W&B

[Razncain]

I have been reading a great deal about the Bearhawks. General consensus I’ve gathered from others on VAF, Homebuiltaircraft and other places is that this is a real bushplane, and I won’t mention the others that they didn’t consider real, but has a popular following. Best I recall at VAF, Bearhawk got the most votes when asked which other plane they were contemplating building if it wasn’t going to be a Van’s Aircraft. Evidently the reputation of the Bearhawk planes is that it is tuff.


I’ve never owned a tandem seated plane before. How much of a pain is the W&B? I personally like the view and room better, but feel like this is going to be something I will have to be paying a lot more attention too. With over 1,000lbs of a useful load to play with on the Patrol, and even with full fuel and bubba size pilot and passenger, most probably don't come anywhere near gross weight, and still probably have several hundred lbs to spare. I know all of that couldn't go in the cargo area.

[Razncain]

First time I’m seeing actual empty weight numbers come in for the Patrol, so 950lbs must be unrealistic, if as you say, most are coming in at 1,100-1,200lbs. Bob’s (1,027lbs with fixed prop) and your plane (1,061 with C/S) still not bad at all for you two, and this is still a lot of useful load to play with. Sometimes the paint job adds far more weight than others realize, looks like y’all were careful here, and still have great looking planes. Maybe somebody could inch closer to under 1,000lbs by going with a fixed wooden prop, but I doubt most would want to do that.

Still studying your W&B, but that helped a lot. I’m going to do some samples myself based on your AC’s numbers to see what I can get in the W&B range. Looks more flexible than I previously thought.

Once I decide on which BH I’m going to build, after I’ll get the plans to it, definitely will get your construction manuals, I know they will be a big help. Thanks, John