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Bede BD-4C Tail Cone

December 5, 2011 Art Zemon

I have spent bits of time over the last week or so making the top, bottom, and back of the Bede BD-4C tail cone, which is a bit of a misnomer since the tail cone is not conical, but never mind. The sides, which are a pretty complex shape, came prefabricated from BedeCorp and saved me a bunch of work. Here are the pieces that I built. (Click any picture to see a larger version.)

Tail cone pieces
Three tail cone pieces, from largest to smallest: TC-3 (bottom of tail cone), TC-2 (top of tail cone), and TC-1 (back of tail cone).

Here is a picture of how it all fits together on the plane.

Test fitting the Bede BD-4C tail cone
Test fitting the Bede BD-4C tail cone

Building the TC-1 (back of the tail cone) turned into yet another “learning opportunity” for me. The first one did not fit well at all. It was too wide, so it would not fit into the TC-3 (bottom of the tail cone). Since it would not fit into the TC-3, it would not slide all the way down. Between not sliding all the way down and being too tall, in addition to too wide, it stuck up about 0.10″ past the top of the tail cone sides.

TC-1 is too wide to fit all the way down into the TC-3
TC-1 is too wide to fit all the way down into the TC-3
TC-1 sticks up past the top of the tail cone sides
TC-1 sticks up past the top of the tail cone sides

Solving the problem involved making another, smaller piece. This time, I took into account the thickness of the material and the “bend radius”. These make the part about 0.05″ wider and taller. I drew the shape that I needed but made it 0.05″ narrower and 0.05″ shorter than the first time around. After bending the flanges, the new one fit perfectly.

Bede BD-4C

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About Art Zemon

Omni-curious geek. Husband. Father. Airplane builder & pilot. Bicyclist. Photographer. Computer engineer.

Comments

  1. Brian says

    December 5, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    Holy cow. I understand how 0.05″ tolerances can make a significant difference on something like this, but I think that would drive me nuts. I admire your patience and tenacity.

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