I took my Bede BD-4C airplane up for its seventh flight yesterday. Everything was smooth sailing, so to speak. Intake Manifold Repair On Thursday evening, I had ended my sixth flight with the engine backfiring badly. My mechanic discovered that the intake manifold had come loose from cylinder #2. In the photo above, you can […]

Spring and the new propeller governor for my Bede BD-4C airplane arrived so I took three afternoons off of work and went flying. 😀 I now have six flights and a total of 4.2 hours in my airplane. To say that this has been an amazing week would be an amazing understatement. Forgive me for […]

I started blogging about building my Bede BD-4C airplane back in 2011 because I wanted to keep my friends and relatives up to date on my progress. I have been delighted (and thoroughly surprised) to find that many people beyond my close circle are also interested. I was even more surprised to have several people […]

N2468Z, my Bede BD-4C, flew for the first time this afternoon 😀 It’s been a seven year journey! My Bede BD-4C flew well. It is light on the controls and fairly leaped off the ground, what with being light weight (one person and half fuel) and having a cold day (dense air). The takeoff was […]

Another Bede BD-4C builder asked for my drawings of the safety harness anchors that I designed. Here is a ZIP file containing Drawings of the support that I designed on which I mounted the tracks for seats from a Piper Drawings for the front and rear shoulder belt anchors Drawings for the rear seat belt […]

Earlier this month, my Bede BD-4C airplane was ready for its airworthiness inspection. With the government shut down, there is no one at the FAA to give final approval so I cannot obtain an airworthiness certificate and, therefore, cannot fly the airplane. I decided to move forward with the inspection, anyway, since I am now […]

I have reached an exciting point in the construction project of my Bede BD-4C airplane. Here is my project management board and you will see that the Before Inspection column is empty. But, I received a copy of this charming email message. So I wait for Donald and Mitch and Nancy to get their acts […]

Over the last couple of weeks, I have taken care of the last few little tasks that I wanted done before the airworthiness inspection of my Bede BD-4C airplane. Some were truly required for airworthiness (like installation of a magnetic compass) and some where in the “it’s time” category (like swapping the over-sized tires for […]

I am coming down the home stretch on getting my Bede BD-4C airplane ready for its airworthiness inspection. Over the last week, I have taken advantage of some unusually warm weather to wrap up quite a list of tasks: Met with Clint (my A&P) to test run the engine with the cowling on. We also […]

I completed two tasks on my Bede BD-4C airplane this week: the oil door and the induction air tubing. Oil Door I fabricated an oil door in the cowling of my Bede BD-4C. Unlike cars, airplanes do not have hoods which can be popped open. The cowling is typically secured on with Camlock or DZUS […]

I fabricated a pair of small brackets which support the weight of the instrument panel in my Bede BD-4C airplane, solving the problem that I identified on November 8. The panel is now rock solid and the rivet holes in the fuselage skins line up perfectly. My original idea was to run braces from the […]

Despite spending a week in tech rehearsal for Act Two Theatre’s production of Annie the Musical, I got a lot done on my Bede BD-4C airplane. First, I figured out a problem with the last pieces of the fuselage skin. Then I installed the wing tips, fabricated a couple of brackets, and installed the data […]

I installed a cabin heater in my Bede BD-4C airplane this week. I did take the super easy route, simply dumping hot air into the cabin by the copilot’s feet. If that is insufficient, I will add some ducting later. It is a simple system. Take some air from the plenum, Route that air past […]

I was despairing of ever being able to say this but I can finally write that the baffling and plenum of my Bede BD-4C airplane are done. 😀 The saga began back in the spring with Rich taking point. I picked up the job in September and wrote about the first couple of weeks of work […]

I have spent all of my time in September working on the baffling for the air cooled Lycoming IO-360 engine in my Bede BD-4C airplane. Well, to be more precise, I spent most of September’s evenings and Sunday’s on the baffling. I do have a job and a wife, both of which require significantly larger […]

Despite a trip to AirVenture immediately followed by a trip to New Jersey and my need to actually work for a living, I got a good chunk of stuff done on my Bede BD-4C airplane over the last month. I am making progress toward having a flying airplane. EAA Technical Counselor Inspection Gale, my EAA technical […]

Last night, I finished adjusting the trim on my Bede BD-4C airplane. Pitch (nose up / nose down) on the BD-4 is controlled by a horizontal stabilator. The trim operates an anti-servo tab on the back edge of the stabilator. (See my post Anti-Servo WHAT? Horizontal Stabil-WHERE? for a description of that techno-babble.) The trim mechanism […]

Quick bonus post: Back on June 24, I wrote that I had had to remount the aileron counterweight arms (see Bede BD-4C Aileron Counterweights and Wings and Control Stick Grips and Headset Jacks and, if you want to go even farther back in time, see Ailerons & Flaps Complete from 2013). Back on July 8, I trimmed […]

My Bede BD-4C airplane needed new end covers for the flaps. These things fill a fairly large gap between the inboard end of each flap and the side of the fuselage. I needed to replace the left one because some mistakes were made in building the fuselage and it is not quite square. Although I […]