Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Got my "beater boards" laid out and cut out this morning, for the most part. Still need to radius the bending edge and a couple more tweaks. But the hard part is done.








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[Deftone]

Finally picked up my MDF and brought it home. I have it marked up and will start cutting tomorrow!

The journey begins!

[Chris In Milwaukee]

A journey of a thousand ribs starts with a sheet of MDF! Just keep swimming

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Got my new 20-ton press assembled and "updated" last night and ran a few ribs through it. Works a ton (well eight of them) better than the smaller 12-ton rig!

[Bdflies]

I've been working on the engine cowl, for the past couple of weeks. Actually spent three days, bending, trimming, shrinking and generally, wrestling with the lower section. A couple of phone calls located a set of rolls, long enough to handle the 'lids'. Not moving really quickly, but not producing too much scrap aluminum, either. Very uncharacteristic for me!

Bill

[whee]

Looks great Bill! Want to come make mine?😬 Why are you using .032 for cowl?

[Bdflies]

What a great compliment! Thank you. It's not hard, Whee. It just takes patience.
Two reasons for the .032";
1). On my plans, a notation on the cowling, states 032
2). A gorgeous Husky A1C sits in my hangar, not more than 20' from my workshop. Anytime I have the slightest question regarding virtually any aspect of my build, I meander over to the Husky and see how they did it. The Husky is a good flying, durable aircraft and I figure I could do worse than to employ their methods. The Husky cowl is .032". And no, it's not my Husky. I sold my A1 a couple of months ago. A VERY good buddy suggested to keep his plane in my (empty) hangar, for a while. I have a bunch of Husky time and I'm insured in his plane and he constantly tells me to fly it... Yeah, I'm a very lucky man!

[whee]

If the plans call for it I suppose it makes sense to go with it. Sounds like you have a really tough life.

[Bdflies]

"Tough life"? Not so much, these days. But don't tell anyone! 😎

[jim.mclaughlin924]

Finished up fuel system, AP servos and brake lines, Wings, tail, surfaces and interior are done. Time to get this think up on it's own tires.

[JimParker256]

Mark, what is the item in between your control stick assembly and the fuel selector in that first picture? Same question for the cylindrical item that appears to be installed in the fuel line just above that? It looks like you've got return lines for your fuel, so does that mean you're running a fuel injected engine? Thanks!

[jim.mclaughlin924]

Yes, using titan 360 with fuel injection. There is an electric boost pump, check valve in the pump bypass and the red part is a pressure regulator for the boost pump.

[Chewie]

I've been chipping away at my first main spar and ran into a bit of setback the past few days. Others have discussed the same elsewhere on the forum. I wasn't happy with the edge clearances on the main spar attach fitting for the Patrol, plus there was a sizable gap between it and the front-top cap strip. I scrapped the old fittings (still good for spacer spares) and made new ones. This was also a good time to trim the cap strips to final length. Lesson learned - extra margin is always good, even if it adds time later in the project I'd rather have the option especially the first go-around. Building has helped me develop an eye to see interface problems in advance, but as this proves I have a ways to go!

[hausburn]

Hi Chewie, I am in the process of cutting and shaping the spar attach fittings and wanted to ask what the edge distance was at the rivet line under the spar caps? If I use the drawing I get .25 inches.

[Chewie]

I don't remember what the rivet spacing would've come to. Even with perfect precision I think it was coming up short. In fact, if you go by the plans every attach angle will come up short because they are 5/32 rivets at the caps and the angle is only 1/2" wide.

What I would do on the fittings, since they are a pain to remake, is just rough cut them and lay them on, get the positioning right, then drill thru undersize, and that will tell you exactly where those rivets will pass through the fitting. Draw a clearance circle of appropriate diameter around each hole, and when you finish your fitting to final size keep it clear of those circles!

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Finished up flanging the center rib lightening holes, and got all the small ribs bent (flap nose, aileron nose, aileron pocket). Productive day!

http://bearhawkforums.com/forum/bearhawk-patrol-plans-build/19435-having-a-rib-party?p=21614#post21614

[Deftone]

Finished up my master form yesterday but wasn't happy with the result so scrapped it and starting from scratch today.

[Chris In Milwaukee]

If you sand up to, or just inside of the line, you'll be fine. Smooth is good so you have gentle curves when you bend. Did you sand at all, or are you just jigsawed at this point?

[Deftone]

It was during sanding that I decided it wasn't good enough. I got too aggressive with the power sander instead of finishing by hand.

You asked which form it was...would it have made a difference if it was my routing form? I guess there are larger tolerances as the edges will be bent into flanges anyway?

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Mainly curious since it's easy to remake the routing form. You only have one Mylar. But if you know where the problem lies, it's easy to compensate for it when you create your routing form.

[Zzz]

I drilled a single tab for a monadnock...lol. But I also put up 8 sq ft of bath tile.

[DRLPatrol]

Did not know the 4 place was big enough for a bathroom. Tile is kind of heavy isn't it?

Doug

[whee]

I didn't do anything, but my dad got some work done.

[JimParker256]

Man, that looks nice! Would your Dad like to come to Texas and "play" with my boot cowl?

PS - I think I just realized I need to borrow some more clecos!

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Did you get your instrument-panel-to-firewall-angle issue resolved?

[whee]

Thanks for the great compliment Jim! I'll pass it on to my dad. We need to get some more clecos too.

Chris, We resolved the issue with brute force. We tried every finesse method we could come up with but none worked. We ended up bending the angle with a deadblow hammer while holding a 2lb sledge against the back of the angle to keep from bending the firewall. Worked pretty good.

[JimParker256]

Good to get back to work after taking some time off for other projects, including preparing and detailing my Rockwell Commander 114 for sale, actually selling the plane (hooray - I think!), working on tornado damage relief projects in our county, a long-scheduled camping vacation trip with my wife, and various other Honey-Do projects... Just in time for the Monsoon rains we're having here in the Dallas area...

I purchased the aluminum angle for the Patrol's back window upper attach fittings. I found that Lowe's Aviation Supply has a decent assortment of 3-ft and 4-ft round, flat, angle, and square aluminum extrusions. Got one side cut to length, fitted and installed, then played around with the window frame while I figured out exactly how to fit it in place to install. Clamped it in place, drilled all the rivet holes, and de-burred everything. Figured out how the front of the window would be held in place (structurally), and trimmed the frame in preparation, but have not formed that "joggle" piece yet. Will wait until the other side is done, so I can do both at the same time. Oh, and THIS time, I'm waiting to rivet everything until ALL the pieces are formed and test-fitted. I've decided I've had enough practice removing pulled rivets. (Don't ask...)

I decided to go with aluminum instead of fabric to cover the seat frames (bad experience in the past with fabric seat supports stretching and sagging over time). So the next step (after the other window frame) will be to create poster-board patterns for them and begin fabrication.

[Chris In Milwaukee]

I ran across this video by accident yesterday, where a very talented metal-smith built some seats completely of aluminum. Very impressed! I wonder what the all-up weight of that assembly is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PNl7QwURPs

[JimParker256]

Nice video, and an incredibly talented guy doing the work. But no, I'm not planning anything remotely that complex. Just figured on replacing the fabric on the Patrol seats with a sheet metal piece riveted to the frame. Saw pictures similar to what I have in mind, just can't find them right now. May have been on BCP site instead of here...

[Chris In Milwaukee]

I have to imagine there aren't many who plan to go to that extreme. But I sure like it!

[Zzz]

Did not know the 4 place was big enough for a bathroom. Tile is kind of heavy isn't it?

Doug

Haha...it's a rock-solid interior.

[Zzz]

Chris In Milwaukee that video is amazing. For those who maybe didn't see the link because they're on Tapatalk, skip to minute 7:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PNl7QwURPs