Source: 2003-Q1 Beartracks
Mike- A quick short update- Bearhawk is finish painted- now installing instruments and controls. Cowling and windshield will be installed after inspection. Should complete and paint wings by this spring and start ground testing after completing seats. I am moving into a new hangar (15 miles away from Port Angeles). I bought an I-Mac and am learning how to use it (watch for email!) Beyond that nothing much happening. Keep up the good work, Mike and Bob- we enjoy the newsletter and look forward to next October’s Bearhawk Fly-In. We’ll be sending in photos of the Bearhawk soon. Great to be getting the POH etc, the information is needed for flight testing. We’ll be talking to you soon. Congrats on your certification Mike, it’s been a long haul. Best regards to you both.
Jack Piggot, Dan Donovan- #347- Sequim, Washington
Jack and Dan, Thanks for the kind words and I’ll be looking for that email. If everything you have going on is “nothing much” I would hate to see you when you are busy! ~Mike

Mike, G’Day!- 337 Progressing well. Fuselage is now 99% finished. Wings finished and awaiting fuel leak test (wet wing) then painting before the end of summer. Soon we’ll be starting on the engine, IO-540 low time. We’ll be going through it, I have some components overhauled (fuel injection, etc). It’s starting to get exciting now that we can see the project sitting up in the hangar- hopefully ready to fly mid-late 2003. All the best!
Warren Hutson- #337- Crookwell Australia

Mike- I received my plans #522 in October 2001 and have enjoyed reading the back issues of Beartracks. I have just started to make ribs after a lot of reading and prep construction. Looks like a fun project so far! First time builder!
Eric Bartlett- #522- London, Ontario Canada

Bob and Mike- This is just a short note to let you guys in on my progress. I’ve bought a piece of wood (Jatoba, about 2.5 times harder than oak) for the form block for the ribs. I will begin the process of beating out the ribs as soon as I can get my other project out of the garage in a couple of weeks. This is a great project to be involved with because of the simplicity of the design and people like Russ, Planter Bob, Dell, and the older group members who so willingly share their technical observations with those of us who are just getting started on this journey. Thanks again for this aircraft!
Charles Breen- #572- San Antonio, TX

Charles, if you think they like to share technical information with you on-line, wait until you see the non-technical info they put in print in the “extra issue” with this newsletter. ~Mike

Bob- Something for the newsletter. How about some threaded steel or tubing in the top of the cabin at the ends of the spar carry-thru tubing to accept 4 I-bolts to pick up the aircraft for putting on floats?
Dan Riffee- #267- Elizabeth, WV

Dan- looks good to us- having never worked with floats we are not too sure of what is needed when lifting the airframe to attach floats. We are looking forward to seeing the first Bearhawk on floats. ~Mike ~Bob

Bob and Mike, Here are a few pictures of what’s going on in Callahan. Top skin went pretty well. Next week the bottom goes on. I’m going to make the changes in the newsletter that I can, new top hats, -4 rivets in the .032 skin, etc. Things are going great, just a little slower than I would like. Hope to be well on my way on the second wing by Sun-N-Fun. Hope to see you both there!
Ernie Green- #049- Callahan FL

Ernie- Always great to hear from you- looking forward to seeing you at Sun-N-Fun. Hopefully the weather will be perfect this year. Keep those photos coming. ~Mike

The two photos below are from Wayne Estment in South Africa. Bob has experienced a sharp increase in plans sales to South Africa. Seems that there is a lot of Bearhawk activity in the region. We also have reports that a Bearhawk is nearing completion. Hope to have some photos soon.

South Africa