First part of AK summer flying

[zkelley2]

Here's some more summer photos showing what the bearhawk can do. Haul a load! Had two successful hunts in one week. Caribou and Moose.

First was the caribou, scouted for herds the week prior, the bearhawk with extended range tanks carries enough fuel for the endurance to go do this. Then it has the payload to take fuel to the hunting area, a camp plus supplies for a week, then put a caribou in the back and fuel to still fly home. All while operating off airport. This is why you get a bearhawk. All those little toy(STOL) airplanes can't even make it to these locations because the fuel is too far and they don't have the payload to bring anything out.

Here's some pics of that.

Got the cow opening morning at about 230yards.

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[zkelley2]

Second up was the Moose a week later. Again, payload to fly out with a week's camp plus stuff an entire moose in the back and fly home in one trip , again operating off airport. Got this cow(I was lucky to draw an anterless tag for this year, normally you only get 50" or bigger bulls.) after 3 days about about 100 yards.

On our way out we ran into 2 guys on the same tag, they needed 2 cubs and 2 trips each to achieve the same thing.. or one and 4 trips. At least staying legal with the w&b and not flying wildly overweight like a lot of people do.

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[Bissetg]

Great pics! I see you have bigger feet now too. I’m interested in your choice not to cover your undercarriage legs. I’m considering doing the same and would appreciate any advice you have. A local fellow is running a Maule M7 with uncovered legs, you certainly get to keep a good eye out for corrosion and good wash downs after beach landings.

[zkelley2]

The only advantage is corrosion inspection. This winter the gear is going to come off and floats go on and I think I'm going to cover them then and put an inspection panel of some sort in so that whenever the gear goes back on it'll be covered. Originally I thought I'd get the fly off done and go straight to floats, but that didn't happen. The extra drag is significant and not worth it. If this were a 50 year old cub with suspect corrosion that might be a different story, but I'd say you should replace the gear every 20 years before you should run it uncovered.
Honestly it's been pure laziness(or lack of time? Ya, we'll say that.) that they're not covered.

[Bissetg]

Thanks Zach, if you get the chance I’d be interested to know how much speed difference there is between uncovered and covered. I really like the idea of good visibility over the complete leg on preflight and maintenance given the mix of beach and riverbed flying here but I don’t like unnecessary drag either.

[svyolo]

Awesome pics

[whee]

Awesome adventures and pics!

About the aux tanks, I realize your situation is quite different than mine but I do find the ability to tanker fuel to be handy. Do you think some sort would wing locker that would fit a 10 gallon gas bag would be a reasonable substitute for actual aux tanks?

[zkelley2]

I also find tankering fuel handy even on shorter trips. The cost savings is enormous. Avgas in the bush is usually north of $8.00/gal.

I'm not sure how a wing locker of any sort would be less weight than the aux tanks. And I'm not sure what it'd look like. We don't have engines on the wings. Though it'd be really cool if we did.

[whee]

It's not really about weight. I'm lazy and don't want to tear into my wings to install aux tanks but I'm finding 50 gallons isn't enough. It would be pretty easy to put a locker where the aux tank goes or to make extended tips that work like a locker. The ideal solution would be 30-35 gallon main tanks.

[Nev]

Very inspiring pics!

[N942VT]

Thanks for this, great to see the Bearhawk used as intended. I'd rather see this than another STOL competition.

[svyolo]

No kidding.

[zkelley2]

Took a friend and his dog fishing to a spot that has always produced silver salmon in the past. Unfortunately it was dead. We suspect the water level in the creek was too low. Only a couple inches of water, usually it's waist to chest high.

Some pics from the evening though. IMG-20200905-WA0001.jpgDog's first ride, you have to wonder what he's thinking. We had some mutt muffs for him but he didn't like them at all.

IMG-20200905-WA0014.jpg Outbound. Don't mind the dirty windshield.

IMG-20200905-WA0012.jpgHe has to inspect the entire strip after landing.

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Landing at lake hood at sunset.

[zkelley2]

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