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Quickbuild serial number 111 arrived in my garage on April 5th, 2019. I couldn't start working on it right away so I'm calling June 1, 2019 as the official start date. That makes it just shy of 3 years to complete this project. Sometimes it feels like it took forever, and other times it seems like yesterday that I was unboxing all those parts.
On May 1st I flew C-GGUB for the first time. That feeling will be hard to beat. I found it more exciting, more nerve wracking, and more intense than my first solo. Sitting at the end of the runway and pushing that throttle all the way in for the first time is something that I've been visualizing for over three years. It was actually a little tough to do it. Not out of fear or the worry that something would go wrong so much, more of a sense that it was the final step in making an airplane and I was about to find out how well it works.
Holy crap it works! The thing is a beast. I haven't done any really aggressive take offs or landings yet but its off in a few hundred feet and lands about the same.
My engine is freshly overhauled so the first flight was just under an hour at 80% power. CHT's were fairly even in the 360-370 range for the first half of the flight and then they all dropped over the next 20 minutes to the mid 340's.I was sweating the cooling system because I've read plenty of posts about people having cooling problems but I'm very happy with the numbers I'm seeing. My front right cylinder (#5 - it's a Continental) is running a little cooler than the others but that's an easy fix.
The performance of this plane is pretty phenomenal. The speed range is massive. When I tell people that 77% power gives us 164 mph TAS they don't believe me. I haven't explored the bottom of the range too much yet but it looks like it's stalling clean at around 52mph and full flaps in the lower 40's. Mellow stall with a clean but gentle break so far. I've got VG's painted and ready to go but I want to get a really good baseline before I install them.
Most of my fixed wing time is in a Murphy Elite so this plane is a step up in weight class for sure. The Murphy's controls are as light as a helicopter - i felt right at home. The Bearhawk is heavier but well balanced and still a lot lighter than the 182 I've spent a bit of time in. It'll take a bit to get used to the extra weight but so far so good. One thing I have to mention, I LOVE THE TRIM system. I've read comments that it is too sensitive - and I've not flown it with a full aft CofG yet - but at 2400 lbs and a mid range CofG it works great. I've never liked Cessna trim systems where it feels like you're winching a bucket out of a well to pull the nose up a few degrees. Overall, the rigging seems to be pretty good. The right wing gets a bit heavy over 140mph but below that it flies straight hands off. I'll deal with correcting that later.
My instructor buddy signed me off for the insurance company today so now it's time to really explore the envelope while I fly off the 25 hours testing phase. I'm looking forward to getting to know this thing and finding out what it's really capable of.
5D4_0014_Bearhawk_resized.jpg
IMG_5961.jpg (I've got an alternator issue - that's tomorrows job to figure that out)
On May 1st I flew C-GGUB for the first time. That feeling will be hard to beat. I found it more exciting, more nerve wracking, and more intense than my first solo. Sitting at the end of the runway and pushing that throttle all the way in for the first time is something that I've been visualizing for over three years. It was actually a little tough to do it. Not out of fear or the worry that something would go wrong so much, more of a sense that it was the final step in making an airplane and I was about to find out how well it works.
Holy crap it works! The thing is a beast. I haven't done any really aggressive take offs or landings yet but its off in a few hundred feet and lands about the same.
My engine is freshly overhauled so the first flight was just under an hour at 80% power. CHT's were fairly even in the 360-370 range for the first half of the flight and then they all dropped over the next 20 minutes to the mid 340's.I was sweating the cooling system because I've read plenty of posts about people having cooling problems but I'm very happy with the numbers I'm seeing. My front right cylinder (#5 - it's a Continental) is running a little cooler than the others but that's an easy fix.
The performance of this plane is pretty phenomenal. The speed range is massive. When I tell people that 77% power gives us 164 mph TAS they don't believe me. I haven't explored the bottom of the range too much yet but it looks like it's stalling clean at around 52mph and full flaps in the lower 40's. Mellow stall with a clean but gentle break so far. I've got VG's painted and ready to go but I want to get a really good baseline before I install them.
Most of my fixed wing time is in a Murphy Elite so this plane is a step up in weight class for sure. The Murphy's controls are as light as a helicopter - i felt right at home. The Bearhawk is heavier but well balanced and still a lot lighter than the 182 I've spent a bit of time in. It'll take a bit to get used to the extra weight but so far so good. One thing I have to mention, I LOVE THE TRIM system. I've read comments that it is too sensitive - and I've not flown it with a full aft CofG yet - but at 2400 lbs and a mid range CofG it works great. I've never liked Cessna trim systems where it feels like you're winching a bucket out of a well to pull the nose up a few degrees. Overall, the rigging seems to be pretty good. The right wing gets a bit heavy over 140mph but below that it flies straight hands off. I'll deal with correcting that later.
My instructor buddy signed me off for the insurance company today so now it's time to really explore the envelope while I fly off the 25 hours testing phase. I'm looking forward to getting to know this thing and finding out what it's really capable of.
5D4_0014_Bearhawk_resized.jpg
IMG_5961.jpg (I've got an alternator issue - that's tomorrows job to figure that out)
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