Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

I installed the left windows. Actually I did it several times! I ended up creating two C channels that were 1.5” x .625” x 1.5”. I notched them to clear the stand off tabs for the window frames. That was the easy part. The curved part of the “D” window was the hard part. I tried several options. Ultimately my dad fabricated the curved part out of an .025 sandwich. It slid over the channels that ran the length of the window with enough overlap to create enough rigidity. It came out good, so far. When I cover the interior I’ll know for sure.
 

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Perry Kuznar said:
Looks great, Brooks! Will a standard sewing machine handle that fabric density, or do you use a commercial grade unit?
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I'm using a commercial grade Juky sewing machine I use for Upholstery. I did not try it on my light wieght standard machine. I think it would sew it up with a measure of difficulty though.
 
Got my McFarlane engine control cables in this past week and have done initial mock up/install - smooth as butter! Not sure if the angle on the mixture cable is too much and have a query into their cable/tech support guy. McFarlane was/is great to wok with. There is about a five week wait time for custom cables.
Throttle and Mixture cable fit.jpg
 
DBeaulieu said:
Got my McFarlane engine control cables in this past week and have done initial mock up/install - smooth as butter! Not sure if the angle on the mixture cable is too much and have a query into their cable/tech support guy. McFarlane was/is great to wok with. There is about a five week wait time for custom cables.
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Can you re-clock the bracket that secures the mixture cable to the mounting plate?
 
Bcone1381 said:
Can you re-clock the bracket that secures the mixture cable to the mounting plate?
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That's the back-up plan...maybe enough cable slack between firewall pass thru clamp to cable clamp on base plate to re-clock. Will disassemble and check possibilities if McFarlane says "No-Go" as it is now. I do not want to have another cable made!!$$
 
Okay, here is a "re-clock" of the cable clamp to reduce the angle to the mixture control arm. Limited by amount of available cable flex I had between firewall clamp and cable clamp on sump. Took out some of the angle. Will run it by McFarlane again...if they "no-'go" again I'll be struggling on how to proceed (besides ordering a new cable with different clamp positioning :()
Throttle and Mixture cable refit.jpg
 
Bcone1381 said:
Today I started to fabricate a legitimate cargo net. I fit single 1” webbing strap from the right rear seat belt fitting up behind the rear seat the on an angle to the top fuselage cross tube at the aft cargo area. I then crafted this net on the bench and held it together with staples. I will see it up at home then attach my connecting hardware.
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It’s quite obvious to see my cargo net is made of webbing that terminates at four places.

I installed eye bolts in the floor. The Eye Bolts replaced the AN5 bolts that hold the rear seat lap belt to the threaded fitting in the floor. I will wrap the bottom terminals of the net to them using a two bar wrap.

The top terminals will use metal cam lock adjusters. These will be sewn in. But how strong will the stitching be when I sew them in? How strong are my Cam Adjusters? If I ask the net to hold 200 pounds at 4 G’s will it hold? How about a 9 g crash?

I tested it and found the weak point. When my cam lock adjusters pinched down on the webbing at a measured 600 pounds the squeeze on the webbing from the little cam lock teeth weakened my webbing and it failed there. A loop that was made by stitching a 5 legged “W” did not fail. A three leg “W” failed at 500 lbs. Back Stitching the start and finish end improves strength.

This was a cool test. Jared, is this worthy of its own thread? If so feel free to create it.

Making a custom exact fit cargo net has a lot of value. It’s confidence building to say a 600 pound force at four points might hold 2400 pound force.
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Mark Dickens said:
If it moves smoothly, I'd think you'd be ok...let us know what McFarlane says!
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McFarland stated that the "...second fit looked better than the first, would work, but not sure for how long." So after I had time to think about things, I fabricated a different bracket which allow me to reposition the clamp slightly more aft and inboard. This freed up enough cable slack to increased the clocking angle. Results are good alignment with smooth full range of mixture arm travel. Kudos to Randy at McFarland, who offered to fabricate a new cable with different dimensions as required for half-price. He wanted me to be fully satisfied with the cable and setup. Nothing but high marks for McFarland IMHO

Throttle and Mixture cable refit 2a.jpg
 
DBeaulieu said:
McFarland stated that the "...second fit looked better than the first, would work, but not sure for how long." So after I had time to think about things, I fabricated a different bracket which allow me to reposition the clamp slightly more aft and inboard. This freed up enough cable slack to increased the clocking angle. Results are good alignment with smooth full range of mixture arm travel. Kudos to Randy at McFarland, who offered to fabricate a new cable with different dimensions as required for half-price. He wanted me to be fully satisfied with the cable and setup. Nothing but high marks for McFarland IMHO

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There's peace of mind right there!
 
Primed the last 29 aluminum parts in the wings, mostly flap and aileron parts, using the standard 5 step process with epoxy primer. Weather here in the PNW is starting to shut down with high humidity and lowering temps. I prime outside and am glad I got all the processing done so I can assemble this winter. Any recommendations for corrosion proofing the wing struts. Are the insides of the struts primed? If so how did you do it. Also I need to learn how to prime steel weldments. Any tips appreciated.
 
geraldmorrissey said:
Primed the last 29 aluminum parts in the wings, mostly flap and aileron parts, using the standard 5 step process with epoxy primer. Weather here in the PNW is starting to shut down with high humidity and lowering temps. I prime outside and am glad I got all the processing done so I can assemble this winter. Any recommendations for corrosion proofing the wing struts. Are the insides of the struts primed? If so how did you do it. Also I need to learn how to prime steel weldments. Any tips appreciated.
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For steel, just sand blast the parts and then follow the paint directions. For ep-420, wipe the parts with c2210 and spray. Don't wait more than a few hours between blasting and painting. I haven't heard of anyone corrosion proofing the inside of the struts but I'm sure there must be ways.
 
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