Source: 2005 Q4 Beartracks, Greg King
Greg King is a 29 year old flight instructor who does demo flying for AviPro Aircraft, Ltd. at the airshows.
I have been doing demo flying for Avipro since Oshkosh ’05 and have had the opportunity to demonstrate the airplane to many pilots who have been very impressed by the airplanes capabilities. Because not everyone interested in the airplane has been able to get to a fly-in where we are giving demo rides this article will attempt to describe the demonstrations rides that we are giving. The airplane that I am using is the first Bearhawk kit out of the factory in Mexico and is powered by a Lycoming O-540 making about 250 hp. N303AP is very well equipped with aux. tanks, a gyro panel, a GPS/COM and an autopilot. It is a very nice example of the design, although it does lack some of the refinements that have made it into current kits.
When doing demo rides I normally do a relatively normal takeoff with 2 notches of flaps. After lifting off in about 300-400’ I raise the nose to maintain 80 mph which results in about a 1500 fpm climb rate depending on the day and the load. This climb is quite impressive to most people and few have seen similar performance in the past.
At a few hundred feet (or later if I think a bunch of people are watching) I retract the flaps, lower the nose, accelerate to about 120, and reduce power to about 25 squared to demonstrate a cruise climb to 3000’ at about 800fpm. Once level I let the airplane accelerate and reduce power to 23 squared and demonstrate high speed cruise at about 150-155 mph. I believe that showing the short field takeoff, climb capabilities, and high cruise speed of the airplane at the start of the demo ride gives the customers a sense of how capable the airplane really is.
After getting clear of the fly-in traffic I do few normal turns and some 45 degree bank turns then reduce power to an economical 19” and 2200 rpm and let the plane slow to about 125 mph and let the customer fly the airplane some.
Pilots are often pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness and power of the controls. They have often only flown airplanes that are much heavier on the controls and don’t expect a utility airplane to be that nimble. People without any experience in tail wheel airplanes usually don’t use enough rudder to keep the airplane coordinated at first, but usually get the feel of using the controls in a coordinated manner fairly quickly. Most customers are content with flying the airplane conservatively and are happy to get comfortable with the airplane in normal flight. Some experience pilots have asked to explore some more aggressive maneuvering. If the other people in the airplane are comfortable with it, we usually go ahead and explore the envelope further. Several aerobatic pilots have done 60 degree bank steep turns, chandelles, and lazy 8’s. The airplane usually exceeds their expectations for performance and control authority. Some experienced pilots have descended down to a few hundred feet over the desert to learn the airplanes personality near the ground. They have been impressed by the good visibility, especially ahead and the effortless maneuvering around obstacles. We also discover that when the airplane is slowed down for maneuvering in low visibility deploying a few notches of flaps can give very good over the nose visibility at Cub speeds. This allows more time for spotting obstructions and maneuvering around them.
After the customers have flown the airplane for a few minutes I usually take over and demonstrate slow flight at about 40 mph indicated with most of the flaps deployed. I usually demonstrate moderate banks of about 25 degrees with crisp turn entries and exits to demonstrate the control authority that exists at extremely low speeds. I will usually demonstrate a stall and recovery from the slow flight configuration. The airplane remains controllable throughout the stall with light buffeting occurring just before the stall break. At the stall, I lower the nose about 5 degrees and the airplane starts flying again with minimal altitude loss. The wings remain level during the stall if the airplane is close to coordinated. I normally do not add power and just return to slow flight with minimal excitement. I will sometimes demonstrate a stall with the power off which results in an almost un-noticeable stall break. After I am done demonstrating the slow flight characteristics I will usually smoothly add full power to accelerate to cruise which results in very impressive acceleration. Sometimes people will ask to see a power on stall which requires an unusually high deck angle because of the airplanes impressive climb capability. The stall is also very gentle in this configuration and the airplane recovers by just releasing a little back pressure and lowering the nose to slightly above the horizon. The airplane continues climbing during the whole process without any altitude loss. Sometimes I will be asked to demonstrate a go-around from a power off approach situation at altitude. The airplane stops descending and starts accelerating and climbing almost immediately
as power is smoothly added and I have to pay attention not to let the acceleration get ahead of me and exceed flap speed before retracting the flaps. After the slow speed demonstration it is usually time to head back to the airport. I normally fly downwind at about 100 mph, but depending on the traffic situation, the airplane can fly downwind between 50 and 160 mph. I normally fly final at about 70 mph with 3 out of 4 notches of flaps. This isn’t the configuration for extremely short landings, but fits in well with busy fly-in traffic and leaves plenty of time to correct for errors during the flare while the airplane floats over the runway bleeding off some excess speed. If nothing is following us, I normally use moderate braking and make the 1000’ turnoff using the described technique without really trying. Some people are disappointed that I don’t demonstrate the true short field landing capabilities of the airplane, but I believe that the normal landings show that there is significant
performance left to be extracted from the airplane and the tower at most fly-ins seems to frown on stopping 500’ down the runway with no taxi-ways in sight and 6 other airplanes following us.
Taxiing in we normally open the windows for ventilation and use slight S-turning to keep the taxi way in view. The large side windows can be opened in flight, but the Cessna style wing root vents seem to provide plenty of ventilation while flying. While getting out I normally show the customers that the baggage compartment has a significant amount of baggage in it and that we usually also are carrying 30 to 50 gallons of gas. Then it’s time to answer any questions and load up with the next group of one to three customers and call fly-in ground control for taxi clearance and do another flight.
I would like to thank everyone who has taken a demo ride with me for showing interest in the airplane and I would like to encourage everyone who is looking for a capable airplane to take a demo ride in a Bearhawk. The airplane capabilities speak for themselves and I don’t have to work very hard to make the airplane look good.