2026 was a great year at Airventure for Bearhawks. By my count there were at least 17 examples present. If the plane title below has a link, click there to see more detailed photos of that plane. Some have seen lots of previous coverage so I didn’t get detailed walkaround photos of those. At times the sky was full of wildfire smoke and that made for some interesting photography lighting.

Bearhawk Patrol – N37BP – Red and White – Carlo Cilliers – “Plans Champion!”:

Bearhawk Five – N847EM – Orange, Black, White, Gray – Elliot and Melanie Abel – “Kit Champion!”:

Bearhawk Five – N812MN – Yellow and Black, in the Kit Booth:

Bearhawk Five – N902EC – Maroon, Black, and Red, with a mountain scheme – Chris Cummings:

Bearhawk Five – N605PS – Metalic Blue and Silver – Dennis Ramsey:

Bearhawk Five – N513EP – Erin and Paul, in the Garmin Booth:

Bearhawk 4-Place – N789WM – White and Silver – Stephen Ingram:

Bearhawk 4-Place – N303AP – Red and White – Jared Yates:

Bearhawk 4-Place – C-GSOI – Blue and White, Maple Leaf – George Huntington:

Bearhawk Companion – N236WZ – Purple, Orange, Green, and Silver – Stol It:

Bearhawk Patrol – N96NH – Green, Cream, and Gold, Hydraulic Float Attachment Provisions – John Meade:

Bearhawk Patrol – N186BP – Red and Silver – Bearhawk Aircraft:

Bearhawk Patrol – N240BP – Black, Yellow, and White – Dennis Reynolds:

Bearhawk Patrol – N241BP – Yellow and White – Donna Svoboda:

Bearhawk Patrol – N62588 – White and Gray – Brooks Cone:

Bearhawk Patrol – N584P – Maroon with Mountains – Jeff and Lynne Stoltenberg:

Bearhawk Patrol – N169PL – Amphibious Floats – James Crane:

Brooks Cone organized a Bearhawk Walk on the Tuesday of the show. Here is more detail about the walk.

Later that evening, Bearhawk Aircraft hosted a catered BBQ dinner and shared some updates about happenings at the kit factory and build assit.

Bearhawk LSA builder Wayne Powell noticed that an AN bolt manufacturer had a tent set up displaying a nice alternative to cadmium plating, using zinc and nickel. They had lots of good things to say about this plating’s durability and corrosion protection, and it is also much more environmentally friendly than cadmium.

I had a nice visit with Donna and Dennis to hear about their corresponding Bearhawk Patrols. Donna especially was motivated to reach 1000 hours before arriving at Airventure, so that she could display the propeller card that says “This homebuilt has flown over 1000 hours”. While she was crossing the mountains on the way to the show, she saw the hour meter getting close, and even got a video of the crossover from 999.9 to 1000.0. Dennis reached the same milestone a few hours later. They are no doubt some of the most experienced Patrol pilots in the world. Last year they were talking about having trouble finding an overhauler for their Whirlwind props. That has been sorted out, and Donna was able to find replacement spinner for her plane, despite the Whirlwind supply chain becoming quite constrained. They both installed plenums under the cowlings to promote cooling efficiency. In Donna’s plane, this led to an unexpected side-effect. With the pressure being reduced on the cowl itself, she found that the piano hinge at the upper cowl door was no longer being held in place. It started creeping forward, towards her newly-overhauled beautiful composite prop. She could see this creeping happening, and also could see the cowl beginning to separate where the pin was no longer in place. She decided to make a precautionary landing to sort it out, and everything turned out ok. Be sure to think about securing this hinge pin, especially if you run a plenum.

There were not any Bearhawk LSAs at the show that I could find.

Here were a few more photos:

These wheels and brakes are being designed by Acme Aero:

The Erin and Paul Bearhawk Five has some special cabinetry that includes a little kitchen. Sorry for not having better photos, but I’m sure they have a video about it.