California Bidules

[MarnochS]

Bidule 170's have come to California The unveiling occurred at the Visalia Fall AeroTow, Mac was gracious enough to open the box so we could all "look inside". Mac has S/N - 66 and I have S/N - 71 Scott

[Asher Carmichael]

ahh...., it's a California "Thing". You will enjoy it.

[MarnochS]

Thanks Asher, we're both looking forward to them

Firewall reinforcement
I opted for West System 404 (high strength adhesive) to form a filet around the backside of the firewall (there were some large gaps) and then put down 6 oz fiberglass cloth ( 3' up the sides )
Sealed off the existing T-nuts with Vaseline coated screws, then ran a Tap threw the threads after cleaning out the fiberglass.off the back side

Scott






Ran a bead of epoxy / colloidal silica (406) filler along all the forward glue joints as there were some holes...
Used a 10cc syringe (application) and a Popsicle stick (smoothing).

[lenb]

Hi Scott,
Are you planning on a servo saver setup for the nose gear?

[MarnochS]

Hi Len,

Using the old tag line "bigger is better"....a HS-5765 MH HV is tasked for steering duties.

[MarnochS]

Exhaust System
Playing with the K&S 3095-6 Canisters and headers before breaking out the torch.

[MarnochS]

LitePilot Bob .....starting to chomp at the bit.....kinda looks like Elvis.....well 42% sized....

[MarnochS]

Fun with Wheels

Decided to upgrade the wheels with ball bearings(flanged), after taking a few measurements, turns out I needed F608ZZ for the main wheels and F626ZZ for the nose wheel.
Also for the upgrade I need metric step drills, one with a 22mm step and one with a 19mm step (which is a little more difficult to find).
Instead of using a PVC pipe spacer, I cut plywood plugs and glued them together to get the proper spacing, and 0.080 G10 for the bearing spacer
Found I made the spacer a little too wide as the tire was rotating on the rim, so off to the band saw to cut the spacer in half......now the rim is griping the tire properly.





Main wheels in progress - checking the width......

[lenb]

Love the pilot Scott.

The downside to the bearings on the wheels is stopping this big plane from rolling. Some consideration needs to be how to put breaks on these things without strapping servos to the landing gear legs.

[eajbrian]

I have a baby one coming, the 111.

Brian

[lenb]

Congrats Brian.
We had the opportunity to fly the 111 in Cumberland last month. Stephane has installed a DA 100 on his and the performance was stunning. It flies just like the big one and pulls like a Stallion

LEN

[MarnochS]

Super Cool Brian....welcome to Bidule-palooza.......of course, since this is California..."All Bidule's are Created Equal".....


Some sundry items...
Added a G10 off-set arm to the choke so the servo will actually be able to open it.



Added a tube to the rear air frame to keep the servo wires under control



got my REVOC wing and tail bags - very nice and ORANGE to boot

[MarnochS]

Hard points for the canister muffler mounts

Since the bottom skin of the Bidule is just balsa and will crush when I install the Comfort mount standoffs I figured I'd just install some 0.080 G10 fiberglass hard points.





The inside of the fuselage has been reinforced with 1/8" aircraft ply across the bottom



Scott

[JimD]

Scott,

Have you noticed the rake of the main gear...and have you thought about which why to mount it (forward or rearward rake)?

Jim

FWIW, Len has his mounted with rearward rake.

[MarnochS]

Hi Jim,
I don't think it matters too much as it would only be about 1/2" difference in the main wheel position. Kinda boils down to Pilot Preference.... Classic Cessna look or RV8 look. I went with the Classic Cessna look.

[stevekremer]

Where do you guys get G10?

Steve K

[MarnochS]

Hi Steve,
Ebay is probably the easiest way to go, just do a search for G10 Phenolic or fiberglass Sheet
On occasion I've laminated fiberglass cloth together between freezer paper to get what I needed.