SparrowHawk III Build

[r.coplen]

Well it's time to begin. This is my big Christmas Present.

Photo 1 Shows the kind of area we live in. Have to keep a close eye on Mt. Rainier. We also have "Lahare" evacuation routes.

Photo 2 Shows the new construction manual, operation manual and engineering diagrams. Much more to come about these documents in the future.

Photo 3 Shows most of the hanger. In the foreground is my kit parts with Bob Foster's (very fine) build behind and Randy Rogers RAF 2000 covered.

Photo 4 Shows the rest of the hanger with Mariah, my training SparrowHawk and my "62" Studebaker Hawk cover up behind it.

[Jason Heistad]

Hello Randy,

Very nice pictures. I almost bought a sparrowhawk. And now with the sparrowhawk III I'm definitely glad I waited. Thanks also to Tim Chick, and
Stan Foster for there replies on the forum. I will have a Gyro and a Helicycle
oneday.
Is there any other information on the Sparrowhawk III Randy?

from Jason in Canada...
Thanks

[r.coplen]

Jason,

I will post more pictures and information as I go along than you might want. The SparrowHawk design is now frozen waiting for the final "Quick Build" documentation from the FAA. It will pretty much stay as it is now with little change in the future. There is really no reason now to put off buying a kit if you are thinking about it. Thanks for the questions.

[r.coplen]

Time to go to work but I want to go back to "The Office" in Cabo. It is 35 degrees in the hanger today and I was in Cado three weeks ago. After working 6 1/2 hours in the hanger I was frozen and the warm weather in Cado would be great.

Photo 2 This is the best part of Christmas, my four grand kids.

Photo 3 Son-in law, Tom, getting two lamb legs ready for the BBQ.

Photo 4 Christmas Eve with 14 of the family at the table. My son just announced his wedding date, second on the left. My two daughters are married with two kids each.

Great Christmas. We even sang carols around the Christmas tree.

[r.coplen]

Photo 1 I use the wall to put the instructions and diagrams for the build. PRA 30 member and CFI David Overman dropped by for 2.5 hours to help out

Photo 2 of one part of keel.

Photo 3 the other part of keel.

Photo 4 Cleco the two section together and always measuring to make sure every part is level.\

[r.coplen]

Photo 1 Fabrication work on the keel. You have to drill some of the holes.

Photo 2 Shows the bottom side of two keel sections clecoed together.

Photo 3 Thats me riveting on the bottom part of the keel. It is sooo cold.

Photo 4 The two sections are completely riveted together. The landing gear and rudder cables setup in the keel comes next.

So far David and I have spent a total of 9 hours working in the hanger. A lot of the time was spent setting up. I spent 140 hours on Mariah to get to where I am now on this build. My second build, the Hornet I had spent over 100 hours to get to this point.

Part of the time this morning I ran pneumatic lines and David assembled a new rivet puller that Bob Foster let us use. I have the best hanger mates, Bob Foster and Randy Rogers.

[r.coplen]

Here are some pictures from todays work. Had Christmas decorations to take down today so I only got a couple of hours work in.

Photo 1 Bob Foster keeping heat on his last prep work before sending his tail assembly off to the painter. It is around 40 degrees today and the resin set real slow if you don't get heat to it.

Photo 2 Shows the rudder cable assembles. David O. did assemble the rudder pulley assemblies and I cut the cable and cable sleeves to length.

Photo 3 Shows how the parts come. Saves so much time not have to look a long time to find stuff. Each section comes in a labeled box or boxes with all the parts for that build.

Photo 4 Shows the pulley assembly installed and cable sleeves in place. I used some 5 minute resin to hold the cables to retainer conduits.

I will have more time Wednesday and will get the engine mount and landing gear done along with running the rudder cables. I think!!

[dimwit]

Randy. You have a nice looking family and obviously some good friends. Your build is looking real good. I wish you the best and have a good year.

[r.coplen]

Thanks Dimwit for the thoughts. Well here is todays work. I didn't get as far as I wanted. Only had four hours. Anyway here is what I did. Didn't get the landing gear attached but will start on that tomorrow.

Photo 1 Adel support of cable sleeves. The cables move so easily. There is no comparison between the old cable tube system and the new pulley system. I had a number of complaints about how hard my rudders were to move in my old AAI modified RAF 2000 Ruby. Mariah (The first commercial SparrowHawk) is much better but still is fairly stiff. The SparrowHawk III will have a very nice light rudder peddle touch.

Photo 2 Shows how the grounding post parts and instructions come. The parts are all packaged in a parts pkg identified with part numbers and are just the right quantity for each step of this assembly. The diagram is clear and show were the three grounding post are positioned. The written instructions walk you through each of the steps needed to compete the assembly.

Photo 3 Shows keel cradle holding up the keel. I leveled the keel so I can attach the engine support and level it to the keel.

Photo 4 Shows the four hours work which consist of: Grounding posts, rudder cable, cable attachment plate, crossbeam support, engine mount, and engine mount support rods.

[r.coplen]

Well Damn! My camera battery went dead yesterday. I completed the main landing gear. Today I put on the cabin.

Also got a call from my brother who lives in the other Washington and he bet me a bottle of great wine that his Redskins will beat our Seahawks. Not gona happen!! I am going to the game and will be one of the 67,000 screaming Seahawks. (You know I'm told by the Redskins that we pipe in all that noise in Quest Stadium)

Photo 1 Is a picture of the installed landing gear. It took about 4 hours to complete section 9, landing gear. The new jig called a saddle kept the keel erect while I attached the struts and put on the wheels. Great system! The last time I built the main landing gear for a SparrowHawk I had to cut the rubber donuts, drill all the holes, fabricate most of the parts and heat the axle block, freeze the strut end and put the struts and axle block together (this process was very difficult and if you didn't get it right you were screwed) Mariah's main landing gear took two weeks and the Hornet took a week to do what I did in 4 hours yesterday.

Photo 2 Shows the hoist that I used to move the cabin onto the keel. I have been working alone the last three days and find that I can get it done by myself if needed. Before the cabin installation always took two people. All the holes that I needed to attach the cabin to the mast and keel are already drilled in the cabin. Again this process is exponentially more rapid than before.

Photo 3 Shows front cabin inside. The pod support shelf is very effective eliminating pod shake. (I will add a picture of Mariah's pod on a post to show you why this is so great) The kick plate (supports the rudder peddles) is also built into the cabin.

[dimwit]

Randy. Is the cabin of your Sparrowhawk heated. Or I should say will it be heated when your finished?

[StanFoster]

Randy: Great build you have going there! Brings back memories of my build.


I bet it will be another beauty......


Stan

[r.coplen]

Stan,
Thanks for the comment. I think this will be the best SparrowHawk I have been involved with.

Dimwit,
I bought the heater option. I understand GBA has reengineered a new design for the heater. The heater core will be located on the outside of the cabin back. I believe the core and the fan will be covered. This keeps any possible leaks in the hose systems out of the cabin. (I have never heard of one in a gyro but it has happened to me in an old car I owned.) A fan will blow the warm air through two light weight adjustable duct tubes that will come in about shoulder height in the back of the cabin. I will direct mine over the top of the doors and blow down over the wind screen so it will work as a defroster as well as a heater. I think it is also lighter because there is only a short run of water lines. In the old Hornet there most have been 10 feet of water lines to the heater core in the front of the aircraft.

[r.coplen]

More photos from Friday. It seams to takes me as much time doing the posting as building. I wish I was better at this part.

Photo 1 Show the keel positioned through the cabin. Cutouts were factory as most of the holes for the angle supports. This picture shows that the seat rails are also factory installed.

Photo 2 Cabin attachment parts are labeled as Chapter 10 Parts.

Photo 3 Parts laid out for cabin attachment.

Photo 4 Cabin Attached to Mast.

[StanFoster]

Randy: I just edited my comment to you. I said " I bet i will be another beauty." Gesshhhh ...please note I added a "t" to that "i". Kind of changes the meaning a little dont it...:yo:


Anyway......I love these build type posts and so do many others that just lurk. I am planning on a build thread on my next project.....when it gets here this month.

Are you going to use the standard instruments...or are you maybe going with the Enigma? Standard prop? standard brakes?

Stan

[r.coplen]

Stan,

I will keep my build mostly standard. I am keeping track of my time so I can tell others how long it will normally take to build. Bob F. has an adjustable seat positioner that I would like to add because we will use this gyro for the flight school. But that is it except for avionics of which I probably will use a Garmin package.

[StanFoster]

Randy: I was pretty sure you would...as you are one of the main dealers..The standard SparrowHawk is a fantastic machine....and it looks like they have made it more builder friendly>

Stan

[r.coplen]

More pictures from Friday and Saturday's work at the Seahawks game. I am still horse today. What a great game!!! Won a bottle of "Red" from my brother in the other Washington.

1. Cabin inside show build-outs from the factory. Way cool.

2. Self picture with the camera timer. Time to go home on Friday.

3. The Hawkeye at the Seahawks game. Looked like it was going to rain and be very windy but the weather was generally good for the game.

4. The game flag. Had a formation of Coast Guard Helicopters fly over at the same time.

[r.coplen]

Today we attached the nose wheel and tail wheel. I get in about 4 hours the days I get to the hanger. Today David Overman and his son, Ian, helped out with the tail wheel.

Photo 1 Chapter 11, Nose wheel parts and parts package. All come in one box. Instructions and diagrams are shown in pix.

Photo 2 Parts package separated into separate packages and parts lists.

Photo 3 Individual parts layed out and taken out of protective wrapping.

Photo 4 Heating nose wheel bearing block to 225 degrees.

[r.coplen]

Photo 1 Cooling bearing in refridge.

Photo 2 Cool bearing dropped into hot bearing block.

Photo 3 Nose wheel fully assembled.

Photo 4 Nose wheel strut keel attachment plates. Plates were pilot drilled but needed to position and pilot drill keel and than drill and de-bur both plates and keel to 3/16 inch. Clecoed plates that will be riveted later after painting.

Note, All the holes in the cabin floor were pre-drilled by the factory. Yes!!!!! Saves a lot of time. Also the keel holes for the nose wheel bearing block and the nose wheel support plates were pre drilled. Tire was also mounted and pressurized.

[r.coplen]

Tail Wheel with David and son Ian installing.

Photo 1 Chapter 12 tail wheel, parts package, instructions and drawings.

Photo 2 Parts package separated.

Photo 3 Tail wheel support plates installed

Photo 4 David Overman and son Ian working on Tail wheel.

[r.coplen]

Photo 1 Tail wheel done!

Photo 2 Time sheets for David and myself. About 29 hours so far. I know that I could use less time if I would work longer days. (Like 8 hour days) But I have work I have to do and so I end up working in 4 hour periods. I waste some time getting stuff set up and turned on and getting focused again on what needs to be done. Oh well, I know that is the way a lot of people will work on building their SparrowHawk.

Photo 3. Cyclic tensioner This is something new to me. You can adjust this system to keep the same pressure on the cyclic. As it loosens up over time you can adjust the plate to the desired tension on the stick.

[r.coplen]

When I built Mariah, I had a big challenge putting together the main landing gear. I think it took about two weeks to get the whole thing done. The problem areas were cutting out the rubber compression disks, fabricating the axel block, fabricating numerous other parts and, worst of all, securing the struts in the proper position inside the axel block. The landing gear on the SparrowHawk III just bolts together in a few hours work with little fabrication.

Photo 1 Mariah's landing gear.

Photo 2 Landing gear on the SparrowHawk III

Mariah's instrument pod is positioned on a braced post. This leads to some pod shake which is hardest on the compass. The SparrowHawk III totally solves that problem with a pod shelf.

Photo 3 Mariah's post supported instrument pod.

Photo 4 Pod support shelf in the SparrowHawk III.

[StanFoster]

Randy: Excellent build coming on there! I really like that extra strong crankshaft support bearing. I had put that upgrade on mine. The beefiness of that bearing....the abilitity to check both sides of it visually....and the ease of replacing it are all winners.


Stan

[Gyrobound]

Randy, did you post more of your build in a different thread?

Scott