Bearhawk in the backcountry

[Battson]

Wow! Such amazing scenery. So, when the wife and I show up, you could take us to some of those spots?

Bill

Bill - if you're around NZ and I'm around, then it seems the only logical solution is to go flying!

[Bdflies]

Wow! Such amazing scenery. So, when the wife and I show up, you could take us to some of those spots?

Bill

[Battson]

Here's a few more photos from the annual backcountry pilot's meeting in Blenheim, NZ. After the STOL flying event, the big tire guys teamed up to go and batter the riverbed stones with rubber.

We started our with a mixed group of different aircraft. The river is braided and fairly rocky. Some spots were only big enough for the Super Cubs / Bearhawk.
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Other places we were able to land with the 185 too, although there was some waterskiing involved! I've got some videos I should post later.
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We flew up into the mountains after the riverbed, before the afternoon winds blew up.
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We stopped for morning tea at a good friend's place, they put on an amazing outdoor spread under a big shady tree. Lovely! We basically have to land across his driveway, its quite a neat little spot.
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For the early part of the afternoon we went back to the riverbed, some guys had to return home because of low fuel. The heat of the day had lifted the DA up to about 3,500ft (at sea level), so performance was dropping sharply and decision making became important. I didn't think to take any photos from that session.

[Battson]

Last weekend we had one morning of flyable weather, so a fellow member of the Recreational Backcountry Pilot's Association, Tony, went for a familiarisation flight. I was helping provide an introduction to landing at a challenging local airstrip, before Tony venture up there on their own. It was a really nice day for flying, and we had good fun walking the airstrip and talking aviation.

When we departed, I did the take-off at 60% power to simulate the performance of Tony's aircraft. It was no problem getting airborne with 150hp, but I prefer the extra power of the Bearhawk for added safety margin!

Here's Tony and the Bearhawk.
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We also stopped at an 80m (250ft) gravel bar on the way home, but I forgot to take a photo on the ground. The wind was not favourable, so the landing was harsh!

[JimParker256]

That is some pretty countryside... And a nice airplane, as well.

[Battson]

A few photos from summer, more to follow later...

The three and a half hour flight south with the family - they are clearly thrilled to be flying in the Bearhawk (this at 13,000ft so not much happening out the window).
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Here's my brother acting like a jackass, we were up there hunting wild hares.
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This is my uncle, I took him on his first light aircraft joyride in 20 years. We landed by the river for a rest break.
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[huntaero]

awesome pics great countryside always wanted to visit NZ and look at the Lockheed 10A there being rebuilt.

[Dave Roberts]

I have mine hinged in the front. It does the same as Battson's, only on the sides.

[JimParker256]

I don't see any pictures....and now I do. :-) must have been a server issue.

That's what happens to me all the time, but in my case, it's the result of a slow ISP. One of the downsides of living way out in the country is that the fiber-optic and cable-TV folks don't get to your "neighborhood"... Even wireless (Verizon/ATT/Sprint/etc.) don't work very well out here. Lucky to have 3mb DSL through the phone company. We went several years with an ISDN connection that netted 144 Kbps for downloads (yes, that's "K" bps). That was painful...

[Av8rPaul]

I don't see any pictures....and now I do. :-) must have been a server issue.

[Battson]

Another new spot, fitting for bushwheels!

Strictly one-way, about 230m long, and slightly uphill. Not a place you want to land with a tailwind, particularly when you're hauling a big load (note the cargo area is filled to the top). My copilot was off collecting some venison at the time, and we needed all the room we had to get out again. A lowish air pressure and very (very!) hot spring day made for 4000ft DA, which is considerable. DA makes a big difference.
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[Battson]

Here's a few shots of NJB on the local riverbeds.

We've had a lot of rain and I was surprised to find the riverbeds in good order without a lot of driftwood. I spied a good space to land a long way up a small tributary, further up steam than I have been able to land before. This spot was a one-way landing, unless you wanted to fly in between trees in a very tight river bend to escape. As you can see from the tall trees in the photo. The bar was probably about 100m long, but I got slowed to walking pace within about 60m despite landing 10m deeper than I wanted and having a 5kt tailwind. I put that short ground roll down to the early flare and very "firm" landing, oops! At least I was going slow and stopped quickly. The new tires are very good at soaking up a big impact.

At the end of the one-way landing place.
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Not a bad surface at this end, much worse at the far end.
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The impact crater... lol. At least the big tires and Bearhawk L/G are forgiving - no bounce and no stones thrown into the tail (this time)!
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[Battson]

Just to keep things ticking over during the quiet off-season, here's a photo from a hunting trip we took last fall... as I've said before, viewer discretion is advised.

These are wild Red Deer, stags. They are found basically all over New Zealand, although finding a wild pair with antlers as large as this is exceptionally rare - contrary to what those advertising hunting in NZ would lead you to believe. I was very happy to get both of these on a fly-in trip, bringing them out by aircraft was like a dream come true.

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[Battson]

You can't really see it moving with the naked eye, but one side effect of digital video is that vibration of the oil door gets slowed down and it looks much more obvious - which is undesirable. Much like the prop blur, it gets accentuated by the video.

I also think the problem is the vibration and flex in the cowl panel, more than air pressure. It moves too fast to be air pressure, and it doesn't move much in a dive at cruise power (high air pressure), it mostly happens at high engine RPM. I am not sure how much a different orientation would help, it's hard to say. The oil door is a relatively heavy weight right in the middle of a large, thin, flat, and thus flexible aluminium panel - so it vibrates. At full power, the whole aircraft gets pretty well shaken up by the relatively large engine, not just the cowl. I thought about a forward hinge, but with the curvature of the cowl means it's not so easy to get right.

I think a larger supporting doubler riveted onto the underside of the cowl, surrounding the door to stiffen it all up, would be the best solution. That is what I've seen on certified planes - although I've seen few certified birds with such a large, flat, unsupported aluminium cowl panel too - so maybe that was my mistake - not including any stiffeners. I also should have used a thicker piece of aluminium for the oil door itself, I think that was another mistake.

[rv8bldr]

Hey Jono,

Is it just a video artifact or does your oil door lift up a bit under high power during take off? I was thinking of making my oil door hinged on the forward to prevent that kind of thing (and to prevent it from flying up vertical if the latch fails which happened to my buddy on his RV-8).