New but Old

[Wolfpilot]

Greetings to all. I am new here but in some respects old as it comes to the Bearhawk. I currently hold plans #827 for the 4-place Bearhawk. I purchased them and began the project back in late march of 2005. As with many builders life throws you curves and I shelved the project. The only parts built when that happened were nose rib blanks.

Fast forward 14 years and more life changes I began a simpler wood based project. A small, single place airplane. More life changes, a new wife that WANTS to be a part of the aviation community, one that wants to be by my side in a project and one that will ride with me (single place no longer fits that bill).

I am weighing the decision to continue my current project or change (again). Now that I have to consider that my wife wants to be a part, the single place would be a project only and end up with a plane that no longer meets (our) need. I am still early enough in it I am willing to consider it a sunk cost and might be able to sell what I have completed.

Long story shorter…I think the Bearhawk LSA is a better fit of us than the original 4-place I have plans for. I have yet to look at the LSAin depth, but if I do go this route, Can someone tell me if the nose rib blanks I built some time ago are in any way compatible (modifiable) to be used with the LSA?

Thanks in advance.

Rocky

[nichzimmerman]

Welcome back Rocky! Unfortunately, all the Bearhawk lineup is using a different airfoil from the original 4-place. Even the 4-place wing was changed. The ribs are not modifiable.

[Wolfpilot]

Thank you. It as I suspected but never hurts to ask :-)

[jaredyates]

Does the new lady have a preference of side-by-side seating vs tandem?

[Wolfpilot]

We have discussed this. Tandem works for us and she is use to flying this way. We actually prefer the tandem Vs side-by-side as we are both not skinny people and it provide more elbow (comfort) room. Obviously the side-by-side with the 4-place I currently have plans for would be nice but we decided it is more airplane than we need. As long as I do not have that much invested at this point, it might make more sense in going with what works best for us.

[jaredyates]

I've met several couples who prefer the elbow room of a tandem, that and the improved visibility out of both sides. The Patrol compared to the 4-Place is also "a little bit faster and a little bit slower" as Collin Campbell told me once. If you're only in for plans and nose ribs at this point, I'd say change projects for sure. You're 2% of the way there, and putting the remaining 98% into anything less than the perfect airplane for your mission wouldn't be prudent. Honestly, even if you decided to stay with the 4-place, it would probably be worth changing to the Model B. Of course that's easy for me to say, spending someone else's money, but there are enough improvements to make it worthwhile, especially if you haven't started on spars yet. You did get some fantastic education in making those nose ribs, and that has value!

[Chewie]

What is the wood project?

[Wolfpilot]

Team MInimax. Their V-Max with a HighMax option. Allows for a larger 4 stroke engine than most MiniMax airplanes.

[Wolfpilot]

Update! Opps... 4-place os .025, LSA is .020 Drats!!





Good news. I got the overall dimensions for the LSA nose ribs in the LSA thread here and it looks like I am able to use what I already made. What I have is slightly large so all I will need to do is modifiy what I have to fit the new airfoil profile. Apprecate all theinputs here.
Rocky

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