Whew! Until yesterday, when I sat down to write this, I had not realized that the last time I blogged about building my Bede BD-4C airplane was way back on September 5 (Roof Ribs) and the only time that I wrote about the wiring was on August 30 (Airplane Wiring Diagrams). I have actually been working […]

Try saying “roof ribs” three times fast. I’ll wait. Very good! You did better than most people. I am impressed and you have earned the privilege of reading the rest of this blog post on building the roof ribs for my Bede BD-4C airplane. 🙂 The roof of the Bede BD-4C is a large rectangle […]

A couple of weeks ago, I started to crimp a FASTON receptacle onto a wire for my Bede BD-4C airplane when I stopped just in time, realizing that I was about to build a wire which could have connected something directly to the fuse… almost forgetting that I needed a switch, too. That made me […]

When I last wrote about Mounting MGL Avionics Sensors in a BD-4C, I had built shelves in my Bede BD-4C airplane for the magnetometer and AHRS boxes. These shelves were close to finished but not quite right. Neither one could keep the boxes from sliding forward and backward. Worse, the AHRS shelf was too short; […]

My latest projects on my Bede BD-4C airplane were mounting a pair of MGL Avionics sensors: the SP-6 Magnetometer (electronic compass) and the SP-7 Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS). These two little boxes, just six ounces apiece, can sense the airplane’s magnetic heading and attitude, all with no moving parts. Quoting from MGL Avionics’ website, […]

Finally! My MGL autopilot servos are permanently installed in my Bede BD-4C airplane. In my last post, Mounting Autopilot Servos in the BD-4C (Really), I included photos of the roll servo, mounted underneath the right rear passenger’s knee. The pitch servo is aft of the baggage compartment and connected to the middle of the push-pull […]

If you have been following along, you know that I have spent the last couple of weeks tossing ideas around, and getting lots of suggestions, for how to mount autopilot servos in my Bede BD-4C airplane. This is the fourth in my series of blog posts on the subject and, I am happy to say, […]

I have been a little bit concerned that there might not be quite enough space inside the main landing gear box of my Bede BD-4C airplane for the MGL autopilot servos. Physically, the box is clearly wide enough for the MGL servos; you can see that in the photos in Mounting Autopilot Servos in the BD-4C. […]

I got lots of helpful responses to Planning BD-4C Autopilot Servo Installation and have decided to attach the autopilot servos in my Bede BD-4C airplane to the horizontal stabilator and to the rudder. Over the years, many people have experimented with autopilots in BD-4s and controlling the rudder seems to work better than controlling the aileron.

I need your help. I am beginning to plan the autopilot for my Bede BD-4C airplane. I selected an MGL Avionics iEFIS for my glass cockpit and, as with many EFIS systems these days, the autopilot software is built-in. I need only add a pair of autopilot servos to have a fully functional 2-axis autopilot […]

We got a bonus warm day here in St. Louis, with sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. I took advantage of it to prep and prime the seat frames for my Bede BD-4C airplane. It made a busy afternoon, sandblasting then wiping clean with acetone and then finally spraying primer. All of the pieces are done, though, […]

The Bede BD-4C is a nutty efficient airplane but, since it was designed in the 1960s, some aspects are a little dated. In particular, the plans call for the cabin to be fitted with just three seat belts: one for each front seat occupant and a single belt to be shared by the rear seat […]

If you have been following my progress building my Bede BD-4C airplane for long, you may have wondered if I quit or vanished or what. I have not posted an update on the project in almost four months. No, I did not quit but I did have a death in my family which kept me from […]

Though I spent most of the week at AirVenture, I did have a little bit of time to work on the seat frame for my Bede BD-4C airplane. I am adapting seats from a Piper airplane and the first post is here, Individual BD-4C Seats. Today, I finished tack welding the first seat. Here are photos of […]

With the seat track supports off at the welder, I am tweaking the seats that I got for my Bede BD-4C airplane so that they fit properly. The old Piper airplane seats that I got are designed to sit on the floor. In the BD-4C, though, they are about 5 inches above the floor. As […]

It is good to have a long weekend with lots of time to work on my airplane. I got almost all of my custom front seat track supports for my Bede BD-4C airplane tack welded together. The trickiest part was figuring out how to notch the square tubing so that the round tube would fit […]

Last night was good for HUGE GRINS when I got to sit in the pilot’s seat of my Bede BD-4C airplane for the first time. 😀 I temporarily mounted the seat with C-clamps, temporarily sewed some furniture webbing onto the seat frame, temporarily added a couple of throw pillows, clambered aboard, and sprouted a permanent […]

When the Bede BD-4 airplane was first designed, in 1968, the plans called for a bench seat in the front. I remember bench seats; my first car (a 1964 Dodge Dart) had a bench seat. Despite my fond memories of my Dodge Dart, I do not want a bench seat in my 21st century airplane so I […]