The Bede BD-4C airplane has a whole bunch of hardware inside the back end of the fuselage. The two rudder cables (one from each rudder pedal) are attached to a steel bellcrank. The bellcrank operates the front end of a push-pull rod (the back end of which is attached to a control horn on the bottom […]

In our last episode, our intrepid BD- had built a bending brake but been forced out of his airplane factory by the sweltering St. Louis summer heat. Once the temperature dropped, I was able to make the bend for the middle of the BD-4C dorsal fin and then cut it to shape, ready to have the flanges […]

I made a little progress on my Bede BD-4C airplane this week, though it is not photogenic enough to show here. I made two small steel plates which will attach the tail skid to the fuselage. They are drilled and clecoed in place, waiting for the welder to bend the ½ inch 4130 steel tube into […]

I discovered a serious problem with my Bede BD-4C airplane as I was getting ready to install the top fuselage skin: the horizontal part of the tail was crooked. Specifically, the copilot’s side of the tail was about three inches higher (above the floor) than the pilot’s side. I did some careful measuring and figured out that the […]

The wingtips for my Bede BD-4C airplane arrived today, a very nice surprise since I have been having a hellish time getting the horizontal stabilator attached parallel to the wing spar. Here are pictures, in gorgeous carbon fiber. I am dearly looking forward to the day when I can attach these to the wings.

After spending much time and effort to properly create the large fuselage skins for my Bede BD-4C airplane, you would think that I would want to keep them nice and whole. You would think wrong. Two of them needed large holes cut into them. The top skin needed a hole for the vertical stabilizer’s spar […]

Big weekend: I have bonded the first fuselage skins onto my Bede BD-4C airplane. I painted 3M Scotch-Weld #10 Contact Adhesive onto both the skin and the fuselage angles and then “just” stuck the two together. Here are a few photos. There is actually more adhesive on the plane than is visible in the pictures. The […]

The rear part of the fuselage of the Bede BD-4C airplane that I am building is about 11 feet long. There are eight pieces of skin which cover it. The aft-most pieces are 0.016 inches thick and about 7.5 feet long. The four pieces farther forward are 0.020 inches thick about 3.5 feet long. I […]

I have made a bunch of progress on the first piece of fuselage skin for my Bede BD-4C airplane. This is the piece on the top of the fuselage, at the rear. It sits under the vertical stabilizer so, no surprise, I got to cut a hole in the skin for the stabilizer’s spar to […]

Tonight, I screwed up my courage and made a diagonal cut along a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of aluminum. This is the first piece of fuselage skin for my Bede BD-4C airplane.

If you have been following my progress building a Bede BD-4C airplane for awhile, you might have been wondering where I have been and why I have not posted anything for several months. Frankly, I hit a terribly frustrating phase and have been too discouraged to write about it. I finally got past it, though, so […]

June 29, 2013 was a perfect day for putting the wings on my Bede BD-4C airplane for the first time. “With a little help from my friends” and family, we carried the wings out of the garage, rolled the fuselage out into the sunshine, and then installed the wings. Here is a shot of the […]

The main spar of the Bede BD-4 is a 6 inch diameter aluminum tube. This is, literally, the piece from which the entire airplane hangs as the wings fly through the air. As you can imagine, it is kind of vital that the fuselage be well attached to the spar. Here is a photo of […]

I finished the right wing aileron of my Bede BD-4C airplane tonight. Both ailerons and both flaps are now complete. Here (again) are the flap and aileron for the left wing: And here, in its debut appearance, are the flap and aileron for the right wing: Eventually, there will be a lead counterweight attached to […]

Bonus photo: With the aileron ribs bolted to the torque tube, I did a test installation of the aileron on the left wing of my Bede BD-4C. Wonder of wonders, it fit perfectly with no side-to-side wobbling and no trouble installing the last bracket. 🙂 After confirming that the ribs were exactly the right distance […]

I am starting on the left aileron for my airplane. On the Bede BD-4C, the ailerons are operated by 10 foot long torque tubes which run from the fuselage, through the flaps, all the way to the wing tips. Here is a picture of the torque tube for the left wing with the aileron ribs […]