Ice Fishing with the Bearhawk

[Aero_tango]

Bailed-out from work at 3:30 last Tuesday and ran to CYND and flew down to lake “Des deux Montagnes” to meet my son and friends for ice fishing...nice way to finish the day.
Cockpit view of the landing and takeoff...

Make sure to change the YouTube resolution to HD...for some reason the link get you to a lower resolution...

Mike

[Bdflies]

Seriously cool stuff!
Is there any braking available on Ice, or is it kinda like a float plane - where you just 'sail it in'?

Bill

[Steve W]

Isn’t it great to involve aviation with something else you love to do?
Hell of a lot smoother there than where I landed with the Otter today. Teeth are still rattling.

[rodsmith]

Seriously cool stuff!
Is there any braking available on Ice, or is it kinda like a float plane - where you just 'sail it in'?

Bill

Smooth, snow free ice offers very little braking action, especially if the temps are near or above freezing. Have to be very careful taxiing down wind. A little snow on top makes a big improvement in stopping.

[Aero_tango]

Smooth, snow free ice offers very little braking action, especially if the temps are near or above freezing. Have to be very careful taxiing down wind. A little snow on top makes a big improvement in stopping.

What Rod said is very true. Actually the temp was slightly below freezing, but with the sun, the ice surface was a little wet...it was very slippery, no braking action. But there was also lots of snowy patches here and there, which offer more stopping/steering action.

Isn’t it great to involve aviation with something else you love to do?

Yessss. That’s one of the reason I built the BH....Bush-flying, fishing/hunting. My next project is to install floats. Unlimited access to lake/rivers. That’s a project for next winter.
Mike.

[Glenn Patterson]

Thank you for sharing the video. Perfect perspective with a great looking Bearhawk. A little (lot) envious of ice fishing. Late Feb & March are perfect to get out ice fishing and better yet with an airplane. Drill some holes, set up the lawn chairs in the warm sun against an island out of the wind, cook a smokie or two over a fire and just forget the crazy world for an afternoon. Fishing miles from the nearest civilization is usually good. It is a great feeling to fly home in the evening sun just above the lakes & trees. The ice sure looks slick in your video. A couple times we slid a long ways in the flying clubs PA-12 on the ice like a curling rock with shore coming and happy that it stopped. We are just on the edge of finishing the 25 hours to get the conditions lifted for our final C of A. Looking forward to have the Bearhawk for ice fishing as we can easily pack our gear with the barn doors and no more Cirque de Soliel acrobatics to climb in the back of a PA12. Thanks again.
Glenn

[Aero_tango]

Hi Glenn,
Nice looking Bearhawk you have there, on straight skis, way to go...where are you located?
Mike

[Glenn Patterson]

Hi Mike.
I live in Dryden ON. which is 2 hours east of the Manitoba border. There would be no where to go without skis in the winter. We started to fly off our initial 25 hours on 26" tires until winter became too deep and cold. We switched to skis in February when it started to get warm enough to fly. Skis are forgiving and with miles of frozen lakes everywhere it gives a good opportunity to learn the airplane with less nerves than on wheels. Miles of lakes in every directions also gives emergency options. The flying club is a rare one in that it is a waterbase with parking ramps, a fuel dock and winter plug ins at the ramps. The members maintain a packed runway on the ice, the guys freeze tie downs & pipe markers into the ice for parking and bury an extension cord up to their spot. The airplane sits on the ice at the club as it is perfect for winter.
Glenn

[Bdflies]

Ya know, it gets hot down here in the summer, but reading that makes me think I have the better end of the deal!

[Glenn Patterson]

Hi Bdflies. It is all relative & different perspective of where a person lives. Winter is what a person chooses to make of it. Summers here are amazing with very comfortable temperatures. The province changed the fish limits and that is when we found out that in this area our southern fishing friends out number us 5:1. We can take our 26ft camper trailer and park beside countless accessible lakes for free. The US south has crushing summer heat & humidity with the risk of being in the path of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, poisonous snakes etc that simply don't occur in this area. It is easier to dress warm for the cold. It is all perspectives & perceptions.
:- )
Glenn

[Bdflies]

No snakes??

[Glenn Patterson]

None venomous here & for the majority of the country. There are some areas with rattlers out west and a couple spots in southern Ontario that have the Mississauga rattler. It used to be pretty safe here but now there are ticks with lyme disease. I spent a week about 20 years ago at the pulpmill in New Bern NC where we went out for supper with our hosts and others from some southern pulpmills. A worker was tagged with a water moccasin in the mill yard while we were there that was a lost time accident. The guys started talking about snakes and some stories were pretty funny. The guys asked what we did in winter. We told them skiing, snow machining and ice fishing were common activities. My boss told the guys that guys like Glenn drive their trucks or snow machine out on the ice, drill some holes, build a fire and enjoy a day of fishing. The concept did not fit too well in a southern mind. They has stories of an inch or two of snow. Then my boss said that the mill plowed a wide road on the ice and ran wood trucks across the ice. I think the guys thought we were feeding them a line. The logging trucks crossing the ice took miles out of the haul and was used primarily for returning empty trucks to the bush. The ice roads gave miles of prime ice fishing.
Glenn

[rodsmith]

I could tell some great (true) stories about lake ice and vehicles and mishaps in spring time from my 20 some years in Alaska. On the north slope we moved extremely heavy equipment (20-30 tons) miles on ice, but they would drill holes and flood the ice to make the ice roads thicker