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Pete's Bearhawk Web Site
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Date:  6-27-2013
Number of Hours:  2.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  First weld on the fuselage

Today was a long time coming. Back on Memorial Day, the guys from Missionary Aeroplanes brought their fuselage jig to me. They had purchased Dan Riffee and Dalas Shell's jig and hope to enable more people to build Bearhawks for the mission field.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a VR3 fuselage tubing kit and it came on Monday. I've been reading over the plans, the manual and the paperwork that came from VR3 and tonight I finally got to welding some tubes.

They cut the longerons into two sections to allow for better shipping. The cut is a scarf and interior reinforcing tube. I fit the tubes into the jig along with the front tube and tail post to ensure they were the proper length and then began to weld. First the rosette welds are done to anchor the exterior tubes to the interior tube. Then the parting line is welded. I was unable to get to the bottom of the weld due to the floor being in the way but I will finish it when I take the fuse out of the jig and finish weld the rest of the fuse.

So far I am very happy with this tubing kit. Some of the angle cuts are almost too pretty to weld...almost. :-)
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VR3 tubing kit

VR3 tubing kit

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Preweld scarf joint

Preweld scarf joint

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first official fuselage weld

first official fuselage weld

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