Third year running for Bearhawk STOL

[Battson]

Third year in a row the Bearhawk 4-place has taken top honors in the STOL competition in the Heavy Touring category at Omaka, New Zealand. As always competition was stiff and we has some highly skilled pilots to contend with, in all categories.

Results here:

http://www.marlboroughaeroclub.co.nz/uploads/pdf/HB/Results%202021.pdf

This year the wind was relatively steady throughout the afternoon for both light and heavy touring aircraft. Interestingly the winning distances in Heavy Touring were about 10m (30ft) better than the winning distances in the Light Touring category, which is not what you'd expect.

So, being deliberately provocative... why own a 2 or 3-place Super Cub, when a Bearhawk 4-place will go to the same places, get there much faster, with more cargo space??

[Utah-Jay]

Battson congrats on your win!!! Way to go BH

[robcaldwell]

Congrats, Jonathan! Looking forward to the video!

[Nev]

Great work Jon !

[Aero_tango]

Wow, that’s impressive. 25m take-off distance and 45m landing...I’m quite far from those numbers and need some more practice, I guess :-). Congrats, you’re the best....

[Hewko]

Congratulations, that's a wide variety of planes competing.

[Bcone1381]

After reading Aero Tango's Post (#5) I went back and looked more carefully at the numbers.

I'd like to highlight that Battson is in the Heavy Touring Class, +2550 lbs. I wanted to see how he compared.....where there others close? Battson's 25M and 28M takeoffs were followed by a Maul at 40M and then several at 60M in this class.

When I looked at the other classes, I found to my surprise, the no Light touring class participant beat him, while a 190 hp Carbon Cub was close. But I thought for sure the Micro Light class (Sport Class in the USA) would trounce him. Not true! Two of the 6 Micro-light pilots beat him by a small margin but 30, 40, 50M takeoffs were the norm.

[zkelley2]

None of the competitions up here will allow the experiementals with the certified, so we have to compete against the Backcountry cubs. (SQ2). Those roundly kick my ass in TO/Landing distance and there's nothing I can do about that. Last time I did one the winner was a 86'(26.2m) takeoff with a 59'(18m) landing.

[Battson]

Thanks for the kind feedback everyone!!

ZK - I guess if they make an experimental heavy class, I win every time because nobody else enters

However, it's not like we are building custom experimental STOL aircraft just to with the STOL - the Bearhwak goes x-country touring with many of the competitors the day after, and we have no trouble hanging with the pack and hauling the load. These are mostly stock 180s, aerodynamically speaking, bar a few small mods like Sportsman STOL or VGs. Most don't have bushwheels. Some of the 185s are heavily modified but they are just too heavy. If the Maule or 180 guys bought the right prop, tires, and put their planes on a diet, they could be very competitive! I don't see the need for a special category here, yet. Maybe the day will come.

[zkelley2]

Well the SQ2 is 2500lbs gross just like we are, so they do compete at the same "weight". Just can't beat those slats and fowlers.
Of course they cruise at 80mph and we cruise at 130mph, but STOL contests don't capture that.

Sounds like you guys have a lot more real world contest then we ever see here.

[alaskabearhawk]

Jonathan...congratulations on your win! That is fantastic. But, I'll be an outlier here. To be honest I would rather watch paint dry than watch a STOL competition. The best, and the only good part of a STOL competition is getting together with friends while camping, eating BBQ animal parts and talking airplanes. You don't need a STOL competition to do that.

[Battson]

All fair comments. We don't really get together to watch the contest, it's most about an excuse to get together! Some of the guys come from the other end of the country, and save for events like this, we don't see each other very often. To have everyone together in one large gathering (about 80 to 90 aircraft in total) is worthwhile