Category: Fuselage

Today my wife Cati showed up to help me make the fiberglass windshield fairing.        First we used packing tap the make the fairing shape between he boot cowl and the windshield.  Then we use mold release wax on the entire surface.

We cut the strips to the proper width and length.  Then Cati went to work on wetting the resin then squeezing the excess out on a table.  I took the strips and started laying them up on the windshield.  10 layers in all.

After curing for a day, I used masking tap the mark the edges.  Then used a band saw to trim it up.  Turned out much better than I would have imagined!

Cati is taking a well deserved break eating my lunch.  🙂

I once again used my arts and crafts skills to make pasteboard templates for the interior trim pieces.  Here is the wing root on the inside of the cabin.

Here is the wing root interior piece with the fuel sight gage with a new orange ball that actually floats this time!

Here are the interior pieces for the forward and lower cockpit.

Here is the top piece that Matt from Alaska made up for me.  You’d think these things would be easy to make, but it took a while!  Turned out great though and gives nice contrast.  It’s also very light.

Funny story.  Matt was visiting from Alaska and wanted to save on shipping for some heavy tools he ordered.  So he found me on the bear hawk forums and asked if he could have them shipped to my house so he could take them as checked luggage back to AK.  And a great friendship was born!

To say thanks for housing his tools for a while, he offered to stop by and help wrench on my Bearhawk.  We worked on a few odds and ends and he fabricated a few interior pieces.  But the bulk of our time was spent fiddling with the magnetos!

To begin with the internal gears weren’t clocked right so we had to re-clock them.  Then we found the impulse coupling was magnetized and wasn’t allowing the pawls to free fall.  Then the right mag had a bad grounding issue that was intermittent.  Matt was super patient and helped me noodle through these very perplexing issues.

After A LOT of fiddling, we finally decided to send off the left mag to have the impulse coupling replaced and deferred dealing with the right mag.  More on that to follow.  (Spoiler alert: I eventually went with electronic ignition on the right side).

I decided to make my own fuel indicator.  It was very easy and I recommend it.  Super light and no glass in the cockpit!

I bought these little balls that are supposed to float in the tube.  Wouldn’t you know it, it sank!  They’re a PMA part also!  So, I had to order more.  Oh well.

I’ve found that I don’t necessarily enjoy sewing.  However most of that is because I was using the wrong size needle for this leather.  I bought a needle designed for denim and it finally worked much better.

If I had it to over again, I’d do a much better job, but I don’t feel like doing it over!  🙂

Today Ron Decandia came by to do our third tech visit. Everything was good and Ron didn’t have any squawks for me.

Today I fabricated the mouse doors that allow the main door to be opened farther and provide a space for the lift strut to go.

Here’s the end product!  I attended a two day fiberglass class that the EAA put on.  It was great and taught me the skills necessary to pull this off.

 

I created a fiberglass cylinder that attached to the light mount then roughly installed it in the hole I cut.

I built up the microspheres around the mount so I could fiberglass it in.  I don’t have a picture of what it looked like after the fiberglass on the back, but I made sure it wasn’t going to move!  🙂

Microspheres on the front, then logs of sanding to make it all smooth.

I sprayed on a sandable primer with UV protection.

Turned out pretty good!

I used a new Mark III paint on the rear bulkhead.  I didn’t really like it very much.  I was looking for something that worked better on metal than PolyTone.  The paint seeped under my masking lines and didn’t end up as crisp as I’d like.  Oh, well.  I could remake it if it ends up bothering me that bad.