http://m.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/epp ... heater.php

Protect the engine! Doesn't take much space and burns pretty much anything you can put in it.

Great pics and looks like a great time. I for one would love to see a few hunting pics. Have you got any shots of your stags?

Fraser Farmer wrote:Great pics and looks like a great time. I for one would love to see a few hunting pics. Have you got any shots of your stags?

Thanks for asking - viewer discretion is advised for those who may not enjoy hunting.

Here's a nice old Red Deer stag, this guy was a real bull of an animal.


Here is that same head back at the plane, along with my buddy's one. The BH has a big cargo area especially with the rear seat removed, but making those two heads and all our gear fit was a squeeze!

Beautiful animals and beautiful country. No doubt those were a tight fit in the plane. I know we've had to split a few racks up the middle of the shield to get them to fit places.
This is exactly what I'm hoping to do with the 180 floatplane next fall.

Beautiful Red Deer, thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys!

Here's a few shots of NJB on the local riverbeds around my home airport.

We've had a lot of rain lately, and I was surprised to find the riverbeds in good order without a lot of driftwood obstructing the gravel. I spied a good space to land a long way up a small tributary, further up steam than I have been able to land before. This spot was a one-way landing, unless you wanted to fly in between trees in a very tight river bend to escape. As you can see from the tall trees in the photo.

The bar was probably about 100m long, but I got slowed to walking pace within about 60m despite landing 10m deeper than I wanted and having a 5kt tailwind. I put that short ground roll down to the early flare and very "firm" landing, oops! At least I was going slow and stopped quickly. The new tires are very good at soaking up a big impact.

At the end of the one-way landing place.


Not a bad surface at this end, much worse at the far end.


The impact crater... lol. At least the big tires and Bearhawk L/G are forgiving - no bounce and no stones thrown into the tail (this time)!


You can see the tall trees at the sharp bend in the river. It wasn't quite one-way, but I wanted to avoid that go-around if possible - even if I had to run into shallow water during the last few metres of roll-out.

Another backcountry spot, fit for bushwheels!

This place is definitely one-way, about 230m long straight into trees, and slightly uphill. Here, you can only make the decision to go-around before the bushwheels touch the ground and slow the plane, and even then it's a hard right turn flying between trees. It's not an easy place to practice, and not place you want to land with a tailwind. This is particularly true when you're hauling a big load (note the cargo area is filled to the top). My copilot was off collecting two deer's worth of venison at the time I took this photo - more weight to load aboard. We needed all the room we had available to get out of this spot again. A lowish air pressure and very hot spring day gave us ~4000ft DA, which is comparatively high for a strip near sea level, and considerable given the amount of space available. We noticed the difference.

Awesome pictures! I'm jealous, your pictures are great motivation!

A great looking Bearhawk in an amazing area!

A few photos from summer, more to follow later...

The three and a half hour flight south with the family - they are clearly thrilled to be flying in the Bearhawk (this at 13,000ft so not much happening out the window except clouds).


Here's my brother acting like a jackass, we were up there hunting wild hares.




This is my uncle, I took him on his first light aircraft joyride since he flew with my father 20 years ago. We landed by the river for a 'comfort stop'.

Beautiful country! Great to see someone flying like its meant to be in another part of the world.

Great photos, great hunt, great writeup. Thanks Jonathan.

A month ago, a fellow member of the Recreational Backcountry Pilot's Association (of NZ), Tony, went for a local familiarisation flight. I was helping provide an introduction to a challenging local airstrip, before Tony ventured up there himself. It was a really nice day for flying, and we had good fun walking the airstrip and talking aviation.

When we departed, I did the take-off at 60% power to simulate the performance of Tony's aircraft. It was no problem getting airborne with 150hp, but I prefer the extra power of the Bearhawk for added safety margin!

Here's Tony and the Bearhawk.


We also stopped at an 80m (250ft) gravel bar on the way home, but I forgot to take a photo on the ground. The wind was not favourable, so the landing was fairly harsh / hard!

Edit: 2019, I ran into Tony and he confirmed that he finally had landed his 150hp Jodel into this airstrip. Good on ya.

Here's a few photos from our annual backcountry pilot's meeting in Blenheim, NZ. After the STOL flying event, the big tire guys teamed up to go and batter the riverbed stones with rubber.

We started our with a mixed group of different aircraft. The river is braided and fairly rocky. Some spots were only big enough for the Super Cubs / Bearhawk.


Other places we were able to land with the 185 too, although there was some waterskiing involved! I've got some videos I should post later.


We flew up into the mountains after the riverbed, before the afternoon winds blew up too strong to land comfortably.


We stopped for morning tea at a good friend's place, they put on an amazing outdoor spread under a big shady tree. Lovely! We basically have to land across his driveway, it's quite a neat little spot.


For the early part of the afternoon we went back to the riverbed, some guys had to return home because of low fuel. The heat of the day had lifted the DA up to about 3,500ft (at sea level), so performance was dropping sharply and decision making became important. I didn't think to take any photos from that session...

Is that Willies place Jono?

ButchNZ wrote:Is that Willies place Jono?

Sure is

Here's a quick report from the summer. On this mission we dropped my brother and his friend off for a three day climb over a notorious high mountain pass. We followed them up for the first day's walking, then returned to the plane before dark to get home.

I am always nervous about leaving the plane unattended! Tied down is always the go. Note the long summer grass is almost 30" tall, makes the runway hard to see at times.


Scenery - this is Mt Pollux.


Lake Crucible


Back at the aeroplane.

Have you had any trouble with the Keas messing with the plane?

North River wrote:Have you had any trouble with the Keas messing with the plane?

Na, they've never even come close. They they don't seem interested in it at all.
They learn bad habits in places where people feed them, like car parks, huts, and ski fields. Elsewhere they are generally well behaved.

A few shots from another hunting trip - I will spare you the dead deer photos! We found four red deer about 600m from where we shut the engine down..! Good hunting.

Tied down as always - the deer can wait until the plane is secure!


My friend George did all the stalking!


Loading the gear and venison back into the plane, just in time to fly home before dark. Here's the wife and I.


Ahhh - summer holidays!

Looks awesome on Bushwheels Battson!

I always enjoy your photos and TRs. NZ is on my list.


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