Just a little perspective. I've been interested in the Bearhawk since I first read the article published by Budd Davison back in 1995. I've talked to many many people who own, build and fly these planes over the years at Oshkosh and regional fly ins. This is the very first negative comment I've ever heard about the plane aside from "they take a long time to build." I don't know the person in question, but I'd take it with a gigantic grain of salt and by all means read every single post on the Bearhawk builder group.
As it pertains to this group I'll say that the Bearhawk by design has a lot of weight on the tail wheel. Putting a relatively light rotary in it would imply that you should probably locate the battery up front to benefit the CG.
From: Don Walker <drwalker@gbis.com>
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Mon, November 8, 2010 12:43:03 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Bear hawk dream airplane
Dustin,
My hanger landlord, a 20,000 hour ATP finished building a Bearhawk with an 0-540 in it. He's a serial builder and it's a 10.5 out of 10. According to him, the design has several serious flaws. He put it on it's back in a moderate crosswind. Cost him 30 grand. After checking out the problem he found: The landing gear from the factory are not straight. He modified and straightened them. It needs Much more engine offset. The tail is much too small. Factory support leaves much to be desired and design deficiency problems are left to be worked out by the builders. The company may be in financial trouble. I have flown it in once with him since all the rework. Nice solid airplane and not as heavy on the controls as many. I watched his landing on a no wind day and he worked very hard with a lot of fast stick and rudder work. He still won't fly it with moderate
cross winds. There is a Bearhawk builders group on Yahoo. Suggest you spend a lot of time reading over the postings. Just a heads up.
Don Walker
RV-8 Renesis
Flying and modifying
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