About that Belly of Your's

[SuperDuper]

My buddy and I are in the process of building the Two Place Bearhawk Patrol and will be incorporating a belly pod into the initial build. Have already fabbed up the tubing frame work for a fiberglass pod, along with a handy quick attachment method to the fuselage. Since we are starting with essentially a clean slate, I was hoping to get some input from those of you who have working experience with belly pods. Looking for do's and dont's, dimensions, number of doors, placement, etc.

This plane will be set up to fly off of Wip floats, but I doubt if I will be using the belly pod at the same time - since I have lockers. But again, those with actual experience may see things differently.

Pictures of what you got would be great.

 

[DENNY]

The bigger the door the better. Also having the back end removable is great for hauling long stuff.
DENNY

 

[Bill Rusk]

Boy, it could take five pages to answer all the ins and outs of this subject. I have found the belly pod to be a huge asset both on floats and on wheels. If you put it on floats you need to consider the cross brace wires. If it is a cargo only pod the wires can go through the pod with minimal inconvenience. If it is a fuel pod then you need to have the tubes in the pod and allow the brace wires to go through. There is only one pod currently manufactured that has those tubes, and that is the Airglass LT32 pod. You also need to consider where your float fittings and hydraulic lines will mount relative to the pod.
Having been down this road, (I spent a summer using the float lockers to carry extra fuel in 5 gallon cans) I can't tell you how much better it is having a fuel pod that you can pump fuel into the tank while in flight. It can be a serious pain in the rear having to land, and then trying to hoist a 5 gallon can up on the wing while bobbing around on the lake, hoping the wind does not blow you up against the shore, in the rain, etc.
Or you can flip a switch in the cockpit while flying along, warm and dry, and still moving towards your destination.

Some fuel pod thoughts here

https://www.supercub.org/forum/show...g-a-Javron-Cub&p=593192&viewfull=1#post593192


Lots of info on the pod mounting and float stuff starting on page 44 of the thread starting here

https://www.supercub.org/forum/show...g-a-Javron-Cub&p=637213&viewfull=1#post637213

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[SuperDuper]

The bigger the door the better. Also having the back end removable is great for hauling long stuff.
DENNY

Thanks Denny,

Sounds like good advice. I saw Steve Pierce a couple of weeks ago, and he said that a door at the back is really handy.
When you say removable, are you talking about a door or some kinda of removable rear section?

All the Best,
SD

 

[SuperDuper]

Bill,

As always, your input is great.
You have me rethinking the incorporation of a fuel tank and transfer system to one of the main tanks. We have actually installed an inspection plate in the belly right where we would need to do the plumbing. This would be a relatively straight forward project, but after weighing the benefits against the reality of how often I would use it, I decided to scrub that particular idea. The mains carry a combined 55 gallons of fuel - over 6 hours with an O-360. If there is ever an occasion where I would need more fuel on board than 6 hours, I will be transferring from 2 gallon fuel cans tucked away in the belly or the lockers. My experience flying a J-3, no aux tank, with straight floats has reinforced some advice I gleaned from this very web site. Balancing in mid air over the wing of an airplane on water is a lot easier with 2 gallon gas cans that 5 gallon gas cans - and the potential for spills is reduced by a factor of 2.5

All the Best,
SD

 

[tedwaltman1]

Pics and other design ideas here: http://EAeroFab.com

 

[Bill Rusk]

SD

I agree. If you have 55 gal inside you really should not need extra fuel, or a pod, unless you plan some pretty aggressive trips deep into the Arctic Circle.

Sounds like you might need a cargo pod but you should be good on fuel.

IMHO

Bill