Source: 2017 Q3 Beartracks
Collin Campbell Completes his Bearhawk LSA!
It’s big news any time someone builds an airplane, especially a Bearhawk. Collin has made even bigger news, as the first customer to have completed the Bearhawk 4-Place, Bearhawk Patrol, and Bearhawk LSA!


Collin Writes:
Well, they tell me I am the first “customer” to build all three of Bob’s designs. Now I know Mark Goldberg has built all three but I suppose he is not a “customer”. Oh, well. I wasn’t trying to make that happen but I guess that’s the way things have worked out. So, I thought I would share a little of my “Bearhawk Journey” with you.
It all started when I read Budd Davisson’s article in the Oct. ’95 issue of Sport Aviation. I thought, “…now that’s an interesting airplane…” Read the article, and retired the magazine to my stack of aviation stuff. At that time I had just finished an RV-6A and was flying it. The RV’s are great airplanes, but it just didn’t feel like a fit for my 1300’ grass strip. So I sold it and bought a Cessna 170B with a 180hp/constant speed conversion. That was a good airplane for my strip. I messed around with a couple of Aeronca 7-AC Champs (completely rebuilding one of them) and then I sold the C-170 and bought a Maule (MX7-160). It was at that time that I realized that the Maule sort of reminded me of that plane Budd Davisson did an article on in Sport Aviation, so I dug through my magazine stack and found it. So it was at that time that I really got the “Bearhawk Bug”. My plans arrived in January of 1999, and I got to work cutting and banging out ribs. 2680 hrs later, I made the first flight of N370CC on April 16, 2005 and flew it to Oshkosh in 2008.

It was powered by a Superior XP-360 with a 80” Hartzell prop. Empty weight was 1321 lbs, with CG of 11.34”
The 4-place Bearhawk is such a great airplane, and I sure enjoyed every minute of flying it! But I got the building bug again and ordered plans for the Patrol. I finished it early in 2014 and made the first flight on June 24, 2014. I am really enjoying the Patrol! It is powered by a Superior XP-360 that I built up myself. I am using a Sensenich 76 X 58 prop and that works really well for me. My Patrol has an empty weight of 1178 lbs. with a CG of 10.4”
I thought after building 2 scratch build aircraft, that I would not build another plane. Scratch building really does take a lot of effort, time and commitment…just saying. But I was tempted, and went ahead and ordered plans for the LSA. I finally decided that I would consider buying an kit from Bearhawk Aircraft as another 6 to 8 yrs of scratch building didn’t seem like what I wanted to do. (getting older and grandkids have had a big influence on my decision).
My LSA kit arrived in Jan. of 2016. I was quite impressed with the quality of the kits. You know, the welding all seemed to be as good as mine! Really, the kit is a great way to go, saves hours, and hours. When scratch building, I haven’t forgotten all the time spent ordering materials and all the shipping charges. I almost feel like I should own stock in UPS it seems, it all adds up!
My LSA is powered by an 0-200A Continental with a Catto 74 X 40 prop. I did a complete overhaul on the engine including new Millenium cylinders, rebuilt mags, carb, B&C lightweight starter and alternator. Using an FM engine mounted oil filter, but no oil cooler- yet- will see how it goes! The whole project took me a little over 900 hrs, including the engine rebuild. I have an empty weight of 856 lbs with CG @ 11.8”. I used Poly Fiber for the covering process, paint is #143 Cub Yellow. I made the first flight on Aug. 26, 2017 and everything went fine with the exception of having to use a lot of trim to keep the nose up. (I think that I may need to adjust the horizontal stabilizer a bit to correct this).
Well, that has been almost 19 yrs of Bearhawk building! I will say I have really enjoyed every minute of it! I am looking forward to enjoying the LSA as long as my health permits it. If you are ever in SW Missouri and near a little town called Bolivar, look me up and we can talk about Bearhawks! ~Collin