In December 2011, when I first started building my Bede BD-4C airplane, I made the tailcone according to the drawings. I documented that process in two blog posts, Top of the Tail Cone and Bede BD-4C Tail Cone. In the intervening three years, I ended up rebuilding the tail of the fuselage to fit the weldment which holds the horizontal part of the tail. (The weldment is the black piece visible in the photo below.) As a side effect of this rebuild, the original tailcone was too wide. I had to build a new one.
This time around, I used the old parts as templates but measured the fuselage and fabricated all of the parts to fit the airplane. I started with the two sides. (Click any photo to see a larger version.)
Once I had the sides cut, I fabricated the top and bottom. I was able to reuse the original rear piece. I mounted the horiztonal stabilator and test-installed the tailcone to see how well it fit… very nicely, thank you very much! 🙂
Knowing that the tailcone fit within the slot in the horizontal stabilator, I went ahead and mounted it to the fuselage. This involved installing nutplates in the fuselage and then drilling the tailcone + the fuselage skin + the fuselage angles.
I plan to rivet the left side + the bottom + the back of the tailcone together. The right side and the top will be attached with machine screws and nutplates.
Hi Art,
First let me say thank you so much for your blog!! I’ve been reading it like a can’t put down crime novel, thank you. Like many I’ve dreamed of building my own plane since I first saw a KR-2 at a small air show. I think it was about 1983 and I was 13 ! Anyway I’m finally in a financial position that the old dream is finally viable
Hi Art
I am building the same plane it’s slightly ahead of where you look to be, but i have a couple of questions for you.
1) Did you roll the aluminium over the top of the frame edges for the piece in front of the tail? When i took over the project that part was built and i cant tell from the plans if it was meant to be that way. 2) My plans show a sling type back seat. I wondered if your plans show a normalized back seat plan?
Todd,
By “Did you roll the aluminium over the top of the frame edges for the piece in front of the tail,” do you mean the fuselage skin? No, that is a flat piece of aluminum.
All of the BD-4 plans show a sling for the back seat, I think. I was dubious but found it very comfortable when I crawled into the back seat of the BedeCorp BD-4C factory demo plane.
— Art Z.