Source: 2014 Q4 Beartracks, Jared Yates
Roy Glenn is a frequent visitor to Bob’s fall fly-in. Over the years he saw Bob’s progress on the Bearhawk LSA prototype, and knew that he wanted to build one. After a few years of persistent expression
of interest, Roy was finally able to get Bob to sell him a set of plans for the Bearhawk LSA. 22 months
after Roy got the plans, Bearhawk LSA from plans number 002 was flying!
It’s fair to say that Roy’s building timeline is atypical, but then again, so is Roy. He is retired from a career that included simultaneously running a small construction business and owning a scrap yard, so he knows how things go together and come apart. He is also experienced with working on airplanes, having restored a 1941 Taylorcraft, a Cessna Cardinal, and having built a Bearhawk 4-Place from scratch.
Roy started his big Bearhawk back when he still lived in Connecticut, after reading the October 1995 Sport Aviation article that introduced so many people to the Bearhawk. In 1996 he saw the Bearhawk at Sun-N-Fun and was immediately sold on the design. As he says, “The Bearhawk, performance-wise, is hard to beat. I’m not going to find a better airplane for the type of flying that I do.” It took longer for Roy to finish building his first Bearhawk, in part because he had not yet retired from his two full-time jobs. Four years ago, he retired and moved to an airpark near Shelbyville, TN, 8TN2. He has dreamed of having such an ideal home and shop configuration for many years, and is glad to have finally been able to establish one. His hangar currently houses four airplanes: his Bearhawk LSA, Bearhawk 4-Place, Cessna 150, and project Corban Jr. Ace. The Jr. Ace was a donor to the Bearhawk LSA, contributing its Continental O-200 and wheels. The engine had just 175 hours when the airplane ended up on it’s back, damaging one of the wings, the vertical stabilizer, and rudder.
Roy has been flying for almost 30 years, and especially appreciates the handling qualities of the Bearhawk LSA. The ground handling is a little bit more favorable than the 4-place. He has 56 hours on it so far, and hopes to fly it to Bob’s airport sometime next year. Roy’s Bearhawk LSA came in heavier than Bob’s Prototype at 890 pounds. Roy accounts for 90 of these pounds with options including a heavier metal prop, heavier McCauley wheels, starter, alternator, and battery. The covering process is Polyfiber, which Roy chose because he was familiar with it and has had good results in he past. He has not yet applied a top coat paint, mostly because he hasn’t been able to find just the right color yet. The paint on his 4-place has darkened with age, which has led to it being a shade of white that wasn’t his first choice. Roy reports that the building techniques were very similar for the two Bearhawk projects, with the exception of skinning the wings. Some of the skins on the LSA are .016 aluminum, which is very hard to work with because it is so delicate. He says that’s the one area where his cosmetic results didn’t turn out as well as he would have liked. Like many flying home-built airplanes, Roy’s LSA is still a work in progress. On his last trip to Airventure he picked up a GRT EFIS S200 and EIS 4000 engine monitor, and has been very happy with that change.
His next change will be to install a Lycoming O-235 that he is currently rebuilding, because he just likes Lycomings. He knew that this engine change was a possibility back when he built the fuselage, so he made the firewall two inches wider than the plans called for. The steel tube structure is built per the plans. After a few years of searching for a good deal on a core, he finally found one off of a Piper Colt down in South Georgia. He’s going to try to fit it in the first cowling, but concedes that he might have to build a new cowl. The Lycoming will certainly be heavier than the Continental, though he hopes to save weight with a lighter exhaust system and alternator, and he’s going to try to run without an oil cooler.
The long term plan is to put the Continental back onto the Ace. The Ace requires some structural repairs, having nosed over before he purchased it, but he looks forward to flying in the summer with the open cockpit. When I asked Roy what he plans to do with all of those airplanes, he says he intends to keep them all until he can’t fly them anymore. It’s clear that he enjoys projects, and is rarely without at least one in queue. As he puts it, “I’m a build-a-holic so I can’t resist building another one. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.” He says he has a set of Patrol plans on hand. Roy’s wife is very supportive of his airplane projects, though she doesn’t fly with him often. He says “She has her hobbies, I have mine, I guess that’s why we get along well.” We’ll definitely keep an eye on his progress, and follow up with an update on how he likes the new engine installation.