One of the things that I find most enjoyable/interesting/frustrating about building one's own airplane is the decision making.

Should I build a skylight or not? That's an easy one.

Should I build seaplane doors or not? Well again, for some easy, for me it took some time to decide it's worth delaying the project, yet again, for awesome doors.

Then there was the harnesses. Should I use the default 3-point setup, or fix it and install some real shoulder harnesses? Yep, harnesses, and more welding to make sure I have a strong mount for that.

Now I'm working on some other decisions, but I'm not settled one way or another. So I ask you, my like minded people.... what makes sense, what would you do....

Item #1 (or well, the first one I'll ask about, the others have already been decided):

Landing gear.

The bearhawk comes with this gear that's got stuff all over it. Some trim it up so that ABW fit, others leave it like it is and cover it. I'm thinking about cutting all of that stuff off and putting Atlee Dodge style aluminum angle steps on it so that I have a front (for fueling) and rear step along with a cleaner look.

Then the decision to cover/sheet it or not. I'm already going to add another tab to support the brake line on the lower part, so I can just leave it naked. Either way it will be powder coated.

So what say you? Help me decide.

grrr, everything else understands orientation.... not phpbb I guess... Use your imagination, cause I'm too lazy to fix it....

I’m trying to squeeze all the speed I can out if my BH so I covered the gear legs with fabric. If you don’t care that much about the speed I’d leave them uncovered and cut off all the fairing stuff.

The AD step, I can’t help you there. On my plane I don’t think they’d help with fueling and I don’t care for how they look so I wouldn’t put them on.

FYI: The newer kits already have the fairing stuff modified for bushwheels.

Kent White the Master will be at my place this Friday...weather permitting...only two flyable days this month so far...prolly got 2” of rain in the past 24 hours blew plus sixty last night....one project is to build removable aluminum fairings for the Pacer’s PA 18 gear from Ak Airframes.. I added the entry step that is very similar to the Bearhawk...is a duplication of the AK Airframes re-fueling step. Hopefully we’ll finish up the faring at the wheel/brake we started last year. Already have 26” Goodyear’s on it.. will make sure 31” ABW’s will clear.

Surprised nobody else replied other than the BH crew.

The whole point to experimental for me is to customize (cause it's not really cheaper), so if you could do whatever you want to your ride, what would you do? I'm asking because I'm hoping to have the fuse done and off to powder coat in October, so now or never!

schu

Is the idea to make it faster or look better/different? I'm not nearly remotely extendedly or any other "-ly" as far along as you are, so not sure I have a valid observation.

My stock Maule gear, though, has an aluminum covering on it. It's riveted on, so it's not really accessible for anything. But I reckon it does make it a little less draggy. The ABI Maule gear, either regular height or extended, is wide open. I imagine you could cover it with fabric if you wanted to. But it's pretty "basic" without all the sticky-outy stuff that the Bearhawk gear has on it. But the Bearhawk gear does have that trailing-edge sort of thing going that would probably make it a little less draggy. But if you're planing to put on the big angle iron, I guess it defeats the purpose of the aerodynamic improvements.

If you're planning big tires, I like the beefy utilitarian look of the open gear leg myself. Then you could remove the extra bits that get in the way of stuff.

But if I were using normal tires ("normal" for me would be 850s), and if I were building the gear for me, I'd weld on some tapering airfoil shaped ribs onto the gear leg and wrap it with aluminum in a true airfoil shape.

You already know my thoughts on these matters But I am always surprised to see other opinions, often more pragmatic than my own.

Naked legs are draggy, but they look cool, and you don't have to worry about damaging the fabric or anyone stepping on it.

Long step is useful with seaplane doors, and if the angles are right to actually stand forward of the leading edge for fueling. I don't recall off the top of my head how far forward the filler necks are on the BH tanks.

Looking at this photo, that long step angle iron doodad looks like would be great for helping out while refueling if it goes our fairly far.

The Cub style step wouldn't help with refueling on the Bearhawk. The filler necks are too far outboard.
You have to stand on the bushwheel and put a knee on the strut, and even the it's a stretch. It wouldn't work if you had small tires or have short stature.

I reckon 4-place BH without gear fairings look "chubby", the legs look disproportionate to the plane - especially with small tires, but lets not go there!

I personally like covered gear legs. Less drag, faster which means less fuel to accomplish mission which means less fuel to carry. Also, I think that beautiful White, Yellow and Black airplane a couple posts above would not look as nice with bare gear legs. Just my opinion.

Kurt

Cover em. You’d be surprised at how much drag uncovered legs create.

MTV

I have extended gear on my Maule.
The original gear to fuselage fairing can be reused but the main gear fairing will not.
I did before and after speed tests after i made fairings of .020 with a filler at the step.
I gained 5+mph IAS at full power at 5000msl on 8.50x6, so doing about 155 then 160 mph TAS.
At 85mph the difference is not as great of course.

Battson is right, You need to use a ladder or sit on top of the wing to refuel the airplane. I welded steps on the front of my gear thinking that they would help for refueling but all I use them for is cleaning my skylight which I wish I wouldn’t have installed.

Bhawk wrote:Battson is right, You need to use a ladder or sit on top of the wing to refuel the airplane. I welded steps on the front of my gear thinking that they would help for refueling but all I use them for is cleaning my skylight which I wish I wouldn’t have installed.

The step or the skylight?

Both, it’s to hot in the summer with the skylight. I did change out the clear glass for smoked glass and that helped some but it’s still hot.

In regards to the skylight, Every plane I’ve ever had that had one or a bubble canopy. I’ve worked hard to negate the heat that was transferred because of them.
From my perspective were I building I wouldn’t install one. The only time I have found them useful is when I’m doing unusual attitude flying and looking up more than normal .

Having built one, I would definitely go with the skylite - situational awareness is greatly improved in a turn. I didn’t notice the heat from the skylite in southern OK, so I doubt it’d be a problem in AK. Tint is good, though. The fabric on the gear legs does tend to get beat up; I’d suggest heavy fabric, or even metallizing them - bend some 2024-T3 around the front tube, a few monadnocks on the upper and lower channels and some 6-32’s on the trailing edge. The latter would allow brake line access if needs be.

jrc111 wrote:Having built one, I would definitely go with the skylite - situational awareness is greatly improved in a turn.

This is why I installed one. In a Bearhawk your head is way up in the wing root so you have to duck down to see out the side windows and it’s near impossible to see well in a turn. The Luscombe is the same way but it has a small skylight which I used frequently to look for traffic. When flying 6MK I felt like I was driving a 10-wheeler with no mirrors.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

As for skylight, yea, I fly in the mountains, in Alaska, so that was a must..... but... after this feedback, I think I'm going to mount some sort of tabs so I can make/attach some sort of fabric cover. Maybe I should build some sort of sun-visor.... it's only weight right?

As for the gear, after a few posted pictures, I agree, the covered gear does look better on the bigger bearhawk, and the report of 5mph is very convincing.

So I'll either cut the crap off of the legs and wrap them with .020 2024 in an airfoil shape, then powder coat the aluminum, or I'll modify the bearhawk stuff to accept ABW and cover with heavy fabric. One advantage of the .020 is it's easy to remove and inspect the gear, which can rust and fail.

So I think that's all of the decision making for now, I know what I'm going to do for everything else, but I'll update the thread as more decision making comes up.

For those that are curious, here are the choices made so far:

1. Extented baggage.... schubag. It allows me to put long things in the airplane that aren't heavy like bikes or sleep in the airplane.
2. Bike mounts like on the new Murphy airplane. I know... I can carry them inside too, but I'll at least have the doublers and nutplates in the wing.
2. Glass cockpit. No steam gauges for me.
3. Standard AMG 680 battery. I know earth-x is rad, but also expensive.
4. Skylight.
5. Seaplane doors.
6. Bob tailwheel. I already have it, and if it breaks, I'll buy a scott 3200.
7. 8.50 to start then 29" ABW.
8. Cross tube for better seat belt angles. 4-point belts. Inertia reels up in the space between the headliner and fabric.
9. Aux tanks. Gas is expensive in remote places, I want to pack my own, without cans.
10. AFP fuel injection. It's simple and works well.
11. Andair boost pump and fuel valve. High quality and light.
12. Float attach fittings. Not sure if I'll end up on floats, but I want it to be an option later.
13. Snap in headliner like the Sorenson bearhawk.
14. Combination of aluminum and fabric interior. The extended baggage will be fabric. The cargo area .020 aluminum bead rolled to stiffen on the sides, and the rear seats around the window will probably be fabric just because it's light and easier.
15. Cable instead of drawn wire for flying wires. It's more draggy, but very strong and durable.
16. LED nav and landing lights and standard strobes. LED strobes aren't there in my opinion. The experimental stuff isn't bright enough, and the certified stuff uses lots of optical tricks to get the output and very expensive. The problem is that LED's are very directional, where a xeon bulb throws light everywhere. Lights will wig/wag.
17. B&C 8 amp alternator for backup since I have a glass cockpit and want the option for electric ignition.
18. Standard mags for now since I have them, but may upgrade after flying.
19. 84" Hartzell constant speed. I have it and it works. Might do something different later, but for now it will do the job.
20. Fuse will be powder coated. There is a VERY good powder coating shop here that does all of the airframes stuff. Friends of mine.
21. Electric trim, with the servo mounted in the elevators themselves, like a RANS. A simple bracket and a few wires. Done.
22. Airfoiled H-stab. With the wood ribs.
23. Fuses. Breakers are expensive and prone to fail. Vertical power is expensive. Blade fuses are super reliable and you can get ones that light up when they fail.

Like I said, one of the most time consuming parts to building an airplane is the decision making and research. It's worse than building a house in my opinion.....

Has anybody tried streamlining tubes on a gear leg separately? If they each had the shape of a wing strut, surely you would cut down the drag.

Control stick height would be a big thing for me. The height of the stick in the rear seat of a J3 is perfect, ag planes are the same way. Many other planes I’ve flown and looked at, Bearhawk included, the stick is barely taller than my thigh. You end up flying with your hand on top like a stick shift, or awkwardly hold it with your hand twisted and a few fingers touching it. I’d make sure I have the correct seat and stick height for positive and comfortable control, whatever height it is that suits you.