Kit #63 arrived!

[N204jh]

The day finally arrived - Kit #63 was delivered by Cunningham Transport (the spin-out of Stewart Transportation). I've included pictures of the delivery and what a BH5 looks like being delivered.

I finished inventory today and all was present. Note that a number of items are now assembled, including lower front seats with latches, cargo door hardware, and aux tanks installed in wing. Virgil keeps improving the kit and making it more straightforward to build.

Over the past 2 weeks, I received numerous packages from Aircraft Spruce (the full hardware kit), the 8.50x6 tires, and other small parts. Very few parts are backordered which is quite the change from the past, as far as I understand from other builders.

To answer some of my past forum questions, the only documentation included was two inventory lists. As Virgil stated, all documentation is on the website, with the big exception that there is no finishing manual yet. The AviPro (legacy) manuals on the website are the Wings and Fuselage only, not their Finishing manual. The new Wings drawings / instructions look great (I printed them on large format paper) and I can't wait for the Fuselage and Finishing drawings / instructions in the next few months. (Fingers crossed). I decided NOT to buy a set of plans after talking to a number of builders. Definitely the most challenging part of building a Bearhawk QB kit is the lack of documentation, but with the forum's help, I'll git'r done!

I will occasionally post here, but probably not as thorough as Jay Townsend on his Companion build. My builders log is here: https://eaabuilderslog.org/?s=N816HH

Wish me luck as a first time builder!! :)

[alaskabearhawk]

Good luck! One bite at a time and it will get done.

[BrokenStraw]

Enjoy the journey.

[Westward_Flyer]

Congratulations! I’m excited to follow along, counting down the days/years for mine!

[Utah-Jay]

Cool, enjoy the journey

[N204jh]

Thanks, Jay! The dream is finally happening. And I have a lot of flying to catch up with your gorgeous videos.

[U2fletch]

Congratulations! post pics of your shop setup. We've been building for about 5 months now. Following your build site.
Here is ours: https://eaabuilderslog.org/?s=u2fletch

[N204jh]

Jeff, I poured over your builder log. It's so nice to have you 5 months ahead of me. Looking at the log, I already have sooo many questions, especially since you're an experienced serial builder.

Some quick questions:
1) Looks like your ELT is in the middle of rear empennage just behind the rear panel, and you decided to keep the ELT antenna inside, right? Anything special in positioning of the antenna so it doesn't pick up interference from the fuselage tubing?
2) You also put your COM2 antenna back there - inside or outside? Couldn't quite determine.
3) What are the locations of your GSA 28 servos? And you're doing 3 axis with yaw damper as well as trim servo using the Ray Allen electric trim?
4) Why fabric the seats? Is fabric sufficiently strong to hold the foam and cover and the passenger weight?
5) Sounds like you're going with Oratex for fabric?

Thanks much!

[N204jh]

I received my kit earlier than expected and my workshop is not quite ready. Not much to show yet. But I'm getting there.

[U2fletch]

N204jh, Antenna is inside the fuselage tubing, yes. The frequency of the ELT is high enough that that there won't be much interference from the tubing. It's a backup anyway. I always fly with a Garmin Inreach.

The Com2 antenna is indeed inside the fuselage. According to the antenna maker, the antenna needs to be within 45 degrees of vertical, for the correct polarization. Also metal tubes that are nearby are okay if they cross at 90 degrees to the antenna. This reduces reflectance issues.

The aileron servo is in the right wing, using a pushrod to direct drive the linkage. The Pitch and Yaw servos are behind the cargo bulkhead. The rudder servo capstan uses a pull-pull setup with pulleys to engage the rudder cables. The pitch servo uses a capstan to direct drive one elevator cable, since it is a closed loop. There are pics on the build site.

The elevator trim uses two Ray Allen actuators inside each elevator to direct drive the tabs via a short linkage.

The seat frames are fabric covered. The build plans have a note to fabric cover the frames, so this is normal. The Oratex is ridiculously strong. At Oshkosh, in their booth, they had 2x2 wood frames about 2 feet square covered in Oratex, and they encouraged people to jump on the frames try to stretch, maim, or harm the fabric. The seats are very comfortable with 3" foam cushions.

The plane will indeed be covered in Oratex. One of our guys here at Pegasus built 6 Carbon Cubs at the rate of one per year for others, and they were all Oratex. No issues so far with the heat and sun down here. Some of them were covered in very dark colors too. I talked with the Oratex guys directly and attended their seminars where they described the circumstances surrounding the reported failures, all of which were installer error. Usually guys who had experience with other covering types and did not follow the directions.

[N204jh]

Jeff,
Thank you so much for the thorough answers! I'm just getting started after organizing and planning everything.

John Hansen
Leavenworth, WA

[Bcone1381]

The Com2 antenna is indeed inside the fuselage. According to the antenna maker, the antenna needs to be within 45 degrees of vertical, for the correct polarization. Also metal tubes that are nearby are okay if they cross at 90 degrees to the antenna. This reduces reflectance issues.

I just gave a report on AAE dipolle antenna in the "Product Review" part of the forum. Installing an internal com antenna in the fuselage resulted in poor performance for me.

https://bearhawkforums.com/forum/product-reviews/34602-advanced-aircraft-electronics-antenna/page2

[gregc]

My experience aligns with Brooks. Internally mounted horizontal dipoles can work but in general you are better off with an external vertical for the following reasons:

- the fuselage tubes can shield/interfere with the radiation pattern
- horizontal dipoles are inherently more directional than vertical antennas
- most receivers work a bit better when the transmitter and receiver antenna polarization is the same and the majority of aircraft and fixed base stations have vertical antennas