taught "Herculon" pan was all the way back and down and I have a 1.5" pad. If I decide down the road that a little more room is required it will be easy to swap out the aluminum pan for fabric with a bit of a dip and perhaps reduce my pad 1/2". I also found a touch up paint that matches my powder coating nearly perfectly. It's not going to win awards for beauty but I am happy with my results:

[Nev]

I made a firewall mock-up, cut from my wooden “poor mans rotisserie” stand.

I’m using a Vans IO540 FWF kit, which I can’t recommend enough. The instructions and drawings are exceptional and with the kit containing every part large and small that you could possibly need, it makes the FWF quite a fun project for someone like myself with no prior experience. It also includes all the engine controls and connectors, alternator, oil cooler, and baffles etc. Top and slightly to starboard of the center engine mount bolt is the Vans pressure transducer mounting block.

It appears that there are adequate clearances between parts at this point, but I don’t know how the exhaust will affect yet. The Emags can be rotated to any position which gives plenty of flexibility. I plan to put the remote oil filter above the oil cooler, plumbed in series.

If you see any issues or improvements to be made please let me know.

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[davzLSA]

That is a great idea Nev, that is what im planning to do, but Im going to attach my engine with the exhaust and intake manifolds and carburetor.

[AKKen07]

Great post! Thanks for sharing Nev. I have heard that cable lengths and such are a bit off from the Vans kit to the BH. If yours look good I’d love to hear that. I’m pretty intimidated by the FWF project.

[spinningwrench]

Throttle Cover Plate.jpg
Taking care of interior details. Cover plate for Patrol throttle machined, painted and lettered.

[spinningwrench]

Lycoming Engine.png
Ordered engine today, cough. All engine shops are pretty busy. Had strange response from Superior who indicated they don't make money selling assembled engines so would not even quote.

[svyolo]

If they make more money help owner's assemble engines, that would be my response as well. Then again, is there anything you can't learn from a youtube video?

[RatherBFlying]

Where did you end up ordering your engine from?

[Bcone1381]

The article below might indicate what is behind Superiors strange response.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/february/12/faa-considers-superior-air-parts-crankshaft-assembly-ad?utm_source=ebrief&utm_medium=email

[spinningwrench]

I ended up ordering a Lycoming Thunderbolt as they were able to do a bunch of configuration changes I wanted.

[spinningwrench]

Brooks that is strange as Superior continues to pursue the engine parts business, possibly they are not supplying cranks at this time. I know Bob likes their cylinders. The interaction and responsive with the Thunderbolt sales guys and willingness to test and supply the engine with E-Mags was an important factory.

[rodsmith]

Some DARs will give you a 25hr phase one with a Thunderbolt engine. Probably depends on which prop you use with it.

[Nev]

Working on the Vans baffle kit for the IO540.

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[Nev]

Today I assembled part of the instrument panel.
Pretty happy with the utilitarian “Battleship Grey” look !

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[Bcone1381]

I wonder how it will look with white letters.

[davzLSA]

Thats a clean looking panel Nev. Mine wont be that pretty, Ill have steam gauges and a garmin g5. I dont totally trust the glass yet so engine gauges (mechanical gauges at that) and a altimeter and a airspeed will be steam gauges,

[Nev]

Where are you buying your Kydex material?

I got mine from Interstate Plastics.
Consider asking them to ship it rolled, otherwise they will freight it on a pallet. (Ask me how I know that )

[rodsmith]

DSCF1068.JPGDSCF1092.JPGDSCF1076.JPG Layed up the induction inlet modification to my nose bowl. 4 layers of 8 Harness Satin fiberglass cloth. It is conformable enough that I was able to use one piece per layer. Happy with how it turned out, now for the hard part, the finish work.