Bob’s Companion Project Update – Fall 2024

At press time the fuselage fabric is painted. A few pieces of front-end aluminum parts still need paint. The engine is finished, and is ready to be back on the airframe. Hopefully he’ll have an assembled airplane that looks like an airplane in time for the fly-in. The instrument panel, floorboards, and door sills are all in. He has taken a few antique car tours that have kept him away from the project but he’s still making steady progress.
There have been two completed Companions so far that we have weight and balance numbers for. In both cases, the empty CG was around 14-15 inches, as compared to a more typical 10-12 inches for a 4-Place. Bob says the CG on the companion is intentionally further aft, because it doesn’t need to be prepared to carry such a big load in the cabin. At a full-forward CG, the front seat occupants are aft of the CG, but approaching the aft limit, the front seat occupants become forward of the CG. Bob encountered this when carrying engines by himself. At the heaviest loads, the airplane can carry more if there is someone in the front seat than if the front seat is empty.
Bob says, if Companion builders want to carry a lot of cargo, use the constant speed prop and angle valve engine. For more reasonable/typical loads the parallel valve engine works very well. For both the 4-Place and the Companion, having the CG in the 14” range for day-to-day operations makes for an airplane that handles better, can land shorter, and feels lighter on the controls. It’s just with the 4-Place, we concede ideal solo-load handling by having the empty CG farther forward, to enable more cabin loading. Aircraft design is all about compromise!

Texas Flag Bearhawk Five Nears Completion in Pennsylvania

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Tim Weaver
Having built a Bearhawk 4-Place and a Bearhawk LSA, my latest project is this Bearhawk Five. The engine, a Lycoming IO-540, was built by Mike Meador, coupled with a three blade composite Hartzell propeller.
The Dynon instrument panel with autopilot was completed by Advanced Flight Systems of Canby, Oregon.
The floor boards and other beginning processes were started. After I completed many interior details like window frames, heat ducts, and autopilot mounting plates, (time consuming for sure), I made and fit all fuselage access hole frames etc., fit cowl, door, and window skins. I began covering it with the Stewart System in the winter of 2023. While Lancaster Aero Refinishers painted it, I continued work on the wings, adding the control mechanism and wiring. In late spring and summer of 2024, I installed the engine and propeller and tested the instrument panel. The engine break in happened exactly two years from the start of the project, following the Lycoming break in procedures. I expect to have finished the plane around the time of this publication.


In the photo below, Sean Geist, who custom makes composite parts, is making windscreen trim piece.

Bearhawk Companion N404BH First Flight – Massachusetts

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Greg Charest

The project started in 2020. Since I had ordered one of, if not the first, Companion models and there were no flying examples, the original plan was to build it as quickly with the help of another experienced Bearhawk builder. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic resulted in that being impossible and the build transitioned to a slower pace. Nevertheless, after 3 and ½ years and a couple thousand hours of work, N404BH received a special airworthiness certificate on 8/21/2024.
The goal was to build a fairly simple aircraft at a reasonable cost. To that end, the engine is a Lycoming angle valve O-360 overhauled by Bob Barrows with a fixed pitch Catto 78×56 propeller. Following the ‘keep it simple’ approach the magnetos are Bendix, the exhaust is from Vetterman and the electrical system uses an automotive style fuse panel. The covering is Stewart’s System and the avionics and engine monitoring system is a Garmin experimental G3X system with a GTR-200 radio, GTX-335 transponder and GDL50 ADSB-in receiver. The interior is a combination of fabric and Kydex plastic panels. One of the few luxuries is a set of leather seats built by Sport Aircraft Seats. I kept weight in mind but was not obsessive about it and with the somewhat heavier O-360 model the empty weight ended up at 1257 with a CG of 14.62.
I modified with a Vans Aircraft baffle kit and paid close attention to sealing up the cowl which has appears to have worked well. During ground testing and the first flight the cylinder head temperatures have not exceeded 350 degrees and the oil temp has been generally under 200.
The first flight was happily uneventful and other than a slightly heavy right wing, the airplane flies very nicely. The next step is to put on 2 or 3 hours at a high power setting for the initial engine break-in and then work through the EAA designed flight test program.
Greg’s plane is at Crow Island Airpark, 8MA4, in the photo below. It’s worth noting that he didn’t have electrical service during his build, so he did it all with a generator and a gas-powered air compressor!

Flight Testing Progress Report N907PM, plus Control Locks for the Flaps and Ailerons, Tail Lift

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Paul Minelga
Here’s an update of N907PM’s flights, up to 28.2 hours on the Hobbs. Well, there isn’t much to update! This may be shocking to some, but completely logical to me, so let me walk through the hours from first flight to present.
I already went over my first flight in the previous Beartracks article and YouTube video, so no surprises there. So what happened next? Extensive testing of the flight envelope? Figuring out the handling characteristics of my Bearhawk? Multiple stalls, turns, simulated engine failure, full-flap landings? Nope. None of that…well, almost none, but I will explain why and you can critique as you wish.
The first flight was certainly an exhilarating experience. It was the first date with a new machine, flying at the upper range of its engine and airframe performance envelope. The excitement of not knowing which sounds were normal and which sounds could be the beginnings of a catastrophic event was to be experienced, as only one can on a first flight! Well, 1.3 hours later proved the airframe and engine were up to the task of at least one safe takeoff, flight and landing. But the question remained: What’s next? I have a considerable amount of time and money invested in the engine and I want to break it in as best as possible. The EAA test flight checklist doesn’t allow for this scenario. Since the aircraft didn’t offer up any surprises and it is a proven design, my focus on the subsequent hours were focused on engine operating parameters and a proper break-in. In other words, I ran the engine hard. Running hard meant no air work, no slow flight, no series of stop and go landings, no shock cooling, all in the name of engine break-in.
At 5 hours I did my first oil change, and it was necessary! The oil looked like metallic graphite paint! I cut apart the oil filter and thankfully it didn’t yield any unwelcome surprises. Along with the oil, the oil filter just showed minute evidence of a LOT of new moving parts in a powerful internal combustion engine getting to know one another. I even pulled the oil screen in the sump. Fortunately, there weren’t any pieces with part numbers trapped in its mesh. Oil was still being consumed, or blown overboard, but I still don’t know where this engine’s “happy spot” is on the dipstick…every engine has one. So more flying is in order….a lot of flying…within gliding distance of my home airport, until about 10 hours. After that, I did a flight with the last 30ish minutes using a modified EAA test flight checklist by doing stalls and exploring trim changes with different flap settings. I also did a full-power go-around at altitude with three notches of flaps to check if I could overcome the sudden initial trim change. I did.
After that 10ish hours without an engine failure I figured it was time to spread my wings a bit and do a little cross country, at full power of course. I was flying in familiar territory. In my beautiful part of Alaska there are a BUNCH of airstrips available in case of an unfortunate event. Almost all are private, but I have yet to meet anyone that would not welcome a pilot in immediate need of a short, semi-flat surface. So my next 15 hours were spent doing cross country flights, at altitude, at close to full power. At 25.4 hours it was time for a another oil change and a good look over of the airframe. In addition to the oil change, I did a mini condition inspection as most of the important parts on the airframe and controls are hidden behind panels and can’t be seen on a preflight. I built a tail stand and calibrated my oil dipstick in the 3pt attitude and verified the factory stamped level attitude markings.
So what are my takeaways and what did I learn? First and foremost I always did a good preflight and a very thorough post-flight after every flight. On one post-flight I discovered the inlet fitting of the oil cooler started leaking. Everything stopped until it was fixed. I also maintained a meticulous log of the engine parameters. Even at the top end of the performance envelope, flying in circles can get pretty boring. Every flight I recorded the OAT, engine oil temperature, oil pressure, each cylinders EGT and CHT (Number 2 has always been my hottest), fuel flow, volts and amps. During my cross country flights I experimented with how minor trim settings affected level flight and always tried to keep my altitude within 50 feet of my target altitude. BTW, my BH can be trimmed to fly hands-off in smooth air, no heavy right wing as some have experienced. I feel very fortunate in that area. I also have a real-time CO detector in the cockpit and I recorded those readings as well. I never saw more than 1 PPM in level flight and 8 PPM maneuvering. I also took note of the differential between the level of the fuel tanks after refueling. I always flew with both tanks selected and never had more than 1 ½ gallons differential between the two at refueling.
One thing that took me off-guard a bit was making the transition from fabrication mode to maintenance mode. I built this thing, now I have to maintain it. It’s a completely different set of skills! I started a list of deferred maintenance items to “fix” during my next condition inspection. They are all minor, but should be resolved.
Now that I am satisfied that the engine is broken in and the aircraft doesn’t exhibit any control anomalies, I will start and complete the EAA flight test checklist. I feel it is very important to do the methodical testing and documentation of the aircraft. But, like I said before, this is a tried and true design and the first few hours didn’t exhibit any builder-induced surprises, so I was comfortable in getting the engine properly broken in before going any further. As an aside, I legally took up my first passenger the other day…my wife! The day was stunning. It was completely clear, light wind and the fall colors of the birch and aspen against the turquois blue of the Kenai River were amazing. Even Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley) was in full view in spite of it being over 150 miles away. “Don’t give in, don’t give up.” – Iwai Makoto

Control Locks:
I want to share what I made for the 4-place BH. Yes, they look almost identical to the Atlee Dodge gust locks because that’s where I got the idea from. I would have bought them from Atlee, but I wasn’t sure if the profile angle of the Piper aileron/flap matched the angle of the BH control surfaces. Also, the bungees holding the Atlee locks in place wrap around the lift strut of the Piper. That isn’t an option for the BH as the lift strut is way out of alignment with the aileron/flap intersection. I looked at ways to attach a bungee and almost settled on drilling a hole in the bottom of the wing somewhere close to the edge and installing a small eye bolt. I spent a lot of time just thinking about options when saw a little hole in the wing that is created by a stiffener that is riveted to the trailing edge of the flap pocket. I tried out different diameters and lengths of rods and found one that slid in and out without any trouble.
I made the pins and the eyes welded to the end of the pins out of stainless steel so they wouldn’t rust. I made the locks themselves out of some scrap .060 5052 that I had in my now vacant shop and glued some neoprene strips on the surfaces that contact the fabric. A couple of red bungees, flagging and some zip ties later I have a set of gust locks!
I have a set of Air Gizmos gust locks that I was using for the flaps, but I had to still tie the stick back. Also, there were a couple of times I found the gust lock on the ground when it had worked itself loose. The Air Gizmo lock works great as long as the surfaces are close to parallel. So instead of buying another set for the elevator, I made these and am now using the ones I had for the flaps on the elevator. Now everything is tight and I don’t have to use the seat belt to tie the stick back.


Tail Lift:

Kevin Deutscher’s “Ursa Buteo” N272DG First Flight in Chandler, AZ

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Jared Yates
This is the newsletter of the Bob Barrows airplanes, but this quarter we’re going to include a very Bearhawk-proximate project because its builder has been a long-time friend and contributor to the community and many folks know him and the project. Kevin calls it an “Ursa Buteo”. “Ursa” is the Latin root for “Bear” and “Buteo” is the name of the genus that includes hawks.
23 years ago, Kevin started work on what would become a stretched, widened, and long-gear version of the Bearhawk. Back then, the Bearhawk Five was not an option, and these days it would be interesting to park the two planes side-by-side to compare measurements. Whenever anyone starts talking about “just making a few changes” to the design of a plane, red flags and alarm bells should go off if those changes include anything like stretching, widening, or lengthening the gear! This is a “probably shouldn’t try this at home” case, but Kevin has the engineering chops to do it right. He designed the new fuselage with the same techniques that Bob would have for a new design, analyzing the strength requirements and capabilities of each tube and cluster in the structure. The landing gear is tall enough that it needs two steps! The wings are not substantially changed from those on an original Bearhawk, though Kevin did create his own composite wingtips. A project of this scope required fabrication of several custom parts. The design became known informally as the “Desert Bearhawk” and a few renderings floated around with an M14 radial engine. In this plane, Kevin used a Continental IO-470 which he assembled himself. He had experience with Continental assembly in a previous job. The prop is a big composite 3-blade Hartzell. The panel is built around the Dynon HDX system and the paint and fabric are Stewarts System. The airframe is full of small features that show a high attention to detail; I hope you are able to see it one day!

Bearhawks at Airventure 2024

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Jared Yates
As you can tell from George’s story, this year was not an easy year to get to Oshkosh. We elected to drive, based on low clouds and rain over the mountains just north of us. There were a few folks who made it to the show to display their planes! Donna and Dennis flew their Patrols over from Oregon, and parked in Homebuilt Camping. Brooks Cone hosted another Bearhawk walk, which started at the newly-branded Bearhawk Aircraft booth Kudos to Brooks for taking the initiative to host the walk and also to get it onto the official Airventure schedule! As the words began to sprinkle forth, so did the rain, and within a few minutes we were all huddled under wings and tents waiting out a classic summer downpour. A little setback never stifles the kind of enthusiasm it takes to build an airplane, so after a few minutes we were on our way to HBC to visit Donna and Dennis.
As usual they were excellent hosts. They have around 800 hours on their airplanes, though the rate of accrual has been slower than they would like due to weather, health, and the rest of life being in the way. This year we had two special guests from New Zealand, Nev Bailey and Murray Patterson. Murray flies the white Bearhawk 4-Place originally built by the late Lars Fellman. They didn’t bring their airplanes, which we will excuse due to the unavailability of fule by-the-liter in the USA, but it was great to meet them both in person. Later that night Virgil and his team hosted a fantastic chicken dinner at the park just north of the airport. There were several Bearhawk faces, both familiar and new. On the topic of long-distance travellers, Paul O’Donnell was on hand from Ireland with updates about his Bearhawk 4-Place build and his tour of the UL Engines factory in Poland.
Our family had to leave to get back home before the weather allowed George to arrive with his airplane, but as far as we know, his Plans Champion Bronze Lindy is the most prestigious Airventure award received by a Bearhawk to date.
During the dinner Virgil shared a few words about what he’s been up to with the Bearhawk Kit business and it is all exciting and good news. He has expanded OEM relationships to include a more broad range of airframe and powerplant components, and also plans to expand offerings like cabin interior parts and upholstery.

Lamar Wallace’s First Flight – Bearhawk 4-Place N845W

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Lamar Wallace
First flight for the plane, first flight out of Merrill field. R&B io540 engine. Taxi to 25 for the Shoreline departure. Delayed for arrivals then cleared for takeoff and told to expedite. Shocking how quickly airborne. Climbed to 4500, ran the engine hard to commence the break-in. Controls rigged at 25lbs, way too stiff. Heavy left wing. Orbit around Wasilla for about 1.8 hours. Proceeded to Birchwood for fuel, 75% power really gulps gas. 1st landing, better than expected. 26″ Goodyears help absorb. After refueling, back to Merril for normal landing. No flaps used on either.
When people asked when I was going to fly it, my response was always, “Tuesday.” The year and month to be determined. It was indeed a Tuesday I flew. Work had me away for a week. When I returned, I reduced the roll and pitch tension to 15lbs. Left flap was found slightly deployed up. Right deployed down. Reversed this. Ailerons rerigged to reference wing tips. Removed cowling to verify condition and security. The next day with weather moving in, I conducted pattern work. Aircraft flew straight. It is very much a rudder airplane and need to reprogram my brain for that.
Next flight was to Palmer for circuits and pictures then back to Merrill. Drained oil, pulled both screens. Metal, rtv and Labrador’s hair all present. Cleaned screens, safety wired and added mineral oil. The following flight, orbit over Wasilla, deployed flaps. Observed normal flight. No roll. Conducted one stall clean mainly to get AOA calibration on EFIS. Conducted landings at Wasilla and taxi backs.
Last flight. Orbits over Wasilla. Conducted stalls with each flap setting. Full flaps, elevator full up, no break, just mushes. Around 38 knots. Circuits at Wasilla. Departed south executed 2 full procedure LPV approaches. I increased autopilots response time. Getting better. Trim is wickedly sensitive and the a/p has a hard time with it. Return to Merrill. 8.2 hours on tach. 11 on Hobbs. Excited to fly again. Again quick takeoff. Have been super conservative on landing. Other than the trim being sensitive, I haven’t found any bad characteristics. It is a pleasure to hand fly. Very pleased with the outcome. Added tie down rails and rings. The holes lined up with a little massaging for the fore and aft seat anchor points.

Bearhawk 4-Place C-GSOI Wins at Airventure 2024

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, George Huntington
Back in 2006 I got the bug to build an airplane. Fully understanding it was a big project, but I put it on my bucket list anyway. Long story short, I persevered and 16 years later I was flying my hand crafted Bearhawk.
Building the airplane was a major undertaking that took countless hours in the shop with unrelenting commitment on my part and support and understanding from my wife, family and friends.
The pinnacle of it all being able to fly “my own” airplane to Oshkosh. That is where the aviation community meet to display their planes and see what other enthusiasts have as well.
The trip was planned out and I was flying with two other local pilots in their planes and I had a co-pilot, with me. The trio, a Cessna 170, a Cessna 180 and my Bearhawk set out on July 24, and headed from St Andrews, Manitoba for Duluth, Minnesota where we would clear customs.
In the air, we trued out at about 137 MPH burning 40 ltr/hr (10.5 Us gal/hr) at 55% hp. The AWOS in DLH transmitted that it was VFR but when we contacted the tower, they were not VFR. This weather change put us in a holding pattern and we circled for about ½ hr. Since there was no good news in the short-term weather, we decided to head back north to Fort Francis to re-submit customs paperwork and get fuel. The first leg was 3.8 hours, and we were only about 200 miles from home.
We gained customs and landing approval then flew across the river to International Falls and cleared US customs. A nice short hop of .2 hrs. We then flew from International Falls to Wautoma with airtime of 3.0 hours, fueled up and waited till OSH was open for the evening incoming traffic. With the heavy traffic of people arriving and the onset of the evening rush, there were unexpected delays, and we were put into the arrivals circuit and ended up circling with the invasion for1.1 hours, after which we decided to fly back to Wautoma where we camped overnight.
Thursday morning we packed up camp and headed to Fisk arrival, weather was below limits for arrival, so we were once again in the holding pattern for about 2.1 hours. We were pleased to see the weather lift, and we were allowed to land. We got through the maze of taxiways and parked in the homebuilt camping area where we got registered and I submitted to have my Bearhawk judged.
Later that day a team of judges stopped to inspect my Bearhawk. I was riddled with anticipation as I opened the cowl to let them look inside the engine compartment and stood back as they did a thorough inspection of my plane. After about ½ hour of checking their paperwork and making notes they left with a “thank you” for the opportunity to look at my aircraft. Now I had some free time so I went on tour through the other EAA aircraft and displays.
I was checking out the center square displays when I got a phone call asking if I was willing to do an air-to-air photo shoot of course I said yes. A briefing was set up for Saturday morning at 10 am. This piqued my curiosity so that got me wondering what was up.
When we arrived at camp later that afternoon after the airshow, I see a white flag “AWARD WINNER” on my propeller. That was an amazing surprise. Along with the red flag was the qualification form that had 14 judge’s initials on it with 3 red dots, WOW! I had been been chosen for an award.
I called my buddy Bob Matarelli from Duluth who had helped me out along the way while I was building the airplane, and he had always given me encouragement and had forecast that “you’re going to get a Lindy”.
Saturday morning, I just got started checking out the warbirds and got another call to do an interview and static photo shoot at the airplane in 15 minutes. I scooted back to the Bearhawk and met the photographer who took a substantial number of detailed photos and the completed the interview. They were very interested in my plane but did not reveal any information about awards.
We completed the photo shoot and interview and then proceeded to the briefing for the air-to-air photo shoot. The action would take place on Sunday morning as we were departing OSH.
I attended the Award ceremonies with my travelling companions at the homebuilt building at 6:30 Saturday evening. They went through the Kit Outstanding Workmanship and Plans Outstanding Workmanship plagues then to the Kit Champions bronze Lindy then to Plans Built Champion Bronze Lindy, the second Name announced was George Huntington Bearhawk C-GSOI wow I won a Bronze Lindy Plans Built Champion.
In preparation for the Sunday morning departure and Air-to-air photo shoot, we packed up camp at 6:00 am and taxied to an open area just to the south of the button of Runway 27. There, still more photos were taken prior to the flight. We taxied to RNY 27 took off and went into a hold over the bridge at Winneconne, circled for about 15 minutes. Then the C-210 camera airplane flew up to us and took the lead. We circled to the left for a couple 360’s to get the sunshine in the right area, some straight and level, up and down and a banking roll away to the left then with a wave of our wings we continued on our way to Cloquet for our first stop on the way home with air time of 2.8 hrs.
The weather was not cooperating as a line of thunderstorms prevented us from leaving Cloquet on Sunday, so we spent a night at the terminal in Cloquet. Such a nice airport with fuel and bicycles to use to go into town if need be. With time on our hands, we were able to look at Tim Tollefson Rans homebuilt nearing completion. With the help of my friend Bob, we were able to organize hangarage with Mike Ray a fellow homebuilder to park the Bearhawk overnight.
The next morning, the weather was still below VFR so waited couple hours until it cleared enough to go North with flight time of 2.5 hours and clear Canadian customs at Piney/Pinecreek, an interesting little airport which is half on the US side and half on the Canadian side.
Next leg was 0.8 hours to Oak Hammock Airpark just north of Winnipeg. Total airtime 15.5 hrs.
In my opinion, Bob Barrows has designed an excellent aircraft. He supplied a great set of plans, and was willing to sit and talk with me about the aircraft build. The Bearhawk 4 place meets all my expectations and more.
Mark Goldberg provided a sounding board and shared his knowledge and support throughout our build.
Friends of mine, Cameron Lawrence and Ziggy Smolinski were my build partners, together we have built 4 Bearhawks, so far 2 flying next one to fly this fall.
Special thanks to Jim Gile for his experience and patience helping me fly to Oshkosh as he has done this trip about 10 times already and this is my first-time flying in.
Two of us went to Oshkosh and had a third passenger “Lindy” on the way home.