Scratch Built Bearhawk 4A C-GPFG First Flight

[rv8bldr]

Hey everyone

I posted this to the Bearhawk Facebook group, but then realized not everyone uses Facebook (and good on ya).

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Well, it only took just under 14 years, 5200+ hours of labour, and a couple of months waiting for decent flying weather, but I finally did the first flight of my scratch built Bearhawk today. Slightly heavy left wing (not much), leaky remote oil filter fitting, but that's it.

What a relief.

My friend Dwayne (ex RV-6 guy) did this video for me. It is on his YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/EoI5ObmCJ80

 

[AKKen07]

Congratulations! Amazing achievement. Scratch building one of these (successfully) is just one hell of an accomplishment. Bravo!

 

[rkennell]

Congratulations Mark! It a great accomplishment and beautiful airplane. I look forward to seeing it at KOSH and also the data from flight testing.

 

[Dpearson]

What an achievement! Congratulations!!!

 

[ThreeD]

Nice to have another C registered bearhawk

Congrats

Dano

 

[Perry Kuznar]

Mark, your first flight announcement is a big boost to all Bearhawk builders.

Perseverance personified! Congratulations!

Perry

 

[rv8bldr]

Hey Dano. There are now four Bearhawk 4's (three A and one B) here in Eastern Ontario.

 

[paulodonnell]

Fantastic, congratulations - that's quite an achievement!

 

[rodsmith]

Congratulations on a huge accomplishment Mark! Most people have no concept of what a huge job building a Bearhawk from scratch is. Very nice video.

 

[PhilBC]

Awesome achievement, great job and a nice looking BH!

 

[huntaero]

Hi Mark Great Job on scratch building airplane looks great see you at Oshkosh.

 

[alaskabearhawk]

Congratulations...really an amazing achievement. Well done!

 

[mbaerobat]

Congratulations Mark
It has to be a super feeling to have accomplished the long term goal of getting air under the wings. You one more Canadian Bearhawk to join the fleet.
Striking paint scheme to make it your own….

 

[fairchild1934]

Great job ! Love the paint color. Bright and electric ! What is the solution for the heavy wing ? I think I remember it is often caused by flaps and aerolons very slightly different position where they are bolted in. One may be very slightly higher than its counterpart on the other side. Hope thats an easy fix......

 

[rv8bldr]

Sorry for the slow response. As a recovering retired software engineer I have an aversion to turning on my computer so it has been more than a week since I turned this thing on There are a couple of approaches to correcting a heavy wing:

1. From Bob Barrows: If your plane has a heavy wing in its initial flights, after checking the flaps are inline on both sides, and you notice that when flying hands off one aileron is high and one low. A correction should be made by putting a AN970-3 washer (wide area washer) drilled out to 1/4“ under the bottom of the inboard and outboard aileron hinge mounts on the HEAVY WING SIDE. This effectively lifts the aileron on that side.

2. If all that fails, you could try a Gurney Flap. My good friend Michel had the same issue with his Bearhawk on its first flight and that was the solution. Rather than try and regurgitate the whole thread, here is a link:

https://bearhawkforums.com/forum/to.../41631-heavy-wing-need-help-on-how-to-proceed