Source: 2021 Q2 Beartracks, Nathan Highmoor
History: I got my start in the trades at a young age in the oil and gas patch, starting with welding and soon branching into all manner of metallurgy, pipe-fitting, power engineering and project management. Early on, I found myself on a grueling eight-hour commute between cities for work. I caught a glimpse of a small aircraft tearing past the bumper-to bumper traffic in the wide-open, traffic-free skies and booked myself into flight school the moment I arrived home. That was 25 years ago and I have been flying primarily for work since then.
In recent years, I started looking seriously for a more recreational bush plane that I could put on floats. One of my colleagues in our local hangar club mentioned the Bearhawk line, and while I liked the Bearhawk 4 Place, it didn’t have the gross weight I was looking for. I considered a Murphy Moose but the load capacity and fuel burn were not on point for me. At this point I saw the announcement that the Bearhawk 5 prototype was flying. I was immediately interested, particularly because of the modern wing design and carrying capacity. I ordered the plans for both the Bearhawk 5 (serial number 5009) and the Patrol (serial number P444) in August of last year and received the stack of sheet aluminum for the wings in October. Fast forward to today: The Bearhawk 5 wing structures are complete, with one wing standing in the skinning jig and the other assembled and ready. 4130 material for both fuselages has been ordered but is delayed again, possibly until fall. Currently, I am on fuel tank construction.