Rollie
Registered User
Zanesville, OH
Thanks Pete, for pulling me into this thread.
I usually don't post on here because it's a Supercub forum, I just occasionally look to see where people are meeting up. There are lots of interesting questions/comments here. One of them was how could you build a Patrol lighter: there are a few ways, like you could put a fixed pitch prop and very basic avionics like most old cubs have but when you aren't limited to certified rules it gets really easy to throw all kinds of stuff into the panel. My Patrol came in at 1269 empty with IO-360, full IFR glass panel, backup battery for that glass panel, constant speed prop, two axis auto pilot, etc.
I am not a STOL contest kind of guy, I love off airport - back country type flying but the shortest place I've landed are a few gravel bars that are a bit under 600'. I only needed half that and it wasn't even a little bit of a challenge but I also don't fly around light. That day I had over 40 gallons of gas, my 65 lb dog and a bit of camping gear on board. Of course it takes off shorter solo and light on gas but I don't plan to go into anywhere that I need to be that light.
I'm always ready to take pretty much anyone for a flight, I guess I should have offered at the WAD but I was just having fun and didn't think of it. The Patrol isn't a supercub, (that's funny - supercub forum edits supercub to superb but leaves Patrol alone) but for me it did a few things that were important along with being experimental which was very important to me. The heated seats I installed the other day being one small reason why I really like the experimental world.
I have yet to need more than 500 feet of runway. When you're talking about 500' strips, if you mean 500' with clear approaches and departures, the Patrol can do that at any weight if you are comfortable in it, if you mean 500' with trees on each end, nope. I'd be pretty impressed to see a cub do that though. One other thing though, all the bearhawks are designed to their recommended gross weight at utility category standards, since I built mine a bit heavy I set my max weight at 2100 and just make sure I don't exceed standard category loading when over 2000 lb - another advantage of experimental. (2100 allows me, my wife, two 65 lb dogs and 55 gallons of gas plus about a 30 lb buffer)
I hope none of this comes off as argumentative, there seems to be some doubt/cycnism about the capabilities of the Patrol or Bearhawk aircraft so I just thought I would chime in. I have flown each model of Bearhawk except for the Companion so maybe I'm not just making stuff up.
I usually don't post on here because it's a Supercub forum, I just occasionally look to see where people are meeting up. There are lots of interesting questions/comments here. One of them was how could you build a Patrol lighter: there are a few ways, like you could put a fixed pitch prop and very basic avionics like most old cubs have but when you aren't limited to certified rules it gets really easy to throw all kinds of stuff into the panel. My Patrol came in at 1269 empty with IO-360, full IFR glass panel, backup battery for that glass panel, constant speed prop, two axis auto pilot, etc.
I am not a STOL contest kind of guy, I love off airport - back country type flying but the shortest place I've landed are a few gravel bars that are a bit under 600'. I only needed half that and it wasn't even a little bit of a challenge but I also don't fly around light. That day I had over 40 gallons of gas, my 65 lb dog and a bit of camping gear on board. Of course it takes off shorter solo and light on gas but I don't plan to go into anywhere that I need to be that light.
I'm always ready to take pretty much anyone for a flight, I guess I should have offered at the WAD but I was just having fun and didn't think of it. The Patrol isn't a supercub, (that's funny - supercub forum edits supercub to superb but leaves Patrol alone) but for me it did a few things that were important along with being experimental which was very important to me. The heated seats I installed the other day being one small reason why I really like the experimental world.
I have yet to need more than 500 feet of runway. When you're talking about 500' strips, if you mean 500' with clear approaches and departures, the Patrol can do that at any weight if you are comfortable in it, if you mean 500' with trees on each end, nope. I'd be pretty impressed to see a cub do that though. One other thing though, all the bearhawks are designed to their recommended gross weight at utility category standards, since I built mine a bit heavy I set my max weight at 2100 and just make sure I don't exceed standard category loading when over 2000 lb - another advantage of experimental. (2100 allows me, my wife, two 65 lb dogs and 55 gallons of gas plus about a 30 lb buffer)
I hope none of this comes off as argumentative, there seems to be some doubt/cycnism about the capabilities of the Patrol or Bearhawk aircraft so I just thought I would chime in. I have flown each model of Bearhawk except for the Companion so maybe I'm not just making stuff up.
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