Source: 2024 Q1 Beartracks, Virgil Irwin
For those of you who don’t know yet, my wife Mackenzie and I purchased Avipro, the kit production company behind the Bearhawk Quickbuild kits. Mark Goldberg offered the company to us last July at Oshkosh, and after six months of due diligence and number crunching, we decided it was something worth investing our future into. We have been very grateful for the support and encouragement from the community as we begin this new venture. I’m sure everyone has lots of questions and many have reached out already with their thoughts and concerns. We have a to-do list about a mile long, but we are doing our best to get everyone’s parts out the door and questions answered as we continue to work on our new advancements in the company.
First, the manufacturing will be staying in Mexico. The guys at the factory are exceptional craftsmen and I have always followed the motto of if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. There are still lots of parts manufactured here in the US, and as we move things forward our goal is to bring everything we can in house, this helps to keep costs down and ensure the highest quality product at the end of the day.
As we prioritize the tasks that need to be accomplished, the one task that sticks out the most is build manuals. Starting in April we will be constructing new build manuals that will be of a hybrid nature. There will be a written step by step manual with parts schematics, pictures and instructions. To go along with these written manuals there will be an overview video that goes with each section, giving visual guidance and tricks to accomplish each task. For years the task of building a Bearhawk has been very daunting simply from a project management point of view.
My goal with these manuals is to close the gap for the builder, increase completion rates, and decrease completion time. We have to start somewhere and currently there are the most people building the Five. After the manual is complete for the Five, we will start into the other models. The most likely order will be the Five, Patrol, Companion, Four, LSA.
The Web Store. What is it? What will be available? The store will be a complete one stop shop for you to get everything Bearhawk. Seatbelts, lights, avionics, tires, wheels, electrical, batteries, cables, fabric, paint, spare parts, merch, etc. For the scratch builders, there will be major assemblies available for purchase such as landing gear, shock struts, engine mounts, seats, etc. Wing kits and Fuselage kits are still available individually if desired. We recently got the warehouse moved and are working hard on new OEM
partnerships to provide the most complete product offering at the most affordable price. Recent new partnerships include Whelen, Desser, Garmin, E-mag and many more. We will begin adding products shortly and we are excited to offer this service to the community.
Thank you to everyone for continuing to support Bearhawk and the community that surrounds this company. Aviation truly brings some of the best people together and the Bearhawk community is by no doubt the best community to be involved with. Continue reading →

Source: 2024 Q1 Beartracks
So far only one example of the Bearhawk Companion is flying, though a few others are close! When it came to the Bearhawk 4-Place, Patrol, and LSA, Bob built the first prototypes and completed the flight testing and validation himself. The Bearhawk Companion worked out differently, and once Bob got to see and fly the first completed Companion, he knew he wanted to build one. Being that a Quick-build kit was available, it didn’t make sense to build the same way he made his prototypes. His kit arrived on January 26th, 2024, and he went right to work. As of press time he has the fuselage on the gear, the boot cowl and firewall installed, and the wings finished. He says, “Building an airplane is a lot easier when this much of it is already done!” Bob’s grandson Erin has also helped occasionally with the kit. Erin is half way through A&P school and is excited about airplanes.