Bearhawkin!

Jan

On 4/11/2005 Jan Gutwein wrote:

Thanks to all for your nice comments. Sorry my reply is delayed, but as you can imagine something else is taking precedence over emails.

I will try to answer the questions.

Larry, the paint is Aerothane from Stitts. The colors are all decals. No over spray! When I visited with the gent at Osh. who does the work for Cirrus, he confirmed my decision to go that route. I have a local man that does that work. I called the factory of the vinyl film that he uses for to see if it was OK and it is. It is ScotchCal 200 made by Gerber. My 14 yr. daughter and I came up with the pattern. Yes that is an oval window. Not necessarily attractive but effective for those in the rear jump seat.

Kyle, I was hoping to make it to SNF but it doesn't look like it will happen.

Mark, You have nothing to feel embarrassed about. You have a very nice looking Bearhawk. Thanks for all your help and advise along the way. You've been a great guy to work with.

Peter, Left main 735, Right main 728, Tail 103 C.G. 11.56" At 1566lbs, I think I am 2lbs heavier than Marks. Battery is on the firewall, left side. More pics coming later. The remote compass mod. is in my wing tip, 2' aft of my strobe power supply and mounted to the last rib. Keep eatin that popcorn. ConAgri/Vogel.

Eric K, the decal work is not quite done yet. The glass in the door provides some nice add'l visibility, but I never did quite care for the "looks" of it. Well, the guy doing the decal work said he can put on what he calls vision film. It is basically perforated film that will be white with the blue stripe printed on it. From the outside at a distance it appears to be nearly the same white, as if the door was not there. From the inside you can look right through it!

Bill O, did the pic come through this time?

Dave, Larry, The tail art actually came from the business card of my local I. A. He made it up and was glad to let me use it.

Thanks again for all the positive feedback!

Now on to an update: Sat. morning was the big day. I have 4000' of runway in my flat field at my house. And I do mean flat, with out woods and obstructions. I would guess that 90% of the ground around me is suitable for landing the Bearhawk. So I did more fast taxing, flying the tail. I found it to be very manageable and predictable while scooting along on the mains. Then I moved on to crow hops. Again the controls seemed to be responsive and correct. So after several more crow hops I called the family to let them know this bird was about to take to the air. We gathered at the end of the runway for a prayer asking God's protection, guidance and help. Then is was back down to the far end for another smooth departure, but this time continuing on.

I thought I was going to have to cut the 1st flight short due to climbing CHT on cyl 1. When I made the front baffles I made a vertical piece to block some of the air on cyl's 1&2 The piece turns out to be higher than necessary. (I am still fine tuning these) But a reduction in power and climb rate soon got the temps coming down before they reached red line. 1st flight lasted nearly 2 hours. Sweet machine, keep plugging away guys.

My left wing being a little heavy was my only complaint, and I have been working to help that out. On my 3rd flight I found the stalls and slow flight to be very acceptable. Then at one point my fantastic engine monitor AFS 2002 came across my headset and told me to check my oil temp. It had risen to 325, red line. Since I changed oil the day before, and knew that a rising oil temp could be a sign of loosing oil, I decended to the strip for a landing. It ends up that yes I was loosing oil (all though not much). The culprit appears to be the front main oil seal. In talking w/Bob he said that some guys are having that problem, perhaps due to the #2 Permatex formula being changed which is used to cement the seal in. Since this eng. monitor records 30 parameters every 5 seconds, I can then download this to my computer to see in greater detail what's happening. Very happy with this investment.

Well that's it for now. Since the wind is blowing around 25mph. I don't feel so bad that my prop is off.

Jan

Correction: The oil temp reached 235 not 325. Sorry, I got my 2 and 3 turned around.

Jan-Not wantin to fry chicken in dat der oil

On 4/11/2005 Jan Gutwein wrote:

Russ,

I agree with you 100%. Our ears are not the only thing affected. I have 1.5" on the fire wall and 2 half inch layers on the boot cowl. One on the outer skin and one on the inner skin thus providing an airspace in-between. 1.5" in the tunnel area. I am glad for all the insulation I put in.

I've been busy this morning loading my BH up with "Passengers" and find that I like the ride of this bird much better when its feathers are much heavier. At 2500# I could still get off in 300-320' with 10 mph at the nose. This Bearhawk seems to thirst for weight. By the way my co-pilot is a box with 200# of shot strapped into the front seat. The middle passengers are several 50# bags of soybeans (hey that's what us farmers have hanging around this time of year!) and a couple more fifty pounders in my jump seat. I just kept adding 1 fifty pounder each flight and it just kept getting sweeter.

Jan-926