Denali wrote:
I mean you can have a square engine with stroke and bore being equal. You can run an engine square say 26 and 26. You can run square-tailed Cessnas. Hey, it seems only natural to run square wheels... makes sense to me.

Mythbusters did a great episode on this. Here's a short clip:

-30F here today has the same effect ^^^

My view for most of the evening:
image by whee8e, on Flickr

If I hadn't spent most of the day fixing the hole in the boat I would have had the gear fully installed and welded. Hopefully tomorrow.

Those struts are weird to move into place aren't they? They're designed for the static empty weight and they're a touch tight when it's naked.

Yes they are and they are heavier than they look.

Lots of welding but not much visual progress.

Side formers going on.

Untitled by whee8e, on Flickr

Untitled by whee8e, on Flickr

Untitled by whee8e, on Flickr

I followed the advice in one of the build manuals and welded on my formers/skylight structure before the wing fittings. Not sure that is good advice because now welding on the wings attach fittings is going to be a pain. In the next couple weeks I'm going to mate the wings to the fuselage just to make sure everything is good before I finish weld all the fittings.

I don't know anything about BearHawks, but I do see some really nice work.

Every little step is a step forward.


Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kinds words Oli. My work is mediocre but getting better. My dad does a fine job so I've been glad he has done a lot of the fabrication and left me with the welding.

I'm going the opposite direction, Whee. I cut off the 2 center half-chord formers that come welded to the fuselage to fabricate my own skylight structure.

Looking good, I didn't realize you still had to fab so many components on that thing.

Nice work, Whee!

It's a good thing I'm not building a plane. I'd spend all my time sitting in it, rolling around the driveway on the casters Flintstone-style making engine noises.

Good work. All the details take a lot of time. The tubing structure goes together fast but the gingerbread work takes forever. The good thing is you get to locate components where you want them.

Kevin wrote:Good work. All the details take a lot of time. The tubing structure goes together fast but the gingerbread work takes forever. The good thing is you get to locate components where you want them.

That's where the "90% done, only 90% left to go" expression comes from.

Will you raise the lower door formers for seaplane doors or go with the mouse door to clear the wing strut?

Oregon180 wrote:It's a good thing I'm not building a plane. I'd spend all my time sitting in it, rolling around the driveway on the casters Flintstone-style making engine noises.

I'm putting the front seat frames in soon so come on by

m_moyle wrote:Will you raise the lower door formers for seaplane doors or go with the mouse door to clear the wing strut?

That's the current plan but if I run out of steam I might just buy some doors off someone with a kit that wants seaplane doors. I don't want to weld in another tube so I'm trying to figure a way to raise the sill 2" and have it be strong enough. My sills are AL attached with welded tabs and rivets.

I'm about 25% done with 150% to go

I don't have pics on this iPad of my aluminum door sill plates. Made standoff box style brackets to support the elevated door thresholds. If made from oh three oh mild steel, the thresholds would be pretty easy to fabricate. Will fire up the PC

The pic with me holding the door recess...in the back ground you can see the box like structure supporting the threshold. Using .032" 2024T3
The pic with the left control stick visible with the English wheel in the background is another view of the threshold supports.

m_moyle wrote:I don't have pics on this iPad of my aluminum door sill plates. Made standoff box style brackets to support the elevated door thresholds. If made from oh three oh mild steel, the thresholds would be pretty easy to fabricate. Will fire up the PC

Thanks for posting the pics Mark, some good food for thought. I'm also leaning toward raised aluminum threshold, probably with seaplane doors. Looking to gain a little extra width at the same time.

Great pics Mark, thanks! Did you raise the door sill more than two inches? The pics make it look like you did.

Think my skylight structure is pretty much done.

Untitled by whee8e, on Flickr

Untitled by whee8e, on Flickr

2-3/4" I believe...I need to measure to be sure....if I can get at it. The Bearhawk is stuffed into a corner of the shop...with T111 around it to protect it while I do the Pacer..

Nice work on the greenhouse!