Peter Stevens plane at Oshkosh:
When EAA officials pulled Peter Steven’s BH out of the AviPro booth toward the flightline, we didn’t know where they were going to park him. Well, they decided such a fine plane deserved to be parked in Air Show Central among some good company. N27PS spent the night between an F-16 & the Sikorsky Johnson Wax Amphib.
Here is Ross Hauck’s scratch built fuselage (with AviPro landing gear) standing proudly on its gear. Ross has plans #906, and lives in Montrose, Colorado.
Mike Bond
I am a machinist/mechanic by trade and just like to build things. My wife is my # 1 supporter, she helps me drill the wing and buck rivets and is my constant companion. I have a complete machine shop at my home so metal forming, tig welding or turning parts is not a problem. Shears, brakes, presses, it’s all here.
I have been on my plans built project for almost 4 years and the wings are done except gas tanks and the fuselage is ready for paint. I’m about 8 months on it.
Pilot door and body, an 8 month journey: 8 months on the first wing, 3 on the second. There is a learning curve! I work on it in my spare time, I think I’m at about 1700 hours. Power will be a IO-470 Continental. 265 HP and a McCauly 2 blade variable speed prop. Sky light over head. I burnished my landing gear strut cylinders and chromed the shafts: no rust and a mirror surface for seals. I made male and female dies to build all my wing parts. To cut out deburr and shape took a week. I put sealed roller bearing in the control column, it’s smooth as glass and is rock solid.
I put window struts in: one push and it’s out of the way. I have more cylinders if anyone likes the idea. My passenger door, designed by Bob for me with 1944 Luscomb window frames.
A Fresh Engine from Bob, Delivering an Engine with the Bearhawk
Source: 2006 Beartracks, Tim Weaver
On Saturday, July 12, Bob Barrows flew his prototype Bearhawk to a fly-in at Smoketown, Pa. On this day I experienced one more ‘little’ confirmation that the Lord of all creation was working with me to complete this great project of building the amazing Bearhawk. The day was beautiful in Pennsylvania, however, a large low pressure system hung over the South. When I talked with Bob on Friday, he was just signing the log book to the 0-360 I ordered and was hoping to bring it to the fly-in. By 10 o’clock AM Saturday the weather lifted over southern Virginia and Bob took off from the home field.
He arrived at Smoketown to be greeted by many onlookers and a very excited Bearhawk builder. And Bob, it was great to know that you enjoyed the day as well.
Bearhawk #466 was a dream of mine, to build a utility airplane and to embark on a building project that would require a lot of learning and refreshing of my skills. Today, I am happy to report that I have completed the major airframe components and have primed them.
As you can see from the pictures, an airplane is about to be born – just as my first grandchild is being born! Yes, I am now a grandpa and I am thrilled. My daughter and her husband live just a few hours from Bob Barrows home and we live in Pa. I am a very happy camper! My wife is encouraging me to hurry and finish the Bearhawk so we have air transportation to see our granddaughter!
Peter Stevens Paint Update 2006
Source: 2006 Q2 Beartracks, Peter Stevens
Here is a pretty good pic. You will note that the wing control surfaces are not on yet. They are hanging
in the hangar and I could not get them on today. Also, please note the hub caps. I think they look pretty cool.
I will have the control surfaces on sometime Monday.
2006 Russ Erb Update
Source: 2006 Q2 Beartracks, Russ Erb
Those of you who have been working for several years on your Bearhawk may be encouraged or discouraged by this little fact. 26 February 2006 marked the 10th Anniversary of mailing the check to “The Bob” to purchase plans set #164. Building would go much faster if life didn’t keep getting in the way.
My F1 Rocket buddy had been asking lately “So, when do we get to start calling you Betsy Ross?” Shortly after the 10th anniversary I started applying fabric to the fuselage. In keeping with guidance in a former Bear-Tracks, I started by covering the inside of the fuselage first. This is by far more difficult than covering the outside
because of all of the many tubes and appurtenances that must be worked around. You also need to be very aware of which way the fabric wraps around the tube or you could find yourself having insufficient room to wrap the outside fabric around the tubes.
Note that I put the fabric on the outside of the diagonal tube that the front seat attaches to. I did this because my seat design would otherwise penetrate the side fabric when slid to the rear position. Also note that because of the 1/4” tube supporting the door sill, the fabric is attached to the diagonal seat tube in two pieces with a cement seam over the tube. A finishing tape was applied over this seam before the outer fabric was applied.
Also of note are the open areas in the wing roots which will have windows to see the fuel sight gauges. I chose to put my sight gauges on the wing roots instead of in the cabin so that the fuel will stay outside if a leak should develop. 
Also note that the ceiling fabric runs to the top of the airfoil and not straight across as in the
prototypes. This allows me to see the entire sight gauge instead of just the bottom half. Two longitudinal tubes were added to the “X” across the top of the cabin to help form the fabric for this transition.
The left side wall fabric behind the main door and the vaulted ceiling over the rear seat/cargo area were rib laced to the fuselage tubes to hold the concave shape. The large hole in the front ceiling is for access to the trim system and dome light. The other two holes in the ceiling are for additional dome lights. The rear fuel lines are attached to the door posts simply by fabric wrapped around the door post.
I chose to use the original rounded windows for the rear seat. Attaching the fabric to the window channels was challenging to say the least. Basically the Poly-Tak was stuffed in the channel with a brush and the fabric was pushed into it with a putty knife. The interior fabric was cut to go down inside one side of the channel. The exterior fabric went down inside one side and back up the other, forming a fabric to fabric bond. This picture also shows the finishing tape applied around the round edge with no wrinkles or cuts. This was a bias tape stretched on the outer edges instead of the center like seen around the outside of curved edges. To get the fabric to really lie down inside the channel, I needed an iron that would fit in the channel to stick the fabric down with heat as described in the Poly Fiber manual. The solution was to use a piece of 1/8” aluminum clamped to my small hobby iron.
The dirty little secret of covering the fuselage is that you have to do some sewing somewhere in order to make the transition from the fuselage to the vertical fin. You can do it by hand or by machine, using the appropriate Poly Fiber thread. While the Poly Fiber manual and video imply that you need a heavy duty sewing machine to sew the fabric, that’s not really the case. I used my wife’s home sewing machine with no problems. I sewed a seam from the lower fin leading edge to the upper stringers and then a seam up each stringer. Pat Fagan managed to get away with one seam up the left stringer because of the particular geometry of the cargo door. I didn’t hear about that until after I had done both seams. The method I used would work with or without the cargo door. The picture shows me in the process of sewing the fuselage envelope (top and sides, belly was a separate piece) which I came to refer to as my “Bearhawk Wedding Dress”.
After cementing to the fuselage and heat shrinking, the seams looked like this at the base of the vertical fin before finishing tapes were applied. You can also see a slight bulge from the balsa ribs added as suggested by Peter Stevens. These ribs support the fabric so that it is not pulled way in out of shape by the rib lacing. After applying the first coat of Poly Brush, the fuselage is turned to a very manly shade of pink. You can see the initial application of custom inspection rings for the horizontal stabilizer attachments, later covered with more fabric. Also shown is the rib lacing on the vertical fin ribs.
So when will #164 fly? That’s the classic question for all homebuilders. The classic answer is “We plan to fly before Christmas.” Just don’t ask him which year he’s talking about. My biggest concern is that I’m starting to wonder if Eric Newton is going to fly his Bearhawk out to see me before I can fly mine out to see him!
Jan Gutwein’s Big Tire Bearhawk
Source: 2006 Q1 Beartracks
Late 2005 Builder Updates
Happy Holidays,
Bearhawk #466 is coming along very well, as you can see from the pictures. I am eager to mount the wings on the fuselage. Bob, I want to thank you again for taking myself, my wife and my father for an airplane ride in your Bearhawk this past summer. We thoroughly enjoy our visit to your place. Thanks again – have a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Tim Weaver #466
2005 Q3 Builder Updates
Source: 2005 Q3 Beartracks
From Ben Grace
Dear Bob,
Bearhawk 498 is coming along, a little slower then I’d like – that makin’ a living thing keeps getting in my way. About ready to start assembling wings so its time to order the flap springs. Enclosed is my check for $40 for one set of springs and a hat. Also, I’m enclosing a picture of my little angel taken last year. Thought you’d get a kick out of it. You know every old crow thinks his is the blackest!
Thanks & God Bless
Bob replies:
Thank you for the order, what a nice looking angel you have with beautiful wings.
Collin Campbell writes:
I finally got #370 in the air. On April 16, N370CC took to the air for the first time. On a short strip (1300′) you don’t have a lot of options, (high speed taxi tests, hop it off and land, etc.) I am not a fan of those anyway, good way to get into trouble in my opinion. So I dropped the first notch of flaps and eased in the throttle. One thing becomes apparent right away, the Bearhawk doesn’t stay on the ground long. Before I could get the throttle all the way in, I was in the air! Ye haw! Nothing like the feeling you get, knowing you are flying something you have built with your own hands! I just flew around for a while, taking it all in, then flew over to the local airport with 4000’ of nice paved runway for the first landing, which was made with 2 notches of flaps. The Bearhawk is much easier to land than the Maule. A great plane. I am very pleased with the performance so far, glad I went with the 0-360, it more than meets my expectations. Again, a big thanks to Bob for a great design!
Collin Campbell, #370-N370CC
2005 Q2 Builder Updates
Source: 2005 Q2 Beartracks
Jan Gutwein in Indiana flew his Quick Build kit Bearhawk for the first time on April 8, 2005. Currently he has only 3 hours of flight time since his flying was cut short by engine problems. Hopefully, the problem is solved and his engine is going back on the airframe at this time. Jan says “I was amazed at how calm I was during that first 2 hour flight. The ground handling is superb. The flying charactoristics seem very predictable so far.” More to come….Update: Jan is up to 14.5 of flight time now. He is climbing out at 85-90 mph and seeing 2000 fpm.
Cruise is 160-165 mph at high rpm IF his airspeed is reading correctly. Stall clean is at 50 mph indicated. Stall with 2 notches of flap is 46 mph. Jan has also landed and stopped in under 300 ft several times with comparable take off distances using max performance technique like holding the brakes until power is high. Oil temps have stabilized at 181 with CHT’s around 400 on the hottest cylinders.
Plans builders George Jensen (plans #26) of Wisconsin has just made the first flight in his Bearhawk.
From George:
“This Bearhawk was built totally by the builder except for the Hartzell Prop. The engine was put together from parts of two separate engines; with new exhaust valves and guides. The fuselage envelope, seat upholstery and rib stitching on tail surfaces was done by Mrs. Jenson. It took 5 days from the first call to pre-inspection and 3 days from first call to FAA inspection. April 5, 2005. Date of first flight: April 9, 2005. Flew the Bearhawk to our EAA meeting and a member, Norman Hanson, was so impressed he ordered plans. Interested parties are invited to stop any time at our home field / 1800 long-lighted Unicom 123.00 (58WI).”
Statistics: 104 gallon fuel capacity, plans built 10” tail wheel, Lycoming 540-A1B5 250HP , 3-blade Hartzell prop off from a Bellanca Viking, 8.50 tires, Plans built fuel caps, Rocky mountain engine monitor built from a kit. 1500 lbs. empty weight.
Bill Cox writes:
Hi Bob,
Good to talk with you last night. #303 is a real joy to fly. The performance is much better than I expected when I started building. You published some numbers when I was about half built that made me think it was going to be faster than I expected. With no strut fairings or wheel pants I’m seeing 150+ mph indicated at 75%. I’m really impressed since it will comfortably fly around at 70. At 125 mph it seems to be burning close to the same gph as the Pacer, but is much more comfortable.
It is getting so wet here the flying may be over for a while until the runway dries out some. I’m at 12 hours and I think most of the bugs are fixed. There wasn’t much, an oil leak and a bad ignition lead. I’ve noticed carb ice several times last week. The conditions were ideal, but I’ve never seen much ice on 4 cylinder Lycomings. I was running low power 45-50%. I have good carb heat system which took care of the problem. Do the 540s ice more easily in your experience?
Bob reponds:
Bill,
The plane looks great. It’s good to hear that it is performing very well.
I do at times pick up carb ice on my O-540 Lyc. also.
Early 2005 Builder Updates
Source: 2005 Q1 Beartracks
Continue reading
Late 2003 Builder Updates
Source: 2003 Q4 Beartracks, Mike Meador
Three New Bearhawks in the Air!
Wow, you guys have been busy! Texas, Florida, and South Africa all have new flying Bearhawks! Continue reading