Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[huntaero]

Finished painting the fuselage using Stewart systems paint and fabric Process. Used a Paint mask from Sam at aircraft stencils (sam@aircraftstencils.com) IMG_3455.jpgIMG_3458.jpgIMG_3467.jpgIMG_3469.jpgIMG_3477.jpgIMG_3481.jpgIMG_3516.jpgIMG_3479.jpg

[AKKen07]

Beautiful job!

[Nev]

Woah very nice !

[Bcone1381]

I echo with Aero Tango...the Maple Leaf layout is very innovative!

[huntaero]

Hi Mark
Im located just outside Winnipeg in Garson Manitoba.

[rv8bldr]

A little too far to come for a peek at your airplane; I'm just outside of Ottawa :-)

[huntaero]

When im done ill fly out for a visit hopefully this spring want to make Oshkosh i have friends in Renfrew

[rv8bldr]

Let me know when you are coming. I live about a 10-15 minute flight south-east of Renfrew in Cedar Hill, ON and have a 1400' grass strip at the house that I fly my Maule out of (pretty much directly south of Arnprior CNP3). .I'll send you the Lat/Long so you can drop in if you have the time.

[Gerhard Rieger]

Made a jig to help to get the holes drilled square and centre, it will work for all the holes at the lower end of the strut, and the first hole at the wing connection.
the through holes will be done using the actual strut brackets.

[AKKen07]

Wow, that is hard core. I pretty much took a shotgun to my struts by comparison.

[Nev]

Rainy days here so no flying for a few days. I downloaded the Dynon data and uploaded it to a free account at Savvy Aviation. I am able to see all the stalling speeds at each flap setting, and the AOA they occurred at. It was interesting to note that the lowest speed for each flap setting occurred after the maximum pitch angle.

Also of interest is the CHT's. They appear to have decreased about 30°f at 28" MAP. I can see that cylinders 1, 2 and 6 are running the hottest. I'm going to remove small baffles in front of 1 & 2 which should allow them to run cooler. The oil cooler is ducted from behind #6, and the oil is running quite cool. I might look at making a seasonally adjustable vane to reduce airflow to the cooler, and allow more to pass the fins on #6 cylinder.

Another interesting point was that the full throttle IAS has increased since the first couple of flights. Not sure if this is due to the engine starting to be run in, or the changes I've made to fine tune the control surface positions. Possibly a combination of everything.

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[AKKen07]

You probably know this already but I didn’t! I just read Mike Busch’s Engine book (owner of Savvy…) and he does mention the increase in performance and decreased CHTs upon breaking in. I’d say you’re good and done with that concern.

[jaredyates]

It sure is fun to play around with the data like that. I took a local flight in 303AP to catch up on some very overdue photography and get some fuel. Here it is parked in front of the old hangar site, just a few hundred feet up the hill from its current interim hangar.
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[Utah-Jay]

Glad you are back in the air

[nborer]

Awesome to see that you're back in the air in such a fine machine!

[robcaldwell]

Nice to see!

[Dpearson]

I leak tested my fuel tanks. They say "Hi!".

[Nev]

Hey guys, here a video showing the first start, first takeoff and flying footage of my early flights. It's all in a pretty random order so you may want to skip through it a bit. The commentary is about the flight testing and the adjustments I've made so far.

First flight

[robcaldwell]

Nice video! That thing sounds like a beast with that 540 and those 3 blades!

[Sir Newton]

Very encouraging video. Your CofG is spot on. imho

[RobinDeMarco]

Great video!

[rodsmith]

That is a great video Nev! Very informative, I wish more people would document their initial flights and testing like this.

[marcusofcotton]

Thanks so much Nev! Extremely informative, helpful, and inspirational - Great presentation!

[svyolo]

Doors painted and complete yesterday.

[Mark Goldberg]

Looking good John. Seems you are going for the high visibility look like Nev in New Zealand. Mark

[svyolo]

Sort of a dull yellow. It took a bit of experimenting on small parts to get the Stewarts paint to match the low grade sheen of Oratex. Basically a very flat, smaller version of orange peel. I didn't like the look of glossy paint next to Oratex. Never quite looked right to me. Maybe a different color it would look better.

I think it will make repairs easier as well. Sort of like texture on walls.

[svyolo]

Started fitting the Vans' FAB today, even though I haven't built the cowl yet. My EFI throttle body is about half the height of a Marvel carb or MFI fuel servo. I was hoping to keep it all, or mostly inside the lower cowl, or just protrude slightly with just a small blister on the outside. I mounted the FAB as far rearward as I could. I will cut off most of the forward part of the FAB that normally penetrates the lower cowling. I have the nose bowl fairly accurately located. It looks like I will need a small blister, 1/2" to 1" inch deep, and 6-8 inches long to clear the FAB to the lower cowl. I will feed the engine air hopefully from one of the intakes, which will hopefully seal the lower cowl a bit better, and make lower cowl removal easier.

[rodsmith]

Finally received 8.50x6 Aero Classic smooth tires and tubes from Desser. I first tried to buy these in early September, they have been out of stock since then. Last week they finally got some in. If anyone is interested, they are still in stock today. I had initially been planning on getting Desser retreads, which are a lot cheaper but quite a bit heavier. Several people use the smooth Aero Classic in our area and are happy with them. People have had less luck with the 4-ply treaded Aero Classics. They tend to pick up thorns in the grooves and go flat when operating off field in CO and Utah.

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[Gerhard Rieger]

filedata/fetch?id=71830&d=1642276265&type=thumbfiledata/fetch?id=71831&d=1642276266&type=thumbfiledata/fetch?id=71832&d=1642276271&type=thumbfiledata/fetch?id=71833&d=1642276277&type=thumbfiledata/fetch?id=71834&d=1642276280&type=thumb I made the cable through holes in the wing, had to add a small vesconite bush to align the cable at the bottom of the strut. I also added a small channel under the floor panels to allow for more clearance for the aileron cable. It actually works better than expected. Made up the aileron cables, swaged and rigged up temporarily. Final adjustments will be done while fight testing.

[Chris Werner]

Made some stringers to go between the firewall and instrument panel. Getting the boot cowl wrapped up.