Berkut Kit

[Lynn Erickson]

Well! maybe but I don't see any other cowlings that aren't symmetrical. So no I don't think that was it, if it was, that seems a bit silly to me. It's off in places that have nothing to do with the engine. Funny thing is I have a set of LongEz cowls that had the same problem. Also I have a set of 540 cowls that don't have those discrepencys (way more symmetrical). The 360 cowls didn't realy line up the way they where supposed to at all. so I don't think it was done that way on purpose. Besides they look alot better symmetrical. I talked with a few LongEz guys who did the same thing I did. The whole thing was just out of whack. It was kinda like someone held a heat gun to the left side and it just kinda wilted. The bottom was worse than the top. I got them just about perfect now

 

Tony

that wilting as you call it is caused by the manufacturer. if the cowing is pulled from the mold to soon the resin is still in a green state and can warp or sag. the tops of the cylinder is where is seems to show up the most. also many of the molds that where made are polyester boat resin and it keeps shrinking with time.

[tonyslongez]

Lynn

 

That could very well be. I think that aside from the shrinkage a bit of TLAR creeped into the plug making portion of the cowls probably due to time constraints, couple that with shrinkage and you have a mess. I do believe that all the parts are post cured in an oven. I'm sure the molds where too.

If the cowls where symmetrical to begin with I can handle a little shrinkage but they weren't. I can't speculate as to the resin make-up of the molds. I don't know. I mean some of the areas seem to go way beyond shrinkage. I have number 17 I can't imagine that much shrinking took place to get them that far out of whack.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

O.k

 

lots of things to talk about in this post. Last week I said I thought I had pics of our cowling plug and I found them here they are. Also, I'm starting the process of creating molded ailerons. I have pics of the Berkut molded ailerons and we'll get started building those. Dale and I will work on the molded canard and wings this week. I had some issues with the tool changer on the HAAS so I took some pics so you could see what I was doing. I know it's not building an airplane but pretty cool I think.

 

Pic 1) Here you can see the bottom cowl and the body filler we used to make the cowl symmetrical. Dale made a very slight change in the rear of the cowl to ease the radius around the intake scoop. So it kinda melts into the rear of the cowls as opposed to being so pronounced.

 

Pic 2) Again in this pic, easying the radii around the muffler and cylinder blister.

 

Pic 3) Plug clecoed to the rear turtle deck.

 

Pic 4) The cleco is in the way, but I assure you, the cowling and the top strake are absolutely a perfect match.

 

Pic 5) More body filler

[tonyslongez]

Pic 1) O.K. aileron rib layout. Basically a piece of flat stock with some ribs drawn on it.

 

Pic 2) Here is the bottom aileron skin this layup has a piece of 1/4in foam layed up with 2 plys of bid top and bottom. the foam is slightly tapered in the rear

 

Pic 3) What I want you to see here is how the layup incorporates a "tube" so you just slide your steel rod into the tube and away you go.

 

Pic 4) This is the bottom surface of the aileron it's hard to see but there is a slight joggle where the white primer ends. Later you'll see why that's there.

 

Pic 5) Here is the top of the molded aileron this is just two pieces of 1/4in foam with two plys of bid top and bottom, the face has the aluminum plates embedded in it for the hinges. More on that later.

[tonyslongez]

Pic 1) Here is my new Haas machine in it's final resting place the machine weights in at a whopping 8,000 lbs. I used a 15,000lbs capacity fork lift to get it off the truck lots of fun. I added the rails to the front of the machine to hold some tooling.

 

Pic 2) As I mentioned before. I was having some issues with the tool changer mainly because it was really dirty and full of chips. I don't think it's been serviced for a while. the pics out of order this is the carousel all cleaned up

 

Pic 3) Got most of the chips out of the carousel. I had to tighten the allen bolts on some of the tool pincers. Part of the service.

 

Pic 4) Here are the covers for the carousel which is kind of a boring pic but you can see how the paint is starting to come off . The covers are stainless, and with the paint flaking off it really gummed up the slide covers. Dale and I stripped them today, and now the're ready for paint.

 

That's it for today more tomorrow.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

I've been waiting for the aluminum to get here that I'm going to use for the aileron molds. Unfortunately U.P.S. lost it. They report I'll have it on Fri. We'll see. I took some time to put the tool changer back together on the Haas. I had all the parts powder coated, looks pretty good.

 

Pic 1) The door of the tool changer slides out as the tool is being extracted

this action keeps the chips out of the tool changer.

 

Pic 2) In case anyone needs to change a door or spring in your Haas

tool changer, You have to load the spring from the back. The weight of

the cover is enough to keep the spring in place while you insert

the cap screws.

 

Tony

[tonyslongez]

Here is the final hinge assem for the berkut canopy. The nice thing about this, I can waterjet cut pretty much all of it. keeping costs down. I will have to post machine the counter bores no biggy.. Not sure if I want to tap the "Bow-Tie" cross brace or drill a thru hole and use a ny-lock nut. I'm open for suggestions.

 

Tony

[ErlendM]

Looks real nice!

Will this fit a Cozy as well?

Would you be able to sell these?

[tonyslongez]

Will this fit a Cozy as well?

They may, I don't know to much about cozys. It wouldn't be hard to make the hinge wider if needed

 

 

 

Would you be able to sell these?

 

Yes I plan on selling these hinges. Alot of long Ez owners have shown interest in flip up style canopys, much like the Berkut. I have to make these hinges for my airplane anyway. I'll just make a bunch and sell them to others!

[Cozy Girrrl]

Here is the final hinge assem for the berkut canopy. The nice thing about this, I can waterjet cut pretty much all of it. keeping costs down. I will have to post machine the counter bores no biggy.. Not sure if I want to tap the "Bow-Tie" cross brace or drill a thru hole and use a ny-lock nut. I'm open for suggestions.

 

Tony

They are going to be assembled only once (hopefully), capscrews with loctite.

I like the way you approached this, very good!

...Chrissi

[tonyslongez]

Thanks Chrissi

Here is one more rendering. This model is a little lighter than the other.

 

Tony

[Cozy Girrrl]

I was working on that in my sleep last night and woke up realizing I'd have done it out of 4130 tubing as a weldment. Probably lighter and stronger.

 

I think you're going about it the right way, predictable results. Originally I had thought of doing it by welding several plates of aluminum together that had been cut at angles to achive a hinge approximating the original... heavy and not nearly as nice as what you have come up with. So what are you going to do for the gear?

...Chrissi

[tonyslongez]

well! I have the latest and greatest gear. I have pics on here somewhere. I'm sure if you probed your sources you could figure out where I got them. Hint Hint

 

Tony

[Cozy Girrrl]

well! I have the latest and greatest gear. I have pics on here somewhere. I'm sure if you probed your sources you could figure out where I got them. Hint Hint

 

Tony

Tony, I seem to remember those beautiful pictures and the staggering price that went with them, so no worries about a land rush of people going there

[tonyslongez]

Yup I agree. It's a shame too, they sure are nice gear legs, a bit heavier than I like to see but S.O.C.K.S. That's spanish for "That's what it is."

 

Tony

 

BTW! The aluminum for the molded aileron molds have arrived they are being welded as I'm typing this. Should have them back in a few days, wait till you see this. Pics coming soon.

[Cozy Girrrl]

 

BTW! The aluminum for the molded aileron molds have arrived they are being welded as I'm typing this. Should have them back in a few days, wait till you see this. Pics coming soon.

Looking forward to it, I never thought we'd be making chips to make plastic airplanes but I am not complaining at all..ok, just a little bit because we'd really like to work on our own plane! You should buy our TIG welder that is for sale and do your own welding, shame on you

...Chrissi

[Edge 513]

Looking forward to it, I never thought we'd be making chips to make plastic airplanes but I am not complaining at all..ok, just a little bit because we'd really like to work on our own plane! You should buy our TIG welder that is for sale and do your own welding, shame on you

...Chrissi

If you are selling your TIG? How you gonna make those spiffy engine mounts, or are they all being farmed out?

[Cozy Girrrl]

If you are selling your TIG? How you gonna make those spiffy engine mounts, or are they all being farmed out?

Thats because we replaced it with an even better one

Up until recently all welders were 60 Hz in, 60 Hz out. The next generation of inverter welders synthesize the A/C output so they can vary the output frequency as well. In the case of welding aluminum the high freq means that rather than radiating omnidirectionally it radiates more out the end of the electrode as if you were D/C welding steel, narrow focussed penetration. In fact you can sharpen the electrode as if it were for D/C welding steel. We have an application that needed this ability. It has a lot of other nifty features I look forward to playing with and the water chiller is much appreciated too

No, we do not farm much out any more though we are outgrowing this house and barn and need to move the whole thing to a hanger, we are running out of space and available power.

 

So, we do have a very nice, lightly used Lincoln Square Wave 175 Pro TIG available with cart and some accessories to a good home.

 

Please somebody buy it so we can buy a hi-res CNC plasma cutter???

[tonyslongez]

Chrissy

 

Don't want to get into the engine thing to much here, but Have you run your 13b yet? I want to put the mistral g300 on the berkut. I think the g200 might be a better fit. exspensive little buggers. I here Tracy is doing a P-Port or something?

[Hennie Engelbrecht]

Thats because we replaced it with an even better one

I look forward to playing with and the water chiller is much appreciated too

QUOTE]

Girrrls with their toys.......

 

 

Hennie

[Cozy Girrrl]

Chrissy

 

Don't want to get into the engine thing to much here, but Have you run your 13b yet? I want to put the mistral g300 on the berkut. I think the g200 might be a better fit. exspensive little buggers. I here Tracy is doing a P-Port or something?

Not yet, Yes Tracy has been playing with P-ports.

Personally I am not in favor of gluing parts on any engine in an aircraft, with the exception of composite airframes I do not like adhesives period, long term something is going to come apart unless there is a huge surface area and very little load. If they weld them on or thread them in then I'd feel better about P-ports.

...Chrissi

[Cozy Girrrl]

Thats because we replaced it with an even better one

I look forward to playing with and the water chiller is much appreciated too

QUOTE]

Girrrls with their toys.......

 

 

Hennie

Hey, watchit! At my age the malls are overrun with yuppie spawn, a new welder is a lot more useful than yet another pair of shoes or the latest purse craze and the right man will find me more attractive because of the beads I lay down on aluminum than the ones I wear around my neck

...Chrissi

[tonyslongez]

I agree they need to be threaded. I have a few ideas for that very thing. I don't bother with you know who anymore whats the point? He's all over the map.

[Cozy Girrrl]

I agree they need to be threaded. I have a few ideas for that very thing. I don't bother with you know who anymore whats the point? He's all over the map.

It was observed by reality based folks at SNF that He Who Shall Not Be Named has become something of a non-entity.

Being able to pair up Tracy's ECU with the EFISM (Electronic Fuel Injection System Monitor) that we have been working on with Ed Anderson (Ed's the brains, we just make it look pretty) will make fine tuning the rotary much easier plus the added safety of a volume based fuel management/advisory system.

All that in a 3 x 1.5" package

 

http://www.andersonee.com/page6.html

[tonyslongez]

I want to say thanks to all of you have followed my Berkut project.

Unfortunately I have to part with my Berkut Kit. So with that being said it is now for sale. Please P.M. me for further details. the reason for selling is I'm staring a business and this will be my start up capital.

 

Tony