Apr 07, 2023     C/B panel - (18 hours)       Category: Avionics

Laid out C/B location in 2D cad. drilled holes in .063 6061-T6 Alu. Used Klixon 7277-2 C/B. Printed overlay on Matte white vinyl adhesive with inkjet printer. Wired to a 26 pin canon connector. Made buss bars from copper material I had.

  Feb 18, 2023     G3X control switches - (20 hours)       Category: Controls

Pilot's control wheel with the switches to control different functions of the G3X system I have to install. Units the switches control are audio panel, dual coms, ADSB transponder and autopilot. Had a local graphics shop do the printed overlay. Wrapped the handles of the Piper control with bicycle grip wrap to give better feel. Next to install the coil cord.

Print shop didn't quite do as asked, and found a mistake I did in the layout, so bought inkjet/laser white matte sticky vinyl and printed myself. Also printed the BD-4 - Turbo logo while at it. For added protection for the labels I sprayed with clear matte Rust-Oleum

  Feb 04, 2023     Baggage door assy - (4.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Formed baggage door out of 2024-T3 .032 Alu with a doubler from .040 Alu and a rolled beaded strip of .020.

  Feb 03, 2023     Upper fuselage to empennage bracket. - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Made 2 upper cabin to tail assy double plates for left and right side. Had a 1.5 angle piece and a 1.25 square tube to use to form the .092 6061-T6 Alu. Welded a flat plate on the square tube to help keep it square while using a hydraulic bench press to do the forming. Parts fitted with the middle and lower doublers.

  Jan 14, 2023     Battery door       Category: Fuselage

Fabricating battery door on right side panel. Used Dremel tool to cut hole and used cutout for the door. Made backing plate to mount 6-32 anchor nuts MS21047-L06 and AN526-6R8 screws. Side panels are 2024-T3 .020 thickness. The Aux plug was broken so made a new one out of 3/4" thick phenolic material.
Made a tool to dimple the skin for flush rivets. Also made a tool to hold the anchor nuts tight so I could set the rivets without everything moving.

  Jan 14, 2023     Working on side panels       Category: Fuselage

Fabricating fuselage side panels and adding Lexan windows and baggage door on pilot side and battery door on copilots side. Making each side in 3 sections for maintenance access to the autopilot servos, strobe power packs, ELT, ADSB transponder and Comm 2. Just the rear 2 panels on both sides will be removeable.

  Dec 15, 2022     Getting the partial fuselage - (6 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Picked up the 1969 BD-4 frame from a fellow in McPherson KS in 2000. He had purchased it from one of the 3 original builders, of which 2 died from cancer and he lost interest. It seems they had purchased the fuselage kit, as I was able to get at least the frame parts and landing gear and wheel assemblies with lots of screws and nuts with some alu skin material. They had the tail cone assy behind the cabin area bolted together. McPherson is about a 2.5 drive from Olathe, KS. Started it in my garage..

The 2 main wing spar tubes were bought from a plane being parted out in Washington State.