Source: 2009 Q4 Beartracks, Jason Bradbury
I don’t have too much spectacular to report, but will give an update anyway.
My wife and I live in Yellowknife, NT Canada (north of the N62). I’m a 6000-hour ATP, currently a line pilot and the training captain on the Twin Otter for Air Tindi here in Yellowknife. I always wanted to build my own airplane and looked for a long time at many different kits and plans before settling on to BH. The bar I set for an acceptable project was probably a bit high considering the stuff we do to the Twin Otter, and the fact that I wanted to be able to do the same with my own plane on my days off.
It’s the norm for us to land on an esker (best described as an upside down riverbed, left by a glacier) that is 800ft long 20ft wide with a 12000 lb Twin Otter and be down and stopped inside of 400ft. We operate Twins on Big tires, floats, and skis, I wanted an airplane that I could do all the same stuff with, and we found that in the Bearhawk.
I bought plans #1018 about three years ago, and last Feburary ordered all the flat steel from Dillsburg. It’s a little expensive to ship stuff up here (I paid 400 for the steel and 500 to ship it). I started making anything that was made out of flat steel right away.
We ordered all the tubing here in Sept and this time had it shipped by truck from Dillsburg (much much cheaper). So far to date I have completed the tail wheel, aileron and flap hinges and bearing supports, flap handle assembly, rudder pedals, and am just finishing the control sticks. Next up is either seat frames or the tail.
We are doing things a little backwards, as we are limited in space with a 16′ x 18′ shop (that we built), and are looking to perhaps buy the quick-build wings. Tube storage has been a bit interesting… as you can see from the photos it has proven handy to have a 10′ ceiling!
Regards,
Jason Bradbury