Last Update: 5/29/97
Web Author: Juan Jiménez
Copyright © 1997 by Juan Jiménez - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I will attempt to clarify several areas of construction of the BD-5 which I have had questions on recently. I have enclosed several drawings with this information bulletin, one of which is PCN 5-14. This PCN is self-explanatory. It is not a design change on the aircraft, but rather a diagram showing the various water lines and station locations on the aircraft. The second drawing is a sketch of the inspection panels which must be cut in the aft portion of the fuselage for installation of the vertical fin and rudder and the drive system.
You will notice that both openings will be six inches in diameter. There will be one on the left hand side of the aircraft and one on the right hand side. The opening on the left hand side of the aircraft will be centered at station 135.62, water line 44.88. The opening on the right hand side of the aircraft will be at station 122 and water line 44.18. These locations should be considered as non-critical dimensions and that the exact location of these inspection panels could vary as much as 1/4" from aircraft to aircraft, with no harm done to the structural integrity. The method for cutting these large diameter openings in the fuselage skins is the same method which was used for cutting the engine compartment openings. It is best to make a pattern of scrap material approximately the same size as the piece of paper on which I have drawn the outline of the inspection holes. The rivet pattern should be laid out on this scrap material as shown on the drawing. The width of this doubler will be 1.50 inches and it will have an outside diameter of 7.5" with an inside diameter of 4.5". This doubler should be centered over the pattern and the hole pattern for the rivets should be drilled into the doubler. The doubler can then be removed and the pattern located in the proper position on the aircraft and clecoed to the fuselage, using the holes which run forward and aft along the water line of the fuselage. The top and bottom edges of the pattern can then be rolled around the contour of the fuselage and held in place with tape. A scriber is then drawn around the opening in this doubler until the fuselage skin is cut. Do not drill all the holes in the pattern into the fuselage skins as this will cause a slight misalignment of the holes when the doubler is installed on the inside of the skin. Only those holes which are marked on the drawing should be drilled into the fuselage to hold the pattern in place.
Once the left hand opening has been made, the pattern can then be moved to the right hand side of the aircraft and located properly for the right hand installation, and the same process used to make this opening. After the openings have been made in the fuselage skin, the doublers can then be placed on the inside of the fuselage skin and fastened with the holes used to locate the pattern. The remainder of the holes should be drilled from the inside using the doubler as a pattern. This will ensure a good alignment of the holes. These holes can then be dimpled in the fuselage skin and the doubler then drilled to a No. 29. However, riveting of this doubler should not be done until the drive system and vertical fin installation has been completed. The material which is removed from the fuselage skin should be saves as this will then become the door which covers the opening and it will be attached with screws and nutplates.
Be sure and mark each piece so that you may determine top and bottom and also left hand and right hand side to ensure a perfect fit of the door.
It has now been determined that the baffles in the wing fuel cells will be a requirement of the BD-5. I will not go into the details of the installation of these baffles in this Bulletin as Construction Profile drawings will be shipped to you within a very short period of time. As stated, these baffles may be installed after the wing has been closed; however, if you have not already closed your wing, it might be simpler to wait until these drawings are received.
We are receiving many letters from homebuilders explaining how they have trimmed and cut their canopy, and the most success appears to be with those people that have used a sabre saw for the cutting process. The cutting saw is run at a relatively slow speed and fed slowly so that the blade does not try to force its way through the Plexiglas. One area which requires extreme caution is when the canopy is to be cut into two pieces. The best method for making this cut is to cut from the lower edge on each side until you have a cut approximately 4 inches long. It is then advisable to take two pieces of 1/8"-thick plywood, masonite or similar material and run it the full length of the canopy along its lower edges. This should be clamped to the canopy with the "C" clamps and the saw can then be reinserted into the slots and the cut finished. The two pieces of plywood merely hold the parts of the canopy together and prevent them from moving during the last several inches of the cut, as this is the most critical time, and the time at which the canopy is most easily broken.
I must ask you, our customer, to help reduce the number of telephone calls and letters that we receive from you. I am working with Dean Schumacher to get the plans finished as quickly as possible, as well as working in other areas, and the forty or fifty calls each day, combined with a hundred letters or so, is really causing problems. Clete Dold also performs a couple of other jobs, in addition to taking care of BD-4 customers, so he is "snowed under" too.
I want to ask you to contact one of our authorized dealers whenever possible, both for technical advice (they are further along with construction of the BD-5 than any of you), as well as general questions about shipment schedules, etc. This will then leave all of us in the customer service area at Bede Aircraft with time to devote toward getting the whole program completed.
Any technical or general questions sent in to us from now on then, will be either routed to one of our dealers, or where a dealer is not in the area I will answer those in a future Information Bulletin.
The next package of materials (known as Supplement Pkg. 3) is going out as fast as we can get it out. Several hundred boxes have already gone out the door, therefore you should be receiving your package soon. We are working as hard as we can to ship 3-S to all of you. Basically, it includes nosegear strut and fitting, side consoles, the last sheet stock for the aircraft and a lot of hardware. Also, the three chapters of the Construction Profile are included: Nosegear Box Construction, Nosegear Installation and Vertical Stabilizer Installation.
I have been advised by our Traffic Department that several items in the Supplement-3 Package are not identified with a part number, and yet they are listed on the Bill of Materials. This has caused some confusion and several letters from customers stating that the parts were not received, when in fact they were but were simply unidentified. The two parts in question are LG146 and LG113. The LG146 strut material is a large piece of fiberglass approximately 12 inches square. The LG113 is a bolt with a round head and no screw slot in the head. Please be sure when reporting shortages from Package 3-S, that these two parts are not overlooked during your inventory. Also, many of the side console moldings which we are shipping, will have cracks in one or more of the four corners. This crack is caused by the stretch-forming process used to manufacture the parts; however, these cracks are not in the area that will be used on the BD-5. The corner portion of the side console moldings will be trimmed and thrown away. Also, some of the moldings were molded together with a BD-4 part. When the moldings were received here, the BD-4 parts were trimmed from the BD-5 molding. Therefore, some of you will receive a side console molding with a small square portion trimmed off on one side. Again, this is trimmed from the portion of the molding which you will not use for your BD-5.
Finally, I would like to ask those of you who have designed jigs for various parts of the aircraft, to make a small sketch of the jig with explanations as to how the jig works and send them to us. We will try to include copies of these sketches with my next Information Bulletins. Photographs cannot be used, as these copies will be made on a copying machine.
In Supplement Pkg. 3 there are one or two castings that will require some finishing before installing them in your aircraft. Some of our builders, we know, will be able to get these operations done without too much trouble. However, there may be some builders who do not have easy access to a machining facility. For those customers who want these parts machined by Bede Aircraft, Inc., we have made the necessary inquiries locally and can offer you finished parts in exchange for the basic castings you will have received.
At the present time we can offer two parts in exchange for the parts you have: LG172 (nosegear arm) - $21.50 (finished), and LG151 and LG152 (upper MLG strut attach fitting, left and right hand) - each $23.50 (finished).
Send your part(s) back to us, enclosing a letter and a check for the correct amount with the part(s). We will machine-finish and return to you pronto.
<signed>
Frank Andrews, BD-5 Technical Advisor
Last Update: 5/29/97
Web Author: Juan Jiménez
Copyright © 1997 by Juan Jiménez - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED