ZU-BRV revamp

[Jean Crous]

Credit where it is due my man. I may be a professional builder but not a professional with Carbon Fibre. I am going to give you a ring in the new year for some help with an idea or two on the Cubby Renegade.
Jean

[Bearcat]

At this stage what is left to do is complete the fitment of the new cowl as it is now its only placed with no fasteners. Then some finishing off on the cowl followed by some light paint work to blend the new cowl into the rest of the fuselage, my plan here is that from 3/4 back I will start misting white to become solid white about 20cm fwd of the doors. That should blend the carbon part into the white airframe. Then put the seat belts back. Replace all engine fluids and then put the wings and tail back on. I will then take her off to the airfield where I will do a conversion to taildragger and add carbon wheel spats and carbon wing strut fairings which molds have already been made for these parts.

WOW Trevor what a project

[Trevor Duane]

For interest, how much weight is saved by going carbon on the cowl ?

Hi Bruce, well it's a complex answer but here goes.
I haven't actually weighed the old vs new but I will do that as it's on the plan of boxes to tick. But it's not apples vs apples for the following reasons.

This BB is serial number 62 so this cowl was likely made in 1998 alot has changed in composite manufacture on a industrial level since then and now. Although these LSA aircraft composite parts even today are made in more of an armature way. But still the old cowl is fairly heavy with solid glass of about 4 x 380gram layers and excessive resin/fiber ratio. The new cowl is 1 x 200gram carbon with 2mm core and 1 x 380gram glass cloth and the correct resin/fiber ratio per fabric layer. Although it is lighter and I will weigh it in a few days and report back, the carbon in this case is just for aesthetics and not for increased strength and lower weight. With cosmetic parts you can't really engineer them from carbon to be many multiple times lighter like you can do with structural parts, so significant reduction in weight was not my target here.

[duncanritchie12]

BRV is looking absolutely stunning can’t wait to see the final result

[Trevor Duane]

Some more progress, just some trim left to take care of and to install the landing lights.

[JvTonder]

Looking good, what prop did you fit or did you just paint the P-Prop?

[Trevor Duane]

Looking good, what prop did you fit or did you just paint the P-Prop?

Thanks very much
Yes its a Pprop, 74x46 inch

[Trevor Duane]

For interest, how much weight is saved by going carbon on the cowl ?

Hi Bruce, I can finally answer your question with some more fact and measurements. I weighed the old cowl and boot cowl which came off 8.9kg. The new cowl is 5kg, right now I am busy finishing off a Eglass cowl for someone else and I will weigh it before sending, I wouldn't expect it to be more than 2-300grams of what the carbon cowl weighs.

[Trevor Duane]

This Sat we moved BRV from my home to the airfield. All went well with the move and the weekend's ground runs. Very strange to walk into the garage and not have a Bushbaby parked there anymore.

[Ray W]

She's looking really good

[Trevor Duane]

I intended to add some final weight details in the previous post after the new CG was checked on Sat. Somehow I forgot to add that.
Previously she had an empty weight of 290kg, now she has an empty weight of 295kg so 5kg added. But the 5 kg includes a 9ltr header tank which was full at the time of new CG. So I think I did pretty well on the refurb, obviously there was a significant reduction in weight with the new cowls but surprisingly second to that was a very significant reduction in weight between the old seat cushions and the new ones. The old ones had the most dense/heavy semi closed cell foam I've seen yet. Would probably last 100years but bliksem it was heavy.

Next planned work is adding a Garmin GTX327 and then carbon wing strut, cabane strut and tail strut fairings. Then a little later after that a tail wheel conversion and wheel break upgrade.

[V5 - LEO]

.....I'm officially with envy, bloody smart I tell you!

[Trevor Duane]

.....I'm officially with envy, bloody smart I tell you!

Thanks Mnr