I started looking at the BD-4 in 1969. I still have a copy of the May 1969 Popular Mechanics that features the BD-4 on the front cover. It proclaimed "Build this 4-Place Cabin Plane for $3500". I never got started on the project. Many years later I put a deposit on the Prescott Pusher. When the kit was finally released, it cost several times what the original estimates had been, so I dropped that project and bough a share of a 1965 Mooney. The partnership sold the Mooney and purchased a 1968 Bonanza. A beautiful airplane. It finally got to the point where all of my flying budget was going to fixed costs. A crack in the engine crankcase was the last straw. I sold my share to the other partners and dropped out of aviation for 10-11 years.

It was obvious that if I wanted to get in the air again, I needed to build my own plane. I have always had good luck with partnerships, I have been in two, but would much prefer to own the plane myself. This would allow me to control the maintenance costs, and have the freedom to do things that are perfectly safe but not allowed on Certified aircraft because of the regulations. I remembered the BD-4: inexpensive - efficient - easy to build (well sort of). There are a few complications. But, the plans were available again from Jim Bede, there was an active group on the web, and there was a lot of information from builders over the last 20 years.

So Here I am. Finally getting started on the project and I have a few ideas for innovations.

 

Here is my builder's log:
Click on an image to get a larger picture

Date	Work
August 2001	Acquire tooling. I wanted to have the ability to make the angles I need from aluminum sheet, so I spent some time building a sheet metal brake. I built a 40" brake as a warm up to building a 10' brake.
Sept. 24, 2001	Purchased the basic material for the 10' brake. I will need about $40-$50 more material to finish.
Sept. 26, 2001	Purchased two 48" X 144" sheets of 0.063" 2024 T3 alclad aluminum. Aluminum will be sheared by the supplier into the widths I need for all of the angles and gussets for the fuselage.
Oct. 1, 2001	Drilled pilot holes for the hinges. The hinge will use a 7/8" steel rod for the pin with 7/8" X 1" bushings.
Oct. 1-19, 2001	Finished constructing the brake as time permitted. Purchased 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 angle for trusses plus about $30 worth of high strength bolts.
Oct. 19-26, 2001	Time out from building the brake to make a door big enough to move the brake inside. I am using an engine hoist to move the pieces of the brake to the place where it will be installed. This is the beginning of a hole in the adobe wall of my workplace for a 6' wide door.
Oct. 29, 2001	Finally! The door is in. Now I can move the brake as well as other large objects (like the fuselage) in and out of the work area. Clean-up and widening of two interior doors required two additional days.
Nov. 1, 2001	Moved the brake parts into place and assembled. I had forgotten to purchase the clamp for the brake, so back to the metal place for another $22.00 worth of steel. Total cost of the material for the brake: $275.00
Nov. 2, 2001	I bent my first piece of aluminum. The hinges were installed and adjusted, then a piece of scrap 25" long and 2" wide was placed at the left end and clamped in. After a considerable amount of straining and several attempts to get a 90 deg. bend, the piece was fully bent. One thing missing on the brake is any counter weights to help in lifting the apron. After completion of this bend, the left hinge was out of alignment. I will have to beef up the hinge attachments.
Dec 12, 2001	I have been saying for some time that I was just getting started and that I was working on the gussets and the 10 ft. brake. The brake development is show here. The gussets were always "I'll cut some out this afternoon or tomorrow". TODAY, I have  made gussets! This was facilitated by the purchase of a shear from Harbor Freight.
Dec 13, 2001 Grandson	Summary of previous month's activities: I had used bolts to position the hinge so that in the event I decided I wanted to move them I could. This was futile. I couldn't tighten the bolts enough to resist the forces involved in bending a long piece of aluminum. I could have pinned them, but didn't have room for multiple pins for multiple adjustments, so the hinges were placed where I wanted and welded. The nose on the beam of the brake was made by welding a 1/2 inch steel rod to a 1/2 X 3 steel bar. The welding process causes a considerable curvature of the beam (1/2 in. or more). I took the beam to a frame shop and had it straightened - somewhat. Cost $50. I think I have a better solution. After welding the rod to the bar, use a chop saw to cut slots about 2 1/2 inches into the 3 inch bar every foot or so. Spot weld a 1 X 1 X 1/8 angle to the back of the bar while clamping it straight. I used this technique to straighten one section of the beam that was still off by 1/8" or so. I also cut about 6" of one end that couldn't be straightened. The 1 X 1 serves a dual purpose. It holds the bar straight and raises the back of the bar 1/8 inch. When the beam is clamped down (I use 'C' clamps), it is harder for the nose to rise with the spacer in the back. Cost of the 1 X 1 - about $8. Visit new Grandson in Los Angeles - about 2 weeks. The brake's apron is fairly heavy. It includes the 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 angle and a large truss type brace. I measured the force required to hold the apron in a horizontal position with a spring scale. It is about 46 lbs. This force is required just to pick it up without bending anything. The solution is to add counterweights. So, purchase two round lengths of steel 4 1/2 in. dia X 14 in long. Each one weighs about 60 lbs. The apron is 36" long, so the 120 lbs should be counterbalance this force with a length of 14" inches or so. Cost - $60. I have welded a 1" steel rod about 18" long to the front of the apron hinge. This rod will have to be bend to clear the existing structure and the weight added. Work still in progress. Total cost for the brake so far $393.00
Jan 13, 2002	The 1" rods have been bent into place and the weights added. Ideally the counterweight would be opposite the mass of the apron centered on the hinge.When upright, my counterweights are slightly forward of the hinge which results in an uneven force required to lift the apron. At no deflection, it requires about 24 lbs of force to move the apron. At approximately 60° deflection, the apron and counterweight are balanced. At 90°. it requires a -2 lbs of force to hold the apron. This is good enough for my purposes, and makes bending a lot easier to control. There is still too much flexure in the apron. The bend is uneven across a short piece of aluminum (2 ft.). Next mod will be to add vertical braces in each 'V' of the apron truss.
Aug. 23, 2002 My future BD-4	It has been a long time since I have put anything new in the log. Mainly, I haven't done much. I have a problem with the brake that causes the ends to bend more than the center (on a 5 ft. piece). I have been somewhat reluctant to bend a lot of my good aluminum and turn it into scrap. Now however, I may do just that. The aluminum is now somewhat surplus, and if I can use a few pieces to test and modify the brake, I can do so. Why is it surplus? While visiting the EAA fly-in at Oshkosh, I had the opportunity to purchase a fine example of a flying BD-4. At least it is flying now. I am purchasing Deene Odgen's plane after he removes the engine & prop. This will give me the ability to be flying much sooner. I will miss the thrill of scrounging for all of those odd pieces, and the joy of endless riveting, but will still have plenty of work to do. Deene's plane has been flying for over 20 years, and has over 1100 hours on it. It has many of the mods that I would have wanted to do if I had continued the building project. I will continue this log to document the progress I make in getting this plane back in the air. I am going to pick up the plane in January, so the next topic will be building a trailer to cart the plane home. I could rent a trailer, but I foresee needing to move the plane several times in the next year or two, and would rather have my own.
Dec 8, 2002 Crash space at Holger's. My Trailer with Van's Quick Build Kit. RV Pilot taking a nap?	I have just returned from getting my trailer.  Instead of buying a small trailer from Harbor Freight and modifying it to fit my plane, I purchased a larger trailer from M. S. Metals just south of Portland, OR.  Mike at M. S. Metals made a trailer with 15" wheels, and an 80" wide flat bed designed specifically to carry a BD-4 aircraft.  His prices were so much better than what I could obtain locally that it was worth the trip to pick it up. This also gave me the opportunity to visit with some friends and fellow BD-4 enthusiasm during the trip.  I saw Hugo Schneider in Phoenix, AZ (I went the long way around to Portland), and Holger Stephen in Lake Oswego, Or.  Holger was kind enough to put me up for the night so that I could pick up my trailer the next morning. John Burns from Albuquerque was getting delivery of a quick build kit from Van's Aircraft at the same time I was getting my trailer, so he flew to Portland and we drove back together with his new airplane. I made two modifications to the trailer for hauling my airplane.  I added two outriggers at the back to hold the main wheels, and a 'U' channel to the front to hold the tail wheel.  Click here to see more photos of the modified trailer. This trailer worked great for the taildragger configuration.  For a nose wheel plane where the mains are in front of the trailer wheels, the tongue should be about two feet longer to provide more clearance between the tail and the tow vehicle.
Feb. 4, 2003	At last, I have returned from Austin, TX with my airplane.  It took about 6 hours to get the plane dis-assembled and loaded up.  Deene had already removed the wheel pants and wing tips.  Everything went very smoothly.  I left the airport about 5:30 AM and drove straight through.  Now the real work begins. Click here to see more photos of loading the plane.
Jun 29, 2003 Slight interference with gascolator	It's about time I updated this site.  I've spent the last four months mostly thinking about what I'm going to do, and waiting on parts.  I now have: An engine from Bruce Turrentine, a motor mount from Jerry Hey currently moving from California to Indiana, engine control computer from Tracy Crook, and I'm still waiting for delivery of the new 2.85:1 PSRU from Tracy Crook.   The next step is to start putting together all of the stuff needed to get the engine running.  Things to do: Rear motor mount, (wasn't included with main motor mount because of difficulty fabricating without having the plane at hand.) Cooling system. Exhaust system. Intake system. Fuel system. Electrical system and components. A bunch of stuff I haven't though about yet. The goal at the moment is to get the plane flying in 6 months.
Oct 18, 2003 Suzuki seats Seat bottom with new adjusters New hole for the rear bolt Adjusting handle cut. Runner	There are a lot of things I could be doing to the plane while I'm waiting for Tracy Crook to finish the gear reduction unit.  He has had some manufacturing problems that have delayed delivery.  Hopefully soon!  I tend to put things off every chance I get. But: Today is "Fix the seats" day.  Deene had seats from a Toyota in the front.  They are comfortable seats, but are slightly too wide for the plane (Deene cut some of the aluminum from the door panels so they would close properly) and they don't have any fore/aft adjustment. I found a good deal on a couple of Suzuki Samari seats.  These have been used by several other builders with good reports.  I ended up getting a pretty nice pair for $25.  I will eventually have them re-covered to match the interor colors of the plane, but for now they are quite useable. One problem with the Suzuki seats is that the adjusters on the driver and passenger sides are different.  The passenger adjuster makes the seat much higher, and it is very heavy.  I first though about buying another set of seats just so I could get two adjusters from the drivers side, but couldn't even get torn up seats for twice the price I had paid for the good ones.  That really was a good price.  Then I got lucky (again).  A friend of mine, needing to clear out his storage space, gave me a pair of seats out of a Jaguar.  The seat adjusters were very small and simple.  My first thought was to use the jaguar seats in the airplane, but the pair is about 6 inches too wide.  Next best is fit the adjusters from the Jag seats to the Samari seats. It was pretty easy.  I had to cut a section out of the handle used to release the seats, and drill a hole for the rear bolt on each side.  Now I just need to weld the release handles back together and fit the seats in the plane. The seats with the adjusters weigh 23 (+/- 0.5) lbs, and of that the adjusters are 4 lbs.  It's going to cost me 8 lbs to get adjustable seats. If you need a pair of seats for your Jaguar, I have two available (without adjusters) for the cost of shipping.  The seats are in good condition except for the leather upholstery which needs to be replaced.  Photos on request.
Oct 18, 2003 New Design Rear View	On another note, I have installed the first attempt at a rear motor mount.  With suggestions from Paul Lamar, I am going to change it.  All that will be the same is the adjusting rod shown in this photo.  The new one will be made from 4130 steel square tubing.
Jan 26, 2004 RD-1C From Tracy Crook	Here is the new RD-1C gear reduction received from Tracy Crook.  Now the only major component I still need is the intake manifold.
Feb 23, 2004 Fuel Access Panel and Level Sensor	Initially I though this fuel access panel was a great idea.   Unfortunately after having been installed with Pro-Seal, I was totally unable to remove it.  To gain access to the leak in the fuel tank, I cut a large opening in the fuel bay.  (See wing installation photo below.)  I will rivet a backing ring around the opening, and make a cover which can be screwed to the backing plate.  All to be sealed with Pro-Seal.  The new cover can be removed easily with the application of heat from a heat gun.  This wasn't possible in the confined space where this access cover is located.
Feb 23, 2004 Installing the right wing. Wing helper	I am finally starting to put the plane back together.  Here I am putting the right wing back on. I built the wing hepler shown in the second photo to allow me to do the job without assistance.  It consists of two furniture moving dollies, a sheet of plywood, and a roller support.  All part were purchased from Harbor Freight except the 3 ft X 3 ft plywood, and the 1 inch dia steel tubing which replaced the shorter one supplied with the roller support.  Total cost was about $65.  This is the roller support with two rollers where each can be tilted to a 45 deg. angle.
June 25, 2005 June 26, 2005	I needed a bracket to hold my EFI fuel pumps to the firewall. I had a mental image of a bent up piece of metlal which would allow me to put a hose clamp round the bracket. I happened to be rumaging around in a local surplus store when I saw a box of old fire extinguishers with steel brackets bent in a shape simplier than I was thinking, but perfect for the job. I asked if they would sell the bracket separately. He said "there's a whole box of them over there". Ah, they had another box with just the brackets. I picked out two that were the same and modified them as shown in the photos. I didn't care for the red color so painted them white. The brackets aren't that easy to see once mounted anyway. If I were to do it over, I would leave the 'L' shaped portion of the bracket to support the bottom of the fuel pump. I'm not concernec about them slipping out, but it would make it easier to clamp them in. Maybe I'll get a couple more anyway. The other anomoly that I don't quite understand is the right angle AN fittings at the top didn't come out very square. There is a significant angle between the fuel pumps. I mounted the bracket to match the pumps. The metal surrounding the fuel pumps is roof flashing. I will replace that with some thin SS. Last two photos show version 2 of the bracket with the lower portion still in place. In addition, I rivited the clamp and a strip of 0.025 aluminum (instead of SS) to the bracket. The 0.025 aluminum protects the insulating wrap from the clamp.
Sep 9, 2005	Just to show that I have actually been working on the engine installation, here are some photos of the radiator and oil cooler installation. The first photo shows the location of the radiators and oil cooler. I've just moved the oil cooler to this location. I was having a lot of trouble getting it to fit below the engine. Next is the right side of the radiators. Each radiator is an evaporator core for a GM air conditioner. These cores have been used successfully on several other flying rotary engine installations. The bracket at the top and bottom of the radiator are exactly the same except the angle of the flat mounting plate is different. The radiators are tilted back about 60 degrees to fit into the cowling. The upper and lower brackets are held together by two stainless steel worm drive hose clamps. Actually each of the hose clamps is made up of two hose clamps so that there is an tightening screw on both sides for both clamps. The top bracket is bolted to the motor mount plate, and the bottom bracket is bolted to the engine by a steel strap purchased at the local hardware store. The next photo is a picture of the left side radiator. Last is a picture of the bracket that is used to clamp the radiators. the inside was filled with RTV, then clamped in place till the RTV cured. I used a layer of plastic film (as used in your kitchen) to keep the RTV from sticking to the radiator while it cured.