Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[gregc]

I did my first condition inspection. Everything looked good with one exception. The fuel line exiting one of the tanks was touching where it passes through the rib at the wing/fuselage connection (the aft end of the tank that is on an angle). Given that I installed the tanks while the wings were on a table in what was basically an upside down position, I suspect the tank settled a little. I had not left enough clearance to account for that and it was just touching the edge of the hole. There is enough vibration that the rib was cutting into the aluminum line.

fuelline.jpg
Replacing the line and enlarging the hole a little was easy enough but as you can see in the picture, it was going to saw all the way through soon and would have made a mess. Something to watch out for.

[DBeaulieu]

Nice find!

[jaredyates]

Thank you Greg for sharing, that's a good reminder for what kinds of things to look for.

[TJ_Slice]

I did my first condition inspection. Everything looked good with one exception. The fuel line exiting one of the tanks was touching where it passes through the rib at the wing/fuselage connection (the aft end of the tank that is on an angle). Given that I installed the tanks while the wings were on a table in what was basically an upside down position, I suspect the tank settled a little. I had not left enough clearance to account for that and it was just touching the edge of the hole. There is enough vibration that the rib was cutting into the aluminum line.

Replacing the line and enlarging the hole a little was easy enough but as you can see in the picture, it was going to saw all the way through soon and would have made a mess. Something to watch out for.

Just curious, how big was the hole to start, and how big did you make it?

[Dpearson]

In the "how to add months to your build" category, I've at long last found a method for making wingtip lenses to cover the bays where I will mount my FlyLEDs RV-10 "The Works" lighting system.
Much of the time was spent kluging together a vacuum forming system, as my local lead on vacuum forming help fell through after I had done the fiberglass mods on the wingtips. So I built a "homebrew" setup consisting of:
1. Household oven (modified with an insulating box big enough to hold a 24"x24" sheet of Acrylic in a frame.
2. Vacuum table (with a Shop Vac as a vacuum source)

Lessons learned:
1. Buy way more raw material than you think you need.
2. Don't be surprised when you need to buy more.
3. Speed is paramount. If it took me more than a couple of seconds to move the acrylic from the oven to the vacuum table I couldn't get a good form.
4. Foot switch to control the shop vac helped (see #3)
5. Using an IR lamp to try to reheat the acrylic while it is under vacuum on the table is a great way to overheat the acrylic and make it bubbly.
6. Getting mad, saying "I don't care about bubbles", and continuing to heat the acrylic will overheat the gypsum plaster buck you spent a week curing and make it crack/explode. Then you get to cast and cure a new buck. Oops.
7. The Vans lenses don't fit Bearhawk wingtips (for me, at least)
8. Pre-heating the buck to 45C was useful, but not sufficient to get good forming. Covering the buck with flannel really helped. I think it provides some insulation keeping the buck from hardening the plastic on contact.

I still have a ways to go on this part of the build. I'm hoping to get back to working on parts of the airplane that are involved in making it fly soon!!!
pic2.jpg pic1.jpg

[jfoz]

Virgil does have a kit for the leading edge lights: Landing light kit is $1300
Add LED Nav, Strobe, Position for $900

[TJ_Slice]

I will 2nd what jfoz said, I just received my kit yesterday. The landing light kit includes the lights, attachment brackets, a cut and drill template, and the lenses. The lenses will have to be formed to the wing, but they are pre-drilled. These are the lights, and they come assembled from Bearhawk: https://flyleds.com/products/#!/Tail...ax/p/525013557

[fairchild1934]

Try a wool felt on the form. It should have better insulating power and it wont melt like a polyester based felt.
Lamp are generally too in-homogeneous in their ability to heat acrylic. a linear array of incandescent filaments or quarts bulbs is better- Prob the former.

[fairchild1934]

I am building the ribs for the horizonal stab. I am on the last one for one side. have to weld the trailing edge bushing in too. Then locate the through holes in the ribs for the diagonal brace once the ribs are fabbed. its going along pretty well so far. I expect the elevators will be a bit slower......