By George Huntington, EAA 469341, St. Andrews, Manitoba,
Three aircraft departed from St. Andrews, Manitoba, for Duluth, Minnesota, to clear customs on July 24, 2024. Our group included a 170, 182, and my Bearhawk with my friend Jim Gile as my co-pilot. Our true airspeed was about 137 mph burning 40 ltr/hr (10.5 U.S gal/hr) at 55-percent hp. The AWOS in DLH transmitted that it was VFR, but when we contacted tower, they were not VFR. We circled for about half an hour then decided to head back north to Fort Francis to resubmit customs paperwork and fuel up. 3.8 hours later we gained customs and landing approval then flew across the river to International Falls and cleared U.S. customs; two hours. We flew from International Falls to Wautoma (airtime: 3.0 hours), fueled up, and waited until OSH was open for the evening incoming traffic. We circled for just over an hour then flew back to Wautoma and camped overnight.
Thursday morning, we packed up camp and headed to Fisk arrival. Weather was below limits for arrival, so we were in the hold for about two hours, then the weather lifted, and we were allowed to land. We parked in the homebuilt camping area, registered, and submitted to have my Bearhawk judged.
Later that day a team of judges stopped to inspect my Bearhawk. I opened the cowl to let them look inside the engine compartment, and after about half an hour they left. I went looking around EAA at the aircraft and displays.
I was checking out the center square displays when I got a phone call asking if I was willing to do an air-to-air photo shoot, and of course I said yes. A briefing was set up for Saturday morning at 10 a.m., so that got me wondering what was up.
When we arrived at camp later that afternoon after the air show, I saw a white flag “AWARD WINNER” on my prop along with the red flag that had 14 judge’s initials on it with three red dots. WOW! I’ve been chosen for an award. I called my buddy Bob Matarelli from Duluth who was also at AirVenture and informed him that I was chosen for an award. While I was living in Duluth he would come over to help with the build, check out my work, and provide a second set of eyes to make sure I was ready for the next stage of the build. He kept saying “you’re going to get a Lindy” with this one.
Saturday morning, I had just started checking out the warbirds and got another call to do an interview and static photo shoot at the airplane in 15 minutes. I scooted back to the Bearhawk and met the photographer. The interviewer completed the interview, and the photographer took a whole bunch of pics.
As soon as that was done, we had to go to the briefing for the air-to-air photo shoot which was scheduled for Sunday morning as we were departing OSH.
Jim, Bob, and I attended the award ceremonies at the homebuilt building at 6:30 Saturday evening. They went through the Kit Outstanding Workmanship and Plans Outstanding Workmanship plaques, then to the Kit Champions Bronze Lindy then to Plansbuilt Champion Bronze Lindy. The second name announced was George Huntington, Bearhawk C-GSOI. Wow, I won a Bronze Lindy – Plansbuilt Champion.
Sunday morning we got ready for departure and the air-to-air photo shoot. We packed up camp at 6 a.m. and taxied to an open area just south of the button of Runway 27. There, still more photos were taken, and when that was completed we taxied to RNY 27, took off, and went into a hold over the bridge in Winneconne and circled for about 15 minutes. Then the C-210 camera airplane flew up to us and took the lead. We circled to the left for a couple 360s to get the sunshine in the right area, some straight and level, up and down, and a banking roll away to the left. Then we continued the flight to Cloquet for our first stop on the way home. 2.5 hrs.
The weather was not cooperating as a line of thunderstorms prevented us from leaving Cloquet on Sunday, so we spent a night at the terminal in Cloquet. Such a nice airport with fuel and bicycles to use to go into town if need be. We spent some time looking at Tim Tollefson’s RANS homebuilt nearing completion. Bob returned home, stopping in to see us and organized hangarage with Mike Ray, a fellow homebuilder, to hangar the Bearhawk overnight.
The next morning, Monday, the weather was still below VFR, so we waited a couple hours until it cleared enough to go north to clear Canadian customs at Piney/Pinecreek, an airport half on the U.S. side and half on the Canadian side. 2.0 hours.
Next stop Oak Hammock Airpark, just north of Winnipeg, 0.8 hours. Total airtime 15.5 hours.
I wish to thank Bob Barrows for designing an excellent aircraft, supplying a great set of plans, and being willing to sit and talk about the aircraft and little mods we did. The four-place Bearhawk meets all my expectations and more.
Thanks to Mark Goldberg for his knowledge and support throughout our build. Thanks to Cameron Lawrence and Ziggy Smolinski, my build partners; together we have built four Bearhawks, and so far two are flying with the next one to fly this fall.
Special thanks to Jim Gile for his experience and patience helping me fly to Oshkosh as he has done this trip about 10 times already, and this was my first time flying in.
Also, thank you to Jarad Yates who gathers info for the newsletters and sends out the info to all the Bearhawk people. He also started the Bearhawk store so we all can be properly dressed for any occasion.
Of course, I can’t leave my wife out, for putting up with the build for 16 years.
And of course, EAA for hosting AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 and the judges for honouring my Bearhawk.
For more about George and his Bearhawk, watch for a feature story in the April issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine. – Ed.