I discovered the Bearhawk in mid-February 1996 late one Saturday night in a Budd Davisson article in the October 1995 issue of Sport Aviation (as you can tell, I was a little behind on my reading...). It took about a day to get over the shock that someone had designed an aircraft that met my mission needs perfectly--primarily consisting of a 4 place airplane with STOL capabilities. The fact that it had a classical cool look was a bonus. With two small children, I expect to finish it long before they move away from home (I don't care what Dave B. says), hence I wanted four seats. I plan to retire from the Air Force eventually to a place my Dad has in Texas where we can put a couple of grass strips (660 ft into the wind, 975 crosswind) so I really needed SHORT takeoff and landing capability. I was scheduled to go to Nampa Idaho to sign ze papers for a Kitfox in March 1996, but that was always a compromise decision (only 2 seats). Needless to say, I cancelled that trip. This is a true 4 place airplane, meaning that you can fill the tanks, load 4 FAA standard adults, and still have about 200 pounds left over for baggage before hitting gross weight. Currently 2 Bearhawks are being built in Chapter 49.

The wing is all aluminum, so I can relate to the RV builders. The fuselage and tail are tube and rag, so I can relate to the Acro-Sport builders. The wingtips are fiberglass, so I can relate to EZ and Q-200 builders. I figure wood will find it's way in somewhere. It's a scratch built aircraft (no kit) so I have time for all of our other builders (like Paul Rosales) to finish their aircraft so that I'll have plenty of options for chase aircraft. The other benefit is that being scratch built, I don't have to wait another several years just to scrape together enough money to buy the kit. According to Davisson, the entire materials required will run about $6000, or about 60% of an RV kit, and far less of a Kitfox kit. Although I bought the plans in February 1996, actual building did not begin in earnest until December 1996, thanks to a move cross-country at the request of the government. I finished forming the 163 ribs you see here from sheet aluminum around May 1997, although after several months of more and more ribs they start to seem like there's about 163 million to do. Current work is on the wing spars. Hopefully the wings will be finished up sometime in 1998, at which time I get to retool from doing sheet metal work to welding tubing. Any Questions?!? You can e-mail me. To see the latest progess of my plane, check out my website!

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