You are right; figured this out yesterday. The hinge is stuff and I hadn't looked at it close. With some effort I was able to get it to move.

whee wrote:You are right; figured this out yesterday. The hinge is stuff and I hadn't looked at it close. With some effort I was able to get it to move.

You'll find that the paint used is responsible for a lot of overly tight fits. That hinge could probably use some grease, but leave the paint on if possible for corrosion protection.

For other areas like painted holes, you'll find an overly tight fit too. Use a real spiral reamer or what I call a "flappy reamer": A slotted solid shaft well undersized for the hole with some doubled emory cloth fitted into the slot. The emory cloth provides a little tension against the inside of the hole while your drill motor turns and takes the paint off, but won't over-ream the hole.

Thanks for the tip Z.

I filed off a little too much of a landing gear attach fitting so it was junk. I decided to use it to see if I could bend the fittings in the brake my dad made or if we'd have to use a different method. I think with a little fiddling we can make it work.

Making the fittings perfect before bending...then bending is a pain in the arse....Cut the fittings over size. Make the bends, then make it look like the drawings. Drill the holes after welding. Sneak up in the hole diameter drilling each side...by their lonesome. Just under size on each side of a mount...then run a tapered reamer through both at the same time.. On the gear fittings I used a long chunk of all thread, inside tubing spacers to hold everything to the correct dimension...then fit to the fuselage insuring parallel with the longeron.
Mark

Thanks for posting how you did it Mark.

I thought about using all thread but decided since I have the gear I could just use those. All the fittings are already shaped to the drawings and drilled to 1/4" but not bent. I was following the method Eric shows in his manual. I plan to tack on the the straps then fit the fittings using the gear legs for spacing and 1/4 rod to make sure things are lined up.

For the float fittings I'm going to use another set of gear fittings and weld them on parallel to the longeron just like the gear fittings. I'm going to use the float fittings as a belly pod mount point.

It's cool that you're already thinking about a pod.

If you can keep the CG of the belly pod forward of the rear seat, I think you'll strike gold.

Being short of aft stowage space isn't a problem the BH suffers from

Battson wrote:It's cool that you're already thinking about a pod. .....
Being short of aft stowage space isn't a problem the BH suffers from

It's interesting that you're going from a Luscombe (with very limited baggage space) to a Bearhawk (which has oodles of baggage space), but still feel the need for a pod.

hotrod180 wrote:It's interesting that you're going from a Luscombe (with very limited baggage space) to a Bearhawk (which has oodles of baggage space), but still feel the need for a pod.

It's so he can carry a Luscombe with him.

I don't have much to add to all the advice you've been getting. I am building a Patrol from scratch. The only parts I've bought are the machined housings and internals for the landing gear shock system. I have about 450 hours in my fuselage on the gear with torque tube and tail mounted. I'm in the group that doesn't understand the need for the 2" stretch. The bearhawk gear fittings take a little time to get right, don't rush that one. Getting a proper bend radius on the fittings takes a lot of practice. The Patrol horz stabs use airfoil shaped ribs and I have a lot of time in the form blocks and shaping them. Those pre made parts from Avipro are nice. I made my gear legs 3" taller as my ski's I have for my ship have some really low pedestal's, that is my only design change and I ran that by Mr Barrows before I did it. The Patrol has gone back and forth on servo size, first small tabs, then large tabs then back to small. I wasn't aware of the 4 place having any complaints about pitch sensitivity. Wish I had the 18 large up front to buy the wings but I don't as I'm building out of pocket. I'm a 6 hour round trip drive from wicks. I went last fall and picked up all my aluminum for the wings and hauled it myself to avoid shipping damage risk. I have access to a nice 8 ft brake so spars will be coming soon. If you haven't already, buy the engine mount. I have about 40 hours in mine. Glad to see another Bearhawk in the works, they are under appreciated by many, especially those Super Cub snobs. Sorry for the long winded post.

Battson wrote:If you can keep the CG of the belly pod forward of the rear seat, I think you'll strike gold.

My rough idea is to make the pod run from the gear struts to station F-L, the rear cabin bulkhead. I want it so I can fit skis in the pod but the bulk of the storage space will be forward of the rear seat. Think I'm going to sorta model it after the Firman pod

hotrod180 wrote:It's interesting that you're going from a Luscombe (with very limited baggage space) to a Bearhawk (which has oodles of baggage space), but still feel the need for a pod.

Kids. If I didn't have kids I would have kept the Luscombe.

Tadpole wrote:It's so he can carry a Luscombe with him.

Yep, just need to figure a way to haul those long Luscombe wings.

Kevin wrote:If you haven't already, buy the engine mount. I have about 40 hours in mine.

Thanks for the post Kevin. I've been thinking about the profiled tail but I don't think I'm going to do it. If I could have ordered it from Avipro with profiled ribs I may have done it, maybe I could have I but I didn't ask Mark when I ordered.

If Avipro made a engine mount for the TCM IO360 I'd order it for sure but they don't. I'm not going to let that get in the way of installing the engine I want.

whee wrote:Thanks for the post Kevin. I've been thinking about the profiled tail but I don't think I'm going to do it. If I could have ordered it from Avipro with profiled ribs I may have done it, maybe I could have I but I didn't ask Mark when I ordered.

Whee,
On the 4 place, you just glue on wooden formers to get the profiled shape, no need for difficult metal work.
You can do the same with the vertical stabiliser, too. You use the top edge of the wing drawing to get the profile of the curve for either.
It takes about 3 hours to make the ribs and an hour to glue 'em on, if you muck around.



I couldn't say what difference they make,

I've not been staying current with the BH lately. What's the deal with the profiling? I don't recall that in Eric's stuff or in any Beartracks.

Battson wrote:I couldn't say what difference they make,

That's what my question is; do they make a real difference. I thought a profiled tail made it feel like there was ~20% more tail surface area and I think the tail has enough surface area as is. I can can gain 5mph in cruise I might be worth it.

I was able to reduce my h-stab angle from -4 degrees to -3 degrees.
I never flew with it at -4, so I can't say what speed gains that might have created, if any.

In terms of handling, yes the tail surfaces are already large enough.

p.s. from an aerodynamics perspective, the profiled surface should also create less drag, aside from any changes in angle of attack.

That bed mount engine mount for the 360 Continental won't be bad. I have a good friend hanging one on a Swift, comes with all the B.S. that certified airplanes are good for. I'm real familiar with the 360 cont as my dad owned a Cessna 337 for 24 years. We had the usual cracked cases deal but flew both engines to TBO,twice. I like the engine.

Kevin wrote:...... I made my gear legs 3" taller as my ski's I have for my ship have some really low pedestal's, that is my only design change and I ran that by Mr Barrows before I did it......

Kevin, Do you hang out at bearhawkforums.com much. I would like to hear more about the extended gear. Did you make it with heavier wall tubing or just longer? Are the legs 3" longer or does the plane actually sit 3" higher? I am just getting started on a Patrol and would like it to sit a little higher, I'm 6'5" so a little higher would make it easier to get in. And look cool.

Doug

DRLpatrol wrote:

Kevin wrote:...... I made my gear legs 3" taller as my ski's I have for my ship have some really low pedestal's, that is my only design change and I ran that by Mr Barrows before I did it......

Kevin, Do you hang out at bearhawkforums.com much. I would like to hear more about the extended gear. Did you make it with heavier wall tubing or just longer? Are the legs 3" longer or does the plane actually sit 3" higher? I am just getting started on a Patrol and would like it to sit a little higher, I'm 6'5" so a little higher would make it easier to get in. And look cool.

Doug

Doug, are you already running big tires? I think big tires are the best way to gain prop clearance and wing height and actually get some useful advantage (suspension, cushioning.) Long gear just reduce your forward visibility but you still can't roll over larger or rougher obstacles as well. I guess the one advantage is increased AOA on takeoff, which is why some Super Cub guys use the extended gear.

As for pods, there is a guy at Aurora airport making the coolest carbon fiber belly pod fuel tanks for Super Cubs. Carbon fiber is definitely the way I'd go if I was planning on the pod. Whee, did you get your answer about building the attach points? I might do this too so I have the option in the future.

Zzz wrote:Doug, are you already running big tires? I think big tires are the best way to gain prop clearance and wing height and actually get some useful advantage (suspension, cushioning.)

I agree with this. I don't know about the Patrol but the 4-place is already pretty tall; putting it on 35s makes it insane.

As for pods, there is a guy at Aurora airport making the coolest carbon fiber belly pod fuel tanks for Super Cubs. Carbon fiber is definitely the way I'd go if I was planning on the pod. Whee, did you get your answer about building the attach points? I might do this too so I have the option in the future.

Never got much of a response about attach points. It is on the list of questions for Bob. I plan to just use the float fittings and the rear gear leg attach point.

Hey guys....

Our Cubs 32 gallon belly tank pod uses a forward strap, a strap on the rear gear bolts and a strap at the rear of the pod. The tank weighs 32 pounds empty and with gas weighs 224 pounds.... We have welded on tabs but a lot of them are put on with stainless Adel type clamps around the lower longeron tubes. The Air-Glas pod like the one that Whee posted has just the two straps and rated at 170 pounds. It depends on how much weight you want to carry in it.... I think Whee is on track with strapping at the gear and float fittings if the pod is that long... If you are going to design it for around 200 pounds cargo then you might want to think about a third strap...

My 2C...

Cool projects...

Brian.