Latest update:  3 June 2006

"Godspeed and quality first"

"Do a little every day"

2003 - Been looking seriously at aircraft designs for a while and kits etc.  Lots of them are ridiculous money and way out of my reach but interesting all the same.  Concluding that plans built may be the only option given our poor financial position.  Contacted Zenith 701 builder regarding his aircraft and building one.

2004 -February  Contemplating loading and mission type for desired aircraft.  Been looking at many STOL aircraft.

Getting started:

May 10 th Plans arrived!  Still working on suppliers and costs.  
June 3 rd Bought first materials.  Two sheets of MDF for form blocks and templates.  One is 25 mm and the other 18 mm.  Looked at bandsaws but baulked at the cost.  Contacted a friend Vince who I thought might have a bandsaw I could borrow.  He does so are doing that tommorrow but need a new blade for it.
June 24  Bandsaw got used for the pedal plane parts but haven't got to the Bearhawk yet.  Blade broke so have to get another.  Works great though.  Been practising with the router on the pedal plane parts and I'm not to sure about using a router thats not following a track or guide!  Tends to bite in and hard to keep straight.   Making paper copies of the wing rib template to attach to the templates before cutting out.
July 16  Heck its been hard to get much done.  Days are so short and I've been distracted by other items that needed attention.  Clocked up 40 years.  Damn!  Now I have more urgency attached to everything I do.  
The last few days has seen me finish the master template and I ordered a couple of special Router bits to use for radiusing and trimming the form blocks off the master template.  I found it quite a bit of work getting the master template just right.  Its an iterative process of sand compare to the mylar, sand some more.....
The end result is good but I thought it took too long.  Maybe I'm too fussy.
So yesterday I marked and ripped out 4 copies of the master template.  Thats two lefts and two rights to  use and chop up for form blocks.  I figured it was the easiest way as I want to retain all my jigging in case I'm mad enough to build another Bearhawk.  Today I trimmed them up on the bandsaw ready for the router trim bit that should arrive in this week.  Made another nose rib router jig today and and investigated positioning for the extra jig pins needed.  Spent quite a while with the plans last night looking into the material requirements for the spar and all the different types of rivets required to build the wings.  Today made carbon copies off the plans for flap and aileron nose ribs, pocket ribs and all the spar plates required.  My plan is to cut all the spar plates out roughly with the bandsaw and then tidy them up with the router.  I am now onto router templates for the centre, back, flap and aileron ribs.  Am now thoroughly enjoying myself.  I need to add in a health warning here though:  MDF sanding and machining is potentially bad for your lungs.  MDF is glued with materials that emit Urea Formaldehyde and very fine particles of dust.  I'm coughing as I write this.  Take some advice:  WEAR A DUST MASK! and ONLY WORK IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA.  Theres a pdf at the end of this that lays out some of the hazards.
July 23   Managed to get all the router templates and form blocks for the Aileron & Flap nose ribs and the pocket ribs completed.  Lots more dust and crap laying about the garage now but feel I'm getting the hang of this construction much better.  Tried working through flap, aileron and wing rib drawings to get all the lightening hole sizes but somehow or rather got my maths mixed up.  Didn't like the numbers I got so queried the group and Eric Newton kindly put me right.  Went back to the drawing and realised I must have read the measuring stick wrong as the drawings is basically 1/2 scale.  Just double what you measure and thats as close as you need to be.  Heres a couple of pictures to lighten this up a bit.  Picture 1 is the router templates and forming blocks with backing blocks for the aileron & flap nose ribs plus the pocket ribs.  The rib master template and roughed out rib forming blocks are in the second picture.

   

July 26 Finally got my hands on the Router bits I need.  Frustrating wait while they came from Australia.  Hope they do what I want!  Can't get near them for a few more days but will be able to make a lot more progress once I have them in use.  Picked up a welding dust mask today also to try and cut down on the MDF dust I'm taking in.  Even in a well ventilated area (fan blowing) the darn stuff gets all over you.

May 23 2006    Yes this is pretty bad.  Finally after nearly a year of inactivity I am doing a few little bits for the Bearhawk!  I have manufactured the jig for making the aileron and flap drive support frames.  I'm just waiting for a quote on some 4130N sheet to start making the steel wing parts.  I am also finally getting started on making my hydraulic press.  Once completed it will allow me to press some of the steel parts if needed and more importantly let me press the lightening hole flanges on the wing ribs.  Other factors have been at work for some time and the Bearhawk has to be a lower priority for a while but I'm assisting a Zenith 601 builder on his project and thats helping me develop better skills with sheet metal and the basics of measuring drilling, deburring and dimpling.  While the delays are frustrating I am still picking up a lot of good information from many sources that will ultimately be of great assistance.
Next thing to be built is the flap hinge jig followed very closely by Bobs design Dimpling frame.  I'll post pictures when I've got them done.

July 3 2006  Finally got over to Rangiora this past weekend with the two boys in tow and picked up some pieces of 4130N sheet and tubing to get stuck into the rudder pedals.  Have spent quite a bit of time going through the fuel system plans and looking at the way its all plumbed.  I am all set to do the Auxialary tanks as soon as I bite the bullet and order Kents Meco Midget torch etc.  Here's what he recommended I buy to do all my Bearhawk welding:

Hose..with the skimpy light leader hose on the end
Light torch...with #1,2,3,4 tips...and maybe the extended neck for the 4
tip, and 5 if you go that far...
Headgear
TM 2000 lens
sparker/igniter
rod
4130 instruction
..................
aluminum flux
rod
instruction: ...booklet....new dvd

July 8 2006 Back to Rangiora again as I spent quite a while going back through the materials list and found a few bits missing that I didn't have materials for!  Now have all the 0.063" & 0.050" 4130N sheet I need as well as the 3/8 0.058" for the project.  Now to do some cutting!  Just trying to come up with a plan for bending the brake pedal parts.  Currently thinking of building a half round mould that has been cut from a larger piece of wood with a concave cut into both surfaces.  Press the outer piece down onto the smaller piece with the tube in the middle and presto we have a nice curve.  Will have to make it slightly smaller radius to get the right bend but should work.