Bearhawk 4-Place C-FDDJ Fall 2024 Update

Source: 2024 Q3 Beartracks, Dan Dagasso
In 2017 or 2018 my wife commented that we needed a bigger travelling aircraft for the West coast and the Mountains of British Columbia. I had just finished two and a half years restoring my Pitts S1S, which involved many many late nights at the hangar during the work week and a lot of my weekends.
At the time I was flying my RV6A, which was a great speedy aircraft. My better half wanted to be able to haul both of us and two roadbikes, two mountainbikes and some camping gear for trips to the coast or down to Moab/Montana/Oregon/Alberta (Yes my wife is Awesome, No you cannot have her).
My choice was pretty simple once I read about the capabilities of the Bearhawk. The one problem was that my wife forbade me from taking on another project by myself right after finishing the Pitts. After doing some research I found out that Steve Busby of the Ottawa area had built a few Bearhawks and had worked closely with Mark Goldberg representing the Brand North of the Border. Steve was also involved in prototyping the model B wings on N303AP.
Steve Busby knew that Mark had the Kit that had been intended as the new Model B demo aircraft in Storage at Bob’s place in Virginia. Mark was and is an absolute gentleman and after he endorsed Steve’s skills and quality I contracted with Steve to construct the Kit that was stored at Bob’s. I was looking forward to being in the air with the Bearhawk by late 2020. Unfortunately in the summer of 2018 Steve had a terrible motorcycle accident and spent close to a year in the hospital. It truly was a miracle that he survived.
By this time I had sold my RV and was working with a local engine builder to source and rebuild an IO-540. Ken Vike of Vike Aeromotive built up another awesome engine for me, he built the 360 in my Pitts and it is a beast. Ken knew the intended mission for the plane and he talked me out of any electronic ignition or non-certified parts, as this plane will spend a lot of its life in remote parts of BC. We kept the compression ratio at 9.2 so that I could use mogas in a pinch if I was in a remote logging or fishing camp.
By 2020 Steve made the decision that he did not think that his recovery was going to allow him to finish the aircraft. He did recommend one of his good friends who had helped him on most of hos builds over the last 10 years. In June of 2020 the kit was moved into the shop of Dale Lamport in Perth Ontario. Dale is a retired AME/Flight Engineer/MDRA inspector. Over the next two and a half years Dale made steady progress and we spent a lot of time on the phone with quite a few trips back East to work out kinks that always crop up.
My local Avionics shop helped me design and draw out the electrical system and avionics. One of my local avionics techs flew out to Ontario and spent a week installing and testing the electrical system and installing the panel. Kaine and Rob at Inland Communication Services were amazing to deal with and continue to be so on a daily basis.
In the fall of 2023 I had the plane moved to St Thomas Ontario for paint with John Gordy. My daughter who helped me fly the plane back designed the scheme. John Gordy did an amazing job executing the paint. Final assembly was completed at Purple Hill Air at St Thomas Municipal Airport, by John Goris and his crew of Johnny and Ben who were so excited to work on the plane.
Paul Ragany an octogenarian was hired to do the flight testing. Paul has over 26,000 hours in everything from J3’s. TBM avengers, turbine Ag Cats, a bunch of Boeing products 737, 777, 747 etc. and he still flies crop dusters on a daily basis. He is a legend.
George Miller was the CFI who helped fly off the 25 hours and spent three days helping me transition into the aircraft. On the last day of my checkout George noted that the weather was turning really ugly with the winds at 25 knots gusting to 30 with variable wind directions and ceilings of 800 feet. I was expecting him to call it a day but he suggested we go work on the crosswind runway with the crosswind varying from 50 to 70 degrees off runway heading. That was some of the most challenging flying I have done. We had the main runway as a backup with the wind straight down the pipe. I was so grateful to George for doing his best to make sure I was ready for the trip home. He knew that my daughter had come out to copilot the plane back home 2000 miles through some potentially challenging weather.
My daughter Emily got her license when she was 18 in my RV, but she has little tailwheel time so we managed the trip home with her doing most of the cruise flight and radio management with myself taking care of flying takeoffs approaches and landings.
Now that we are home I have managed to take the rest of the family flying and the instigator of the project, my wife, is so very excited to travel as we intended with a lot of trips back and forth through the Rockies to see our daughters who are now living and going to school on the prairies. I am looking forward to becoming current with IFR flying again and travelling up and down the west coast.
This morning my wife woke up and said, “ so, when are we putting it on Floats?” She doesn’t know that I am going out this summer to look at another Pitts that was ground-looped 10 years ago, and needs to get back in the air. I have always wanted to build a set of Pitts wings.
I had hoped to bring the plane to Oshkosh this year but that will probably need to wait until next year. My thanks to the Bearhawk community and especially to Mark Goldberg. I know that Virgil will make something great even better.

Summer 2024 Updates from Bob Barrows

Source: 2024 Q2 Beartracks
Work continues on Bob’s Companion project. As of press time he did a preliminary installation of the wings and has mostly completed the cowling. There is a mock-up engine that has no cylinders in place, and he has validated alignment and positioning of the engine, and is quite pleased with the kit’s conformation to the plans. The ailerons, flaps, rudder are covered, and the elevators and horizontal stabilizer are in progress. With the mock-up engine in place, the weight was 767 pounds. Bob feels like he is on track to meet the target empty weight of 1050 pounds. This build uses carbon fiber door panels instead of aluminum. Bob says it saves a little weight, and he’s pleased with how the carbon panels flex, drill, and otherwise behave much like aluminum would. To make them, he starts with a flat sheet of aluminum. He says you can also bend the aluminum if you want the part to also be bent. He applies lots of wax to the aluminum, draws out an outline of the rough shape of the panel, and paints resin onto the panel. Then he lays 2-3 layers of carbon onto the panel, and the next day, it’s ready for cutting to shape and installing. He made similar floor boards out of Kevlar, and figures those are 2/3 to 1/2 the weight of aluminum in the same application.
Bob and Diana recently flew the Patrol to Pence Springs, West Virginia for a get-together that included around 30 airplanes. They have a nice long grass strip there. Diana’s improved mobility and health are great news. She’s always eager to ride along whenever Bob flies. He says he alternates between flying his Patrol and LSA, just to keep both active, and enjoys both equally.
He has not been working much on his electric Ultralight project. It is still pending a new motor controller to up the motor output from 230 to 300 amps. Bob did design and build a new full-castering tailwheel for it, to improve taxi handling. The new tailwheel doesn’t attach to the rudder for steering but is easier to maneuver than the original skid. Bob says back when he flew his RV3 the tailwheel could either be swiveling or steerable, so he usually left the chains off and allowed it to swivel so that he could turn around more readily at the end of the runway.
Bob has been working on a solution for the Brake master cylinders that uses an EDM (electrical discharge machining) machine to make very precise fluid passageways inside of the bore. The EDM machine is well-suited for this kind of work and yields very smooth and precise shapes down inside the bore, based on the shape of a custom electrode.
Save the date for Bob’s Picnic on 10/19/2024 at VA04!

Cabin Organization with MOLLE

Source: 2024 Q2 Beartracks, Tyler Williams
I like clean organized spaces. Well, at least I do in my airplane and in my kitchen. My truck, on the other hand, is a complete mess…always. It looks like I live in it, which sometimes I do. But not a lot goes on inside the truck that forces me to be meticulous about it being clean and organized. I sit, hold the wheel, throw the snacks in the center console and turn on some good tunes. My kitchen is a different story. My chef’s knife is sharp, my spices are stocked and I am a stickler for “mis en place.” When everything is in its place, I can work efficiently and get into a flow to create, improvise and make great food.
Operating the airplane is a similar experience for me. I like everything in its place, the plane prepped and my mind sharp for the task at hand. Flying a plane, at least the way I do it, involves much more than road tripping in the truck. I don’t just get in, hold the wheel and follow the line on the map. From the preflight, to the engine management, to flying the terrain and improvising the route around weather and airspace, to chatting with ATC and jotting down instructions, there’s always something to do. An organized cockpit helps keep the mind free for the important things, and I don’t like anything flopping around loose. When flying far, I need water, a bag of snacks, sometimes a pen and paper, sometimes I need my flashlight, I’ve got my InReach on and I like to plug in my phone for music. I keep a lot of stuff in the back of the airplane too and it all needs a secure place to rest. From the basic things like a screwdriver, fuel tester and a small flashlight that get used every preflight, to the just-in-case tool kit, spare fasteners, tubes and patches, to control locks, tie downs, travel chocks and a first aid kit, I like to have what I need, when I need it. You can usually find help anywhere in the lower 48, but it sure is nice to have what you need to handle things, in flight and on the ground.
When I finished the Bearhawk and started venturing across state lines, I kept all the tool kits and spares in a duffel bag in the baggage area. But, digging through a bag of stuff to find what you can be annoying at best. For the cockpit items, I initially used the side pockets installed by my feet and the seat back pockets to stow checklists, small items, snacks and water bottles. But we travel as a family often and I like to keep those seat back pockets clear for my kids to stow their drawing paper, books, cards and such. My side pocket is best kept minimal so I can get my checklist or writing pad without fumbling around down there while trying to fly and my wife likes to have her side available for her magazine or book.
I got some inspiration from some nice overland camper trucks that used the MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) system to organize gear and tools. I saw seat-back MOLLE panels with small pouches and also some nice tailgate MOLLE panels for easy access to tools, even when the truck is loaded with gear. That seemed like the perfect solution for my plane. Our doors are all recessed slightly from the interior so there’s a little space there that can be used to hang a MOLLE panel and install some organizers.
I made mine out of PVC coated Cordura nylon. I found some basic dimensions for the standard laser-cut Molle grid, drew it out on the fabric and simply melted the slits with a soldering iron. Mine are 1.12” wide slits, spaced ¼” apart horizontally and 1” apart vertically. I probably don’t have the exact military spec, but it was easy to lay out and fits all the attachments well. Someone more digital savvy could do the layout on a computer and have the fabric laser cut for a faster and more precise, factory looking result. I installed snaps in the door frames and fabric and snapped on the panels. They are lightweight and work great. Up front, I have my water bottle holder, sunglasses, pen, charge cord pouch, a place to keep my phone and snacks and my fire extinguisher secured on the door for easy access and still have all the elbow room I need. The passenger door has a panel as well with the same drink holder and stuff pouches and my wife loves it. The big panel on the aft baggage door stores my first aid kit, gust locks, travel chocks, extra quart of oil and funnel, preflight tools, hanging luggage scale, spare fuel cap, pitot cover, etc. etc. You can certainly stuff all these things under the back seat and that works just fine. But it sure is nice when the plane is fully loaded to be able to just pop the baggage door open and grab what you need.

Tribute to “Tinman” Kent White

Source: 2024 Q2 Beartracks, Mark Moyle
Sad News from California: “Tinman” Kent White Died on 5/19/2024
Kent was an early member of the Bearhawk community and was active in the Yahoo-based discussion groups that predate our present forum. Many of us purchased metal-shaping and welding tools, instructional videos, and supplies from Kent over the years. Bearhawk Builder Mark Moyle offers this tribute:
I hope I can even come close to relaying my reverence for Kent. From the second day I had met the man I started addressing him as Kent Master. Nearly 15 years ago I met Kent and 4 other Bearhawk builders at an aviation sheet metal class in Anchorage. Del Rawlins, Paul Minelga, Dan Schillings and Matthew Schumacher. There were other folks in this class, I don’t recall any of them. To me they were metal mashers, chimps I didn’t have any association with. I’m sure they were nice guys, but the Bearhawk guys. We were different. We obviously were not hammered mechanics like the other guys… my story relates to that.
Kent was there to teach us the basics. Taught us how to take a round disc of 5052H32 and turn it into a bowl by thickening the metal around the circumference of the circle. Now imagine 12 people all hammering on aluminum at the same time being taught by this huge man. Kent was like 7 foot if he was an inch! Here’s this huge guy using the same tool as the rest of us, but in his hands, that hammer, it looked tiny. That same hammer looked like a sledge hammer in the hands of a few of the small guys. Believe me when I say guys follow the example set for us by the teacher. Almost everyone was whaling on that sheet metal. Here’s this huge guy tapping on a thin piece of aluminum… he’s so damn big he must be putting allot of force into the metal. I’m like where are the ear plugs? I stood back and just watched for a bit before I started. Thing is I listened. Kent was one of these guys who gave you pearls of wisdom to make you think. He was an artist at it, and I think he enjoyed watching befuddlement. He enjoyed seeing the perplexing expressions on people’s faces. I could see it, it was like a twinkle in his eye. He wasn’t going to tell you how to do something one bean at a time. He’d tell a short story. Really short, maybe 5 words. You had to listen and think. I remember Paul catching on real quick. I think he was the first or second person to get the bowl done and done nicely. Turned out to make that bowl, this great big man was gentle on metal as he was as a person. I learned buckets from the guy. Even tooled up with the equipment he sold. English wheel, Planishing hammer and a bunch of his hand tools. Bought all of his videos. I have every one of his prototype planishing hammer dies.
Kent became a master European classic car restoration at Harrah’s auto museum. Kent was one of the few guys who could duplicate replacement parts with all the correct tool marks to make his part indistinguishable from OEM. He was considered royalty amongst the classic European classic car owners. It’s like Kent was many people: the teacher who didn’t lead you by the nose. The expert on European classic cars. The aviation expert on airframe repair and prototype work. To the guy who nobody really knew. Kent lived way off the beaten path. He moved to the Grass Valley, Nevada City area in the foothills of the Serria Nevada mountains in 1979. The year I moved away from Grass Valley. Kent lived in North San Juan. About as far out in the mountainous country and still be in Nevada county.
Kent was such a master craftsman. For years he build the prototype inlet nacelles for hawker beech jet engines. He was approved by Boeing to teach mechanics how to shape and replace skins on Boeing aircraft at facilities around the world. Kent was also the guy that Hollywood called upon when they wrecked damaging the tail on a Howard Hughes mono-wing replica aircraft in the movie Aviator. I have pictures he sent me of him repairing one of two aircraft in existence totaled by the insurance carrier, but had to be repaired because they performed a very specific task. A couple mechanics lifted this twin engine turbo prop with wing jacks and didn’t support the fuselage causing it to buckle badly in the middle.
About ten years ago, maybe longer. Kent began making a yearly trek to Platinum for a few weeks in late August for Silver salmon fishing. He liked that I took him on adventures and always brought him back alive. These adventures involved boats and four-wheelers to places and at speeds that would make a sissy cry out in fear. I didn’t put airplanes on that list. We did fly in some nasty conditions together, but always safely. Last summer Kent flew into Soldotna. We fished the Kenai and stayed with my daughter and her family waiting on a weather window to fly my airplane to Platinum. By the way, in Alaska, seaplane doors that are nothing but window, down low. Yeah.. do it.
We spoke on the phone often. Ask about each other lives, things real friends talk about. The emotional stuff. When it came to me tying to mine that brain of his for some nerdy odd ball thing, it was always on the phone. I avoided taking advantage of him on his vacation. Made me feel guilty. It’s like being a doctor and everyone around you is asking you things medical. Or a car mechanic whose friends want you to fix something for them. Maybe that’s why I have all of his prototype dies for the planishing hammer. We’d use them together in my shop.
Kent was a true independent thinker. He made his life his way and by his rules. I don’t think I ever heard him say or do anything that told me this guy was any thing but a genuinely nice caring person who was nice and respectful to absolutely everyone.
Kent was truly a great friend, loved that guy. We were going to a sandbar hopping fishing and camping adventure this summer. From Platinum, through the Dillingham area, up through lake Clark. I’m going to miss him. Now I’ll have to train up someone for my adventures. Didn’t have to train Kent. He was game for anything. Great great man!
Continue reading →

Bearhawk Camping at Creighton Island, Georgia

Source: 2024 Q2 Beartracks, Tyler Williams
“So, is there anywhere to go around here where you need a plane like that with those big tires?” This is the most common question I get from the classic plane peepers at the fuel pumps. And I don’t even have real Bushwheels yet. The Bearhawk draws a lot of attention. It is a cool looking airplane compared to the flock of sheep on the ramp. Just looking at it conjures up thoughts of adventures far and wide and nights spent under the stars. So, my response is always, “No. Not around here. But I didn’t spend two and a half years building a big, family hauling, off airport capable airplane to stay around here.” Here in the east, the mountains and ocean are several hundred miles apart. I love being in both places and the Bearhawk gives us more access to it all. I live in Charleston, SC, near the ocean and love it. Once in a blue moon, we get some good waves and there’s great salt marsh fishing to be had just a short walk down the street from our home. Charleston is also FULL of people and is lacking in wide open space to get away from it all. But, I can fire up the old Lycoming, load up the family and in an hour or two, we can be saddling up the mountain bikes, or pitching a tent in the grass.
The closest place we can fly into where the people are few and the stars are many is a little barrier island on the Georgia coastline called Creighton Island. It is a short 115 nm flight and though it is close to the mainland, being there feels far away. It isn’t “around here,” but is accessible for us on any good-weather Saturday. Flying along the coast at low altitude is always a treat. We follow miles of waterways, marshland and tidal creeks curling around the barrier islands that dot the entire Carolina and Georgia coast. We dodge pelicans and seagulls, spot dolphins and the occasional shark cruising the beaches. No magenta line is needed for a trip like this.
Creighton Island’s grass strip is supported by volunteers in the Recreational Aviation Foundation and all the info for visiting pilots is in the airfield guide on their website, www.theraf.org. The strip, lined with old growth oaks and palmetto trees, is a fun and fairly easy place to land, with a beautiful approach over the lowcountry marsh. Once in a while, a low pass or two is required to run the animals off the strip before landing. There are no roads out there and the island has been privately owned by one family for several generations. Over time they have made the place an easy place to camp. If you prefer a roof over your head, there are a few hunter’s cabins that have been built out there for the bow hunters who frequent the island for wild hogs. There is good well-water, a big cast-iron fire bowl, an outhouse, and even a weather station to check before you go. This isn’t the backcountry, but it is a beautiful quiet place to get the Bearhawk away from the pavement and spend some time outside with the family. Donkeys, pigs, cows, and armadillos roam free, making my 5 and 7 year old kids feel like they are on some kind of safari of the American South. Plus the fishing is great. Really great. The east side of the island has a little sand causeway out to a small sandy island on the waterway where bald eagles were nesting this past winter. On the other side, there are spartina grass flats that flood at high tide and offer access on foot to sight-fishing for spot tail bass. These fish are super tasty, fun to hunt and fight, and we are always hoping to score a few. If that’s not enough, there’s a boat dock where you can access some deeper water. It is hard to beat pitching a tent under the massive oak trees and Spanish moss, cooking dinner over the fire after a day of fishing, roaming the woods, and flying over a beautiful coastal landscape. It is almost close enough to home to consider it “around here” and we are thankful to have access to such a beautiful spot.
This would be a fun venue for a winter Bearhawk fly-in.

Bearhawk 4-Place N907PM First Flight

Source: 2024 Q2 Beartracks, Paul Minelga



Jared was nice enough to ask me to write an article about my first flight in the Bearhawk, and since then I have been thinking about what that actually meant for me…first flight in an aircraft that I had built. So, my take will be a bit different than what others have written.
I had a fascination with airplanes as long as I can remember, but my desire to build an airplane started in the early 70s while attending high school in Lacey, Washington. I was 17, worked at an Olympia airport FBO and was on the way to earning my Private Pilot Certificate. A friend took me to Tenino to meet the Sorrell family and I saw a Hyperbipe for the first time. Little did I know that it was the first one made and in my eyes it was really strange, almost scary-looking compared to the Cessna I had been flying. After watching a short demo flight, my friend took me over to meet another man on the same airstrip who was building a Stolp Starduster Too in his garage. All I remember was this guy in the middle of a really, really cool workshop with a tube fuselage under construction and surrounded by lots of aviation-related organized chaos. I was astonished that this guy was actually making an airplane…from plans…by himself! Then and there I decided that I wanted to, somehow, someday, do the same.
Fast forward to the mid 80s. I had left Army Aviation in Germany to start another career in the FAA as a center controller in Alaska. I had since married a wonderful German lady and had a son, and soon had another son. We were pretty poor at the time, and as a single income household on a trainee salary in Alaska, money was tight. I didn’t fly privately, but I dreamt of building a Van’s RV-6 and built R/C airplanes as time and budget permitted.
Jumping in time again to 2003, I was well-entrenched in the FAA. I had built my own home, my oldest son was in college having graduated high school in 2001 and son #2 was a junior. By that time I had realized an RV-6 wasn’t the right aircraft for Alaska and nothing else in the homebuilt world looked like what I was envisioning. A good friend of mine named Rob Taylor showed me a picture of a Bearhawk. I immediately said: “THAT’S IT!…ummm…what is it?” That Christmas 2003, Santa (with a little help from Rob) gifted me Bearhawk plans #708 and that’s when the journey started in earnest. Rob and I went to OSH 2005 and had a blast. That’s when I met Budd Davisson and Mark Goldberg for the first time at the Bearhawk booth. Also, I got my first ride in Mark’s (now Jared’s) N303AP and my first taste of what a Bearhawk was like. Not long after I ordered a set of “quickbuild” wings, all the tubing and flat stock to make the fuselage, and started building a shop to put it all in.

This is my first kitlog entry. Notice the OCD force was very strong:
Date: 3-14-2008
Number of Hours: 1.00
Brief Description: First Longeron
I started by laying out the bottom of the fuselage on the jig table. All went well except I found that Station C “pinched in” about 1/8th inch on either side when a line was drawn between Station B and D. Apparently, this should be a straight line. I triple-checked my measurements and found them to be correct. I polled the BH group about this and the answer I got was that it should be a straight line. It makes sense that way anyway. I’m trying to be too exact in my measurements it seems. I guess officially, this is the first day of construction although I never got the longeron bent the whole way. I’m sure when it’s all said and done that I’ll look back on this first log entry and just laugh!

This is my last kitlog entry after 16 years and 4269.2 hours, interspersed with weddings, memorial services, births, career changes, camping trips, and just living life:
Date: 4-26-2024
Number of Hours: 40.00
Brief Description: The end of my Kitlog
Well, this is it. The fairings and panels are all on and the project is complete. I put 40 hours of work on this entry because it spans the many days of the last two weeks that wasn’t logged, getting everything done in preparation for the DAR visit and reassembling everything afterwards. I taxied the airplane today and it’s ready for its first flight. That will happen when I get some refresher training. If you are reading this and building a project…keep at it. It’s not an easy thing to do. But if you do a little every day, it will eventually come together. Good luck!

I have to admit the first flight was a bit stressful. The tach had failed on runup, but it’s not required equipment. I had flown enough to judge RPM, but it did make me think twice and I almost taxied back. I lined up on the runway, but before I put the throttle in I paused a bit as per Ken Frahm’s (AKKen) suggestion. I went over everything in my mind again: I’m in an airplane that has never been in the air and I’ll be flying it at the waaaay upper end of its design speed envelope because the engine is brand new and needs to be run at 75% power or more to be broken in. Will the airplane fall apart? Probably not. I did the best I could and I know everything is right. Am I ready to land it if it make it that far? Yes. I can get it on the ground safely, it may not be elegant, but I’ll survive. A short prayer as the throttle went forward and the rest is, as we say, history. So it really wasn’t a first flight, but the culmination of a life ambition with the help and support of many good friends and family.
The Bearhawk performed very well and others before me have captured that in their first flight reports, so no need to rehash that. But here is a parting thought as I wrap this up. There are many nights I struggled in the shop making parts, remaking parts, correcting mistakes, making new mistakes, correcting those…on and on and on. There were times I just wanted to pack the whole thing up, drive it to a cliff overlooking Cook Inlet and dump it all in. Don’t give up. If you need to, take a short break, but don’t give up. Most times a good night’s sleep did the trick on helping solve a construction impasse.
If you want some inspiration, get this book and read it. It was gifted to me by my oldest son and it is a good read: The Propeller under the Bed: A Personal History of Homebuilt Aircraft by Eileen A. Bjorkman. On July 25, 2010, Arnold Ebneter flew across the country in a plane he designed and built himself, setting an aviation world record for aircraft of its class. He was eighty-two at the time and the flight represented the culmination of a dream he’d cultivated since his childhood in the 1930s.