Stephen Ingram’s Bearhawk 4-Place N789WM First Flight in Texas

Source: 2025 Q3 Beartracks
N789WM first flew on August 5th, 2025. You can read about my experience with the first flight of my newly built Bearhawk aircraft, following my transition training in North Carolina, on the Bearhawk Forums. In summary, despite careful preparation, the initial attempt was aborted due to a fouled spark plug, and the actual first flight revealed a misconfigured RPM sensor, leading to false high-RPM readings and considerable anxiety mid-flight. Minor issues like a lost fuel cap and unfastened tailwheel chains were discovered post-flight, reinforcing the importance of a thorough punch list and better planning. Ultimately, the flight was successful and educational, and shows the value of preparation, clear checklists, and learning from unexpected scenarios.
Since that first flight, there has been ongoing maintenance, discovery, and tweaking. After the first couple of hours, I was struggling to keep my cylinder temperatures within a reasonable range, and having to level off and build speed to keep the rear cylinders below 430F. I was very concerned about glazing before the rings had a chance to seat on the brand new engine. After having a friend look over my engine, and baffles, we realized a couple things: My front air dams seemed too high in his experience; and I hadn’t ever really gotten back around to sealing all the holes in the baffling. He also has a O-540, but in an RV, and he said he ended up without air dams at all. He reasoned that if my temps are high, I could remove the air dams altogether and the worst case they are too low and I have to put some back. I agreed, and drilled off the front air dams.
Next, I set about diligently and thoroughly finding every crack of light shining through the baffles and sealing it with RTV. I prefer the gray RTV, as the color blends in well with the rest of my engine. This ended up using almost an entire tube of RTV. But I felt confident that this would help address the heat issue. The main is to get that pressure differential between the upper and lower engine great enough to pull air though the cylinder fins, and it doesn’t take much, but any hole in the baffling is lost opportunity to carry away heat, and pressurizes the lower cowl.
The next flight the CHT’s were much better, and increased much more slowly. Success! But now, the next problem…my oil cooler is front mounted with a scat hose leading to a duct over the cooler to put the air through it. Lots of gaps around the fiberglass duct against the face of the oil cooler. Get another tube of RTV…
I also struggled with high CHT’s around #5, and a common solution for this, depending on how your cylinders are cast, is to build an air duct to shunt air around the backside of the cylinder. This called for breaking out the rivet gun and some scrap aluminum and within a few hours I had a decent looking duct. This greatly helped even out the CHT on #5 to something close to the other cylinders.
My project was a stalled out project with a new engine that had been sitting for a number of years. I had borescoped the internals of the engine as much as possible, and it all looked pristine. However, in the last few hours, I have had a number of seals, O-rings and gaskets start to leak. If you have had your engine for a while, the internals are probably fine, but you should expect to go through a round of fly, find the leak, replace, fly, repeat etc. Many rubber and non-metal parts of an engine wear out over the years whether they fly 1 hour or a 1000 hours. This lead me to have a number of oil leaks, an intake leak, and a fuel leak, all within the last 10 hours. Nothing catastrophic, but annoying nonetheless.
Initially, my flight controls felt very “heavy” and the adverse yaw was over the top. Thanks to the forums, and some posts I found there, I decided to go back through my tail and take it completely apart and identify any source of friction. I found quite a few places that I could have done better the first time, and most of my friction was actually in the trim tab on the left side. The hinge would bind against the paint and the clevis pin was tight in the hinge. I sanded, reamed, polished and straightened the elevators relative to each other very carefully, and this removed almost all the friction in the pitch.
For the adverse yaw, I decided to check my aileron rigging again, and raised both ailerons about 3/8 inch reflexed, as many had reported this removed a lot of the adverse yaw. I also went back through my flap rigging and made sure they were exactly equal to the wing trailing edge, and got everything as straight as possible.
The first test flight after the rigging changes was noticeably better. Most of the adverse yaw was gone, but enough to still keep you on your toes, rudder-wise in the turns that is. My autopilot no longer complained about trimming while maintaining altitude much better. I still have a very slight right roll that I am hoping a little more attention to the rigging will alleviate, but if not, I will employ the “washer trick” under the heavy wing hinge.
I am thankful that we live in the experimental side of aviation, since it allows us to experiment and to have “experimental” avionics and tools to discover and address issues quickly and confidently. Without a good engine monitor, I would not have been able to tell exactly which spark plug had fouled on my first flight. Without continuous monitoring, I would not have realized that one of my CHT problems was a leaking intake gasket. I also want to emphasize how invaluable sites like the Bearhawk Forums, Savvy Aviation, and Flysto are if you are willing to share your engine and flight data. Using Savvy, I was able to analyze engine data and dial in on the intake leak. Using Flysto, I was easily able to identify pitot-static errors, and rewatch and critique my flying. And of course the Bearhawk forums are great for tips, tricks, and the comradery surrounding this excellent airplane type.
As of the evening I am writing this, I am at 17 hours, having a wonderful time flying, looking forward to seeing other Bearhawkers out there, and just found another oil leak.

Bearhawk LSA N456YA First Flight Report from Andy Bell

Source: 2025Q2 Beartracks, Andy Bell
Congratulations to Andy Bell on a successful first flight of his Bearhawk LSA, on May 3rd! He received his airworthiness certificate the day before. His DAR was Paul Dye, who you may recognize from his numerous contributions to the Kitplanes magazine.
The engine is a mid-time O-200D out of a Skycatcher, and the empty weight is 865 pounds with an empty CG of 11.26”. This is quite respectable considering the plane is well-equipped, with an Earthx battery, Skytec starter, Plane Power alternator, oil cooler, Vetterman dual muffler exaust, strobe and wigwag lights, a basic VFR panel with adsb in and out, Stewarts System paint, 8.50×6 tubeless Desser tires, and dual puck Matco brakes. The wings are polished bare aluminum. Flight testing has shown 125mph TAS at 2640 rpm. Andy has shared many more details on his build log website, https://eaabuilderslog.org?s=ABell

Bearhawk Patrol N62588 First Flight

Source: 2025 Q1 Beartracks, Brooks Cone
I wrote an article last issue on a Patrol that I started in 2017 and am nearing completion on. I talked about the theme of efficiency, utility, reliability and maintainability that drove decision making of the build. At that time the FAA paperwork had been submitted for its airworthiness inspection.
I signed off the condition inspection on January 2nd, the FAA performed the airworthiness Inspection on January 21st and the first flight was on February 22nd. The Patrol has about 7 flight and 10 hours on her now as of this writing.
I knew that the FAA’s inspection of my Patrol would be broad in nature rather than detail oriented. I wanted and needed an inspection with detail, so I hired an A&P with IA in November to inspect it. The inspection lasted about 3.5 hours. With a mirror and flashlight in hand he looked at everything and wrote discrepancies down on a tablet. I studied what he did and how he “thought” as he looked around. At the end of it I had 75 items to fix, a builder tutorial of how to inspect, and a higher standard to rise up to. That was just what I, an untrained amateur who builds alone at home, needed. In the subsequent weeks as I worked on his list, I kept discovering my own items and so the number of items to fix nearly doubled. I am convinced I would not have appreciated a judgmental eye on my build if a DAR inspection
was combined with an evaluation for an airworthiness certificate. I suppose the way I had it done gave me a measure of protection from failure and confidence in more than just “passing”.
The first flight was done on Saturday morning, February 22nd. The temperature was 17F and it lasted about 40 minutes with the objective to run the engine hard for break-in. I’ve got good cabin heat, low CHT’s and very good oil temp control. My oil system has a shutoff valve to the cooler controlled in the cockpit. I have outstanding control of oil temp. The break-in schedule after the first flight was interrupted by my ADS-B performance report saying it’s inoperative.
My Patrol resides in mandatory ADS-B airspace, and so flights #2 and #3 were dedicated to making it operational. Break-in continued on Flights #4-7, providing 9 more hours on the engine.
When we break-in an engine the question we all ask is “Will it run too hot?” My CHT’s were normal from the first takeoff. With 65% confidence I say CHT’s were not hot because of time and care spent on crafting two firewall forward items – Sealing the baffling, and the design of the cowl exit.
Air that enters the top cowl is for engine & oil cooling. Air that leaks and dodges any cooling fins is wasted drag and reduces the pressure differential across the cooling fins, so I decided to plug them all up. A flash light in a dark hanger strategically positioned below the cylinders reveals all the leaks. Most of them are found around the base of cylinders. I have a friend at the airport. His name is Wayne. Wayne is a super inquisitive, and enthusiastic builder who is at the airport every day . I’m just kind of average but am further along so we help each other out. Life is better when humans collaborate. Occasionally Wayne uses good words that describe a situation. Three that come to mind are “Rat Hole”, “Sticktion” and “MVP”. Sticktion is the sticky friction we overcome when we initiate movement. After things get going, the stickiness of high resistance is reduced. MVP describes a part or assembly that is Minimally Viable…a Minimally Viable Product. An MVP is not pretty but gets the job done and keeps the build moving along. We’ll make it pretty later on.
Now about rat holes. Cars have rat holes and manufacturers don’t like them. My grandma’s basement fruit cellar had them. The average Lycoming baffling installation has rat & mice holes too. They are found in places like corners, at the cylinder base and inner cylinder baffle. Lots of air passes through them without cooling. When a rat hole is plugged, the cooling improves and drag is reduced. So I search out and seal up baffle joints and small stuff with ahigh temp silicone product called Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker. I think the black Permatex looks better than the red stuff but that works too. Some spots are difficult to reach, so I fill a small syringe with Permatex. A 12” piece of tubing pressed onto the syringe nozzle helps apply it there. Another tool I used was a tongue depressor.
My flashlight easily exposed four rat holes the size of my thumb. They got a piece of fiberglass impregnated with Permatex. I place plastic sheathing onto the top of my workbench, then put down a small piece of fiberglass cloth. I squirt some sealant onto the cloth then fold the top of the plastic over it so the sealant and cloth are sandwiched by the plastic. Then I press the sealant into the weave with a putty knife. It should be mess free. When the cloth is fully impregnated with sealant, I cut the patch to final size with scissors, remove the plastic and plug the rat hole by stuffing it with hemostats.
In conclusion, my Patrol is flying, I’m breaking in the engine, and have cool temperatures that I think is due to tight baffling, and the engine cowl design. Next quarter I’ll share how I incorporated the tunnel and cowl exit, and share with you how my engine break-in went.

Winter 2025 Update from Bob – Companion is Ready

Source: 2025 Q1 Beartracks
Bob’s Bearhawk Companion is Ready to Fly
Having started construction on a Bearhawk Companion Quick Build kit back on January 26th 2024, Bob’s latest project is ready to fly, with a final empty weight of 1030 pounds.
Bob has some interesting observations about the CG and loading of the Companion and other Bearhawks.
He says a CG location of around 25% of the wing chord makes for a nice sweet spot. The plane handles nicely and the drag is reduced compared to farther forward CGs. With the bigger planes, we set the empty CG farther forward, so that the cabin can be loaded and still have an airplane that flies safely, but the handling is a little less delightful. With the Companion, the aft cabin former is moved forward a station compared the the 4-Place. That means all of the load is closer to the CG, which allows for the engine to be closer to the firewall. The empty CG falls in the 14-15” range on the Companion, compared to the 10-12” range on the 4-Place. This places the humans both right on the CG in the Companion. So the pitch handling will be the same regardless of the pounds of humans on board.
This also means that when it comes to baggage, the Companion has around a 100 pound advantage compared to the Patrol. A load of two people plus 100 pounds of cargo in the Companion will yield the same CG as just the two people with no cargo in the Patrol. A load of two people plus 200 pounds in the Companion will yield the same CG as two people plus 100 pounds in the Patrol.
The Patrol provides the advantage that the two people don’t have to sit next to each other, and each has an unobstructed view out of both sides of the airplane. But because the loading is distributed more broadly fore-aft in the fuselage, it gives up a little hauling capability.
The photo above shows the weighing process. There have been a few additional details to sort out before the first flight, including gathering some data on an experimental propeller. The fuel system flowed 40 gph on both tanks, and 28 gph on a single tank. As you can imagine, the plane is configured to be as light as possible. It has no starter or alternator. The prop is fixed-pitch and the floorboards are composite instead of aluminum.

Also, Mike Meador shares: Some people are struggling with DZUS fasteners during their build.  The Southco company has a very nice resource document PDF that is an excellent tool for installation instructions. Here is a link: https://files.southco.com/static/Literature/D4.en.pdf

To commemorate this being the 30th anniversary issue of the Beartracks newsletter, here is an introduction from Bob on the first Beartracks issue from 1995:
I hope this first issue will be helpful in getting you started on the BEARHAWK. We will, through this newsletter, try to pass on to you helpful tips and methods that others and myself have found useful in building an aircraft of this type. We recommend that the builder first start with the wings. The wings are the most time consuming and complex part of this project – if you can finish the wings you should have no problem with the rest of the aircraft. After completing the wings you will next build the tail surfaces and finally the fuselage. All of the tips in this issue will deal with wing construction. Building an aircraft should be a fun learning experience.
From the second issue:
The best advice that I can give you about building an airplane from scratch is to DO SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE DAY! You will need to develop a routine that you can stick to in order to finish any homebuilt aircraft.

Phase 1 Testing Tips

Source: 2024 Q4 Beartracks, Greg Charest
After investing a lot of time and money, your shiny new Bearhawk is complete and has a special airworthiness certificate. You have taken transition training, made decisions about insurance and your first flight was a success. Fantastic! You are officially in Phase 1 Testing. But what now?
As you probably know, the FAA allows two different approaches to Phase 1 testing:
1) You can operate the aircraft within a designated area for some number of hours (usually 25 or 40) with some number of takeoffs and landings (generally 10 or 20) to complete Phase 1. These limits are specified in the Operating Limitations that accompany your Airworthiness Certificate.
2) Alternatively, you can use the Task-Based Approach to testing outlined in Advisory Circular (AC) 90-89C. This program was developed in cooperation between the FAA and EAA. It outlines 21 different test areas and associated test cards that can be used to document the process and results.
There are compelling reasons to use the Task-Based approach, not the least of which is that you would likely do something similar even if you chose to simply fly the 40 hours. After all, you want to know best glide, Vx, Vy, stall speeds, effects of various flaps settings and so on. Why not take advantage of the structured approach and do it in a methodical manner? As a side benefit, it may be possible to complete Phase 1 in a shorter period as the requirement is to develop and carry out a plan, not meet an arbitrary time goal.
It’s important to keep in mind that the Task Based Approach is FAA guidance, not a set of regulatory requirements. It is intended to help you develop an individualized plan. The related EAA Flight Test Manual is a concrete example of a task-based plan. You can and should feel free to create a plan that meets your needs. While the EAA documents are quite good you may want to include other tools in your plan. For example, The Bootstrap Approach to Aircraft Performance by John T Lowry is an excellent alternative to help calculating V speeds and rates and angles of climb/decent. See Jared Yates’ article in KITPLANES magazine for a review and explanation.
While the task-based approach is superior, there are some practical difficulties in completing the tests. The most significant issue is that there is often a lot to do at the same time. Precise flying, monitoring engine data, watching for traffic and collecting the required performance data can be a lot to manage by yourself. This is especially true if, like the typical builder, you have spent a lot more time building than flying in the last couple of years and are a little rusty.
There are a couple of ways to make the testing process a little easier and to generate better test data. One is human-related and the other technological. The human solution is to use the Additional Pilot Program for Phase I Flight Test Program described in Advisory Circular 90-116. Note that this only applies to aircraft built from commercially produced kits. Operating limitations issued for Phase I operations restrict the number on board an aircraft to the minimum flight crew. In general, the minimum crew for a typical E-AB aircraft is one (you). AC 90-116 provides a mechanism that allows you to have a second pilot on board to assist in the testing process. It defines two categories of pilots approved to assist: Qualified Pilots (QP) and Observer Pilots (OP). Qualified pilots can participate immediately but the QP experience qualifications are quite high (see 90-116 for the specifics). Observer pilot qualifications are lower, but you must complete the first 8 hours of testing, including a specific set of tests and maneuvers, before you can use an observer pilot. If you want to have another pilot assist you, it makes sense to modify your test plan to meet these requirements early on.
The technological solution works if your airplane has an EFIS. Most if not all EFIS systems are able to write data to a log file. The Garmin G3X for example logs 81 data elements every second, some are direct measurements, and some are calculated values. These are written in a standard comma separated format. This relieves you from the need to write down key altitudes, airspeeds, times etc. and allows you to focus more on flying the maneuvers, watching for traffic and staying inside your designated testing zone.
There is an amazing amount of useful data in the log file, but it can be overwhelming. A typical test flight will result in a >3000 row spreadsheet. Finding and selecting the relevant records and values can be a challenge. It’s helpful to use the tools provided by whatever spreadsheet program you prefer to reduce the data set. Spending a little time to hide the columns you don’t need and freeze the field name rows is worth the time. More advanced techniques to average some of the measurements may also help to reduce short term variability in the recorded data.
Even after cleaning up the data it can still can be tedious to find the records that correspond to precise start/stop times in such a large data set. This is where the web application at https://www.flysto.net is especially useful. This tool can analyze the log file, separate the flight into parts, map your flight path and plot altitude, speed, pitch, bank etc. Placing your mouse pointer over a specific point on the flight track will display the related time field. This lets you pick a portion of the test flight graphically and directly match it to the corresponding rows in the data. You can see in the example below how straightforward it is to select the exact time elements for the climb/descent portions of the test I was flying. The flysto.net tool is free and has many other useful capabilities.
Flight testing is not easy and can be a little frustrating. Real world data rarely looks as nice as the textbook examples. Hopefully some of these tips can help you get better results and focus on the fun and educational aspects of the Phase 1 process.

Bearhawk 4-Place N776BE First Flight in Washington

Source: 2024 Q4 Beartracks, John Reddick
N776BE flew for the first time on Dec 6, 2024 after 6 1/2 years of on-and-off building. I actually only worked on it for 2 years and 4 months. I did numerous “off the ranch” things to the QB “B” model kit. All of that contributed to the extended build time. It was inspected by a DAR on October 30th, 2024.
I have about 5 hours flight time in 4 flights, most things working well. Sorting out a heavy left wing, and noise on the VHF com. The #6 cylinder gets hot pretty quick on climb out, despite it being 40-45 F outside. Other cylinders are fine in climb, and all are fine in cruise. Probably mislocated oil cooler flange (installer error). Other than that, going smoothly.
I think the two things that made the first flights much less stressful were 3.2 hours of transition training with Jared, and running the engine in on the ground for 2 hours (picture below). Both gave me a lot more confidence on the first flight.
My “off the ranch” mods were:
-Custom fold down instrument panel
-Composite tail fairing
-Electrical system
-SDS EFI/EI
-“Almost” 2 alternators
-“Almost” 2 batteries
The panel is a simple, single EFIS with a tablet, single com, and remote transponder. The EFI/EI turned a simple plane into a bit of a high school science project, wiring-wise. But I am most comfortable with EFI, and have done a huge amount of 12V wiring, including a business I had for 3 years. This may not be the best choice for someone who hates wiring.
I also used Oratex (which caused the composite tail fairing). If it lasts a long time I love it but it was tedious and time consuming to install.
Empty weight was 1403, CG was 7.1 inches (67 lbs on the tail). IO-540, 2 blade Trailblazer, full skylight. That weight is on small tires, and no back seat. That makes it the mid 1400’s with bigger tires and a back seat. I need 50 pounds of ballast with only front seat occupants.
It is exactly what I wanted when I ordered the kit. Like a lot of homebuilders, I always wanted to build an airplane. I even bought a set of plans when I was 15 or 16. I ended up flying for a living, and moved around so much I was never able to build one, until now.
Thanks to everyone on the forum for all the contributions. I knew what I was getting into before I bought the kit. Thanks to Jared for moderating a great forum, and Mark and Bob for the customer support.
I will put up some posts on my “off the ranch” stuff if anyone is interested.

Bearhawk 4-Place N3XH First Flight in Colorado

Source: 2024 Q4 Beartracks, Rod Smith
After a very long time coming, December 17th, 2024, was the day my Bearhawk finally took to the air. As a very rusty tailwheel pilot with just 6 hours of tailwheel time in the past few weeks, I wondered how it was going to handle and how I would react to any problems that might pop up. Fortunately, the flight went very well. The EAA flight test card #1 says to make your first flight without flaps, I chose to takeoff with 2 notches and land with 3 notches. That’s how Virgil Irwin had me taking off and landing in his beautiful Bearhawk 5 during a 2 hour checkout.
The flight went very well, and I was in awe of the performance. I found my plane to be light on the elevators, a little heavier on the ailerons. As a bonus it flies level with hands off the sticks. The only issue I had was way too much angle on my rudder tab and I was having to use an awful lot of pressure on the left rudder pedal to stay coordinated. So much so that after about 20 minutes my left leg went numb and I thought I better land while I could still move my leg. My first landing wasn’t pretty, didn’t get fully stalled and bounced it. I now have made 3 flights for a total of 2.7 hours. It gets better every flight.
My plane is the original 4-seater with the modified 4412 airfoil. It is scratch built, except I did buy the quick build wing kit from Avipro in 2004 for $9900. I have a modified parallel valve 300HP IO-540 and a 3 blade 83” MT prop. My panel is Garmin G3X with 2 10” screens and set up for GPS IFR. Some modifications I made are carbon fiber gull wing doors and Hoerner wingtips. I moved the trim wheel to the floor, just left of the flap handle and have a console covering the flap and trim wheel mechanisms.
I think I may have the unfortunate record for the longest build time of a completed Bearhawk. Life does get in the way at times. My first build log entry was June 1, 1999, a quarter century ago. That first flight made it all worth it. God willing, I will see many of you at Oshkosh this coming July.

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:

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.

Bearhawk 4-Place N316BH First Flight

Source: 2024 Q1 Beartracks, Scott Hoover in Alaska
N316BH, serial number 1266, is a plans build 4-place original model with some B model upgrades. I purchased the plans and many of the materials from a local man in Alaska who decided to go another direction with his build. It was built with a fair number of parts purchased from Bearhawk Aircraft and the VR3 Engineering tubing kit. N316BH has the original wings and tailspring but I upgraded the horizontal stabilizer, the door formers, and I re-enforced and strengthened the aerodynamic gear shock-struts with an internal round tubing. A skylight was added and lowered to match the wing across the top. I also reinforced the frame and welded a float kit along with ski cable attachment points.
The interior is simple and light with painted fabric. I kept my panel simple as well. I went with the MGL Xtreme EFIS and EMS along with a panel mounted iPad mini and two AHRS units that provide ADSB and air data to the iPad. All said and done I was pleased with my empty weight and CG. With the Bob Barrows O-540 and a metal two blade 84″ Hartzell propeller installed the empty weight came in at 1420 lbs. The CG is just aft of the forward limit with a pilot in the seat and empty fuel tanks. This leaves the entire CG envelope available for cargo, fuel and passengers. Impressive design for sure! My initial impression after just a few flights is WOW!!! What an incredible airplane! Very few things in life can beat that first flight! This was my first build and my first flight in a Bearhawk. After a couple of engine runs per the Lycoming instructions and a couple of taxi tests I was ready for the big event! After one more detailed inspection and one final run up I lined up on runway 20R at the Birchwood airport in Chugiak Alaska. It was a perfect day: 28 degrees, clear skies and little to no surface wind. The pressure altitude was well below sea level so I suspected great performance. Once on the runway I pushed the power up to 1200 RPM and let the plane slowly accelerate while taking one more concentrated look at the EMS, satisfied, I pushed the throttle on the untethered engine up to full power for the first time. She roared to life! I was thrown back in my seat with far more pressure than I have ever felt before in a single engine piston aircraft, it was at that moment that the smile came on my face and lasted for the next hour. The plane literally leapt off the runway before I even got the throttle to it’s stop. To my relief the airplane felt perfectly rigged and I rocketed to 3000′ at my planned 100mph climb speed. The first flight was all about engine break in and basic controllability checks. Fortunately, there are no issues other than some avionics problems that I’m still working through.
My overall impression of the Bearhawk is that it is perfectly designed for mechanically inclined individuals to build, even from scratch, with little experience in building aircraft. The great majority of the airplane is constructed using very basic metal working skills. The project took me nearly 7 years to “complete” as a hobby with many distractions along the way.
The plane feels light and even sporty in the air. It is wonderfully powered with an 0-540 and stable at high and low speeds yet still extremely responsive to flight control inputs. I look forward to exploring the entire flight envelope as I work through my flight test profile.