Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[DBeaulieu]

Past couple of days I fabricated and installed ELT and antennae mount plate. Routed cable for rear AeroLed strobe and tacked on some cable guides

ELT mount.jpg cable guide 1.jpg cable guide.jpg cable guide 2.jpg

[svyolo]

First engine start complete. Video too long to post and I am not smart enough to edit it to make it shorter yet.

[jaredyates]

Upload it to a site like youtube or vimeo and then post the link here please!

[svyolo]

SDS seems great, even if the "high school science project" wiring added months to the build. Before I hit the start switch, I already knew it would start because everything was showing working. I think Rotax has raised the bar for EFI, and the others will follow suit. But SDS quality is great, as is their customer support, the little that I have needed.

[svyolo]

I will upgrade to a Gopro or similar for the 1st flight and afterwords. My cam phone just shows the prop cranking and starting. No engine leaks, but one brake leaking at the bleeder.

[rodsmith]

Finally completed attachment of engine controls to the fuel servo and attachment of the alternate air control cable About a year and and a half ago I ordered vernier assist throttle and mixture controls from McFarlane. Problem is I ordered 6 foot cables which turned out to be too long (not sure how I screwed up that measurement). I discovered this about 3 months ago when I tried to install them. I managed to talk McFarlane into exchanging them for 5 foot controls even though it was well past their return window. Problem was the new cables were back ordered two months. It wasn't immediately obvious to me how to secure the cables. Fortunately there were threaded bosses on each side of the cold air induction that I could install aluminum plates for the cable bracket mounts. I initially crossed cables in front of the firewall, this left the mixture cable too short. I then crossed them behind the firewall and that worked fine. Like most seemingly simple tasks this took a lot more hours to complete than expected.

DSCF2360.jpg DSCF2358.jpg DSCF2368.jpg DSCF2356.jpg DSCF2364.jpg

[SpruceForest]

Second aileron framed up and just drill to size, deburr and dimple to go. Hope
to be alodyning and priming this weekend.

[DBeaulieu]

Finished up fuel line runs...

fuel valve lines.jpg

[rodsmith]

Completed my avionics wiring harness (Garmin G3X). I didn't trust taking measurements so laid up the wires between all the devices in place. I bundled them and removed the harness to the bench where it was way more easy to install the connectors. When I install the harness, I have 10-12 wires I will need to add to some of the connectors, that's why some of the DSUBs don't have the back shell installed yet. Besides the panel devices I have some boxes mounted on a panel on the back of the firewall. My ADHAR, pitch servo and remote comm are mounted under the front seats. The harness with connectors weights 4.0#, less than I thought it would.

DSCF2475.jpg

[DBeaulieu]

Looks like nice work Rod

[svyolo]

I did all my wiring as well which includes EFI. A lot of work. Surprisingly (to me) most of the labor was installing it all so it doesn't chafe/fatigue.

[fairchild1934]

I bent the trailing edge tubes for my rudder and prepping them to get spliced near the tail light bracket.

[spinningwrench]

Let the covering begin

IMG_0784.jpg

[DBeaulieu]

coin mat flooring.jpg Flyled Taildragger Max.jpg This past week I got my floordboards tweaked and trimmed after putting Coin Mat on and making fuel line and brake line pass-thru. Coin Mat is on the heavy side - likely would not do again, but the time and money has been spent on it so will press on as is. Also assembled and tested the Flyleds"Taildragger Max" light - (very nice, very very bright) for wing install. Likely will do one in each wing, once I figure out the mounting and wingskin lens fabrication

[alaskabearhawk]

I used some marine grade stuff for my floor as it met flammability standards. I sure wish there would be an alternative, but protecting the floor and sound deadening on all that sheet metal is worth it.

[DBeaulieu]

Paul, that makes me feel better about going with the coin mat. This stuff is the aircraft certified stuff I got from a Part 145 shop that does aircraft interiors.

[SpruceForest]

A bunch of metal fab work on the 0.032" gear leg closeout channels, upper LG straps in 0.063", the 30 degree/7/16" 0.080" radius bend straps for the aft gear and strut mount, and the straight and angled gear mount brackets for the fwd and aft gear mounts in 0.080". Most of these bends were air bends, which is to say a bend made into a V die or other non-bottoming die, so the correct combination of bottom die width would help maintain the pressed parabola close to the design radius. After playing with this on my HF 20 ton press with Swag Offroad standard 20" finger brake, I made up a design radius upper die as well to help things along. Both the 0.063" upper gear straps and the aft gear mount/strut mount 0.080 straps ended up right on the desired radius.

IMG_0895.jpg IMG_0898.jpg IMG_0896.jpg IMG_4642.jpg IMG_0899.jpg

For the gear mount brackets, I kept the bend radius to the minimum to allow as much of a flat as possible to take the 3/8" bolt head/washer and washer/nut. I did some test pieces to Bob's developed layout over a 7/8" bar mandrel with a hammer, and was not happy with the outcome. The lower tubing cut-out was problematic, so I went to a bottoming dies design using some scrap 1/2" plate for the base and some 3" pieces of 1" x 1" bar. The top die was made with some 7/8" square bar stock tacked onto a piece of the 3/4" x 3" bar that fits into the Swag upper die holder. I used this same 3/4" x 3 stock to get out the upper dies for the 9/16" and 7/8" diameter dies.
IMG_0925.jpg
IMG_0930.jpg IMG_0933.jpg IMG_0934.jpg

Finally, as mentioned in other posts, I bent the 0.032" closeout channels for the gear legs with the returns hammer formed over an interior oak mandrel.

IMG_0910.jpg IMG_0911.jpg IMG_0918.jpg

[DBeaulieu]

That is some nice work!

[rodsmith]

Agree, very nice work!

[spinningwrench]

I love a machinist's approach, nice work.

[SpruceForest]

Was fun… have a few more pieces of hardware to do, but filling the fuse hardware box with what does not get welded into the gear legs. Waiting for fuse tubing delivery… we ended up at about $1800 each… not terrible for material these days.

[DBeaulieu]

Received prop and spinner...It's getting crowded in the garage

MT prop and spinner package.jpg

[rkennell]

Haven't posted here in a while but have been progressing. With the trailing edges riveted on the ailerons and flaps, the conduit and wires installed in the wings and with the lights installed in the wingtips the wings are completed expect for covering, painting and installing on the fuselage . Still working with the lens for the ldg-taxi lights. I had the portion of the wingtip that I removed 3d scanned and then had my son 3d print a mold to form the lens, which I still have to do. It has been a learning process for an old guy. Installed the header tank, fuel pumps and filters under the pilot seat. (The seat cushions are from Sport Aircraft Seats and they installed nicely.) At OSH I picked up my motor from Mike M and the air-box from Brooks C. Really enjoyed visiting with both gentlemen.
I still have a lot of things to install on the IO 360 but have been acquiring pieces and parts that are ready to be installed. The airbox in nicely made but will take a little modification to work with the SDS throttle body. I have been pleased with the SDS system. It is finely crafted and like the Companion kit from Mark, the workmanship is excellent. Yesterday, I finally got around to working on the sight gauges again. It has been one of those items that I thought I had done then I read something on the forum that caused me to revisit them again. This time it was putting tubing around them to give them support.
I am about to start covering. Maybe it will look more like I have been doing something when people come and visit.
IMG_5260.jpg IMG_5234.jpg IMG_5237.jpg IMG_5271.jpg IMG_5227.jpg IMG_5229.jpg IMG_E4805.jpg IMG_5266.jpg

[rodsmith]

Installed the yaw servo. I initially had intended to just install the bracket, wiring harness and pulley brackets for this and see how the autopilot worked without it. So glad I changed my mind. I would have never been able to complete the installation once the boot cowl was back on. As it was it was a struggle for two of us to get the capstan bridle swaged to the cross cable. No room to operate the nicopress tool under the panel

DSCF2496.jpg

[SpruceForest]

Milled out the fuse table components less the top last week... all of that 2x material is milled to 1.25" x 3.25" with four sides square, so it goes together without twist of other issues. On the spar bench, I ran my rails inside the legs, but because we wanted to be able to square our bracing structure for the tacked top and bottom, the upper and lower rails were run outside. There is another 24" long section that we will add for the bottom of the fuse, but given space constraints and the fact that Carlo's wife insists on parking her Tesla in what appears to her husband and myself to be a perfectly good workshop, that will have to wait, After bending up the upper 3/4" longerons, we blocked up the upper fuse and called it a night after a quick test-fit. On to coping out the rest of the upper tubing this week. FWIW, the free edge of the ply gets trimmed and routed flush to the rails once the fuselage frame goes 3-D.

IMG_0963.jpg IMG_0964.jpg IMG_0965.jpg IMG_0962.jpg