Shared a hanger with one for a few weeks, never got to go up in it though.
Really nice plane.

Pretty drab looking.

This is a pretty old thread. I'm not a pilot so did not belong (and still don't) to a forum like this, but I wanted to put in my two cents.

Sherman and Bud Found were my two uncles who started Found Bros. Aviation. My father and other uncle, Grey, were not part of the plane manufacturing. Bud was the designer of the plane.

When my uncle visited me before his death a year or so later, he filled in some of the gaps. Yes, the FBA-2C was a great plane. The Centennial was not and backers like T. Eaton (or his heirs) pulled out the financing and the company collapsed. It was many years later that a group of aviation enthusiasts (like you guys) got together and asked my uncle for permission to use the name Found for the Bush Hawk. He really had little to do with the plane other than okaying the design before sticking his name on it. Not sure if he got some kind of payback for this.

Sherman was a pilot in the Berlin Airlift, flying either for the Brits or Americans as Canada had no planes to supply. He went on to fly for TCA and quit after his plane ran off the runway in London, England, ending up in a cabbage patch. No one hurt, plane heavily damaged.

Bud and Sherman bought up all the Lancasters in Canada, for some reason most of them were in Alberta, scrapped them and sold the parts back to the Air Force for full value, not scrap value. Uncle Bud told me that they made a fortune (the one to fund the FBA-2c) just selling the spark plugs for the Merlin engine. They had thousands of the plugs which my uncle said they were selling back to the government for $30 each. They were platinum plugs.

There's an FBA-2C in the Aviation Museum in Ottawa. My daughter had the pleasure to sit in it after explaining her connection to the Found name and plane (she showed her driver's license), to the curator of the museum. I myself have never seen one.

Bob Found

queenidog wrote:This is a pretty old thread. I'm not a pilot so did not belong (and still don't) to a forum like this, but I wanted to put in my two cents.

Sherman and Bud Found were my two uncles who started Found Bros. Aviation. My father and other uncle, Grey, were not part of the plane manufacturing. Bud was the designer of the plane.

When my uncle visited me before his death a year or so later, he filled in some of the gaps. Yes, the FBA-2C was a great plane. The Centennial was not and backers like T. Eaton (or his heirs) pulled out the financing and the company collapsed. It was many years later that a group of aviation enthusiasts (like you guys) got together and asked my uncle for permission to use the name Found for the Bush Hawk. He really had little to do with the plane other than okaying the design before sticking his name on it. Not sure if he got some kind of payback for this.

Sherman was a pilot in the Berlin Airlift, flying either for the Brits or Americans as Canada had no planes to supply. He went on to fly for TCA and quit after his plane ran off the runway in London, England, ending up in a cabbage patch. No one hurt, plane heavily damaged.

Bud and Sherman bought up all the Lancasters in Canada, for some reason most of them were in Alberta, scrapped them and sold the parts back to the Air Force for full value, not scrap value. Uncle Bud told me that they made a fortune (the one to fund the FBA-2c) just selling the spark plugs for the Merlin engine. They had thousands of the plugs which my uncle said they were selling back to the government for $30 each. They were platinum plugs.

There's an FBA-2C in the Aviation Museum in Ottawa. My daughter had the pleasure to sit in it after explaining her connection to the Found name and plane (she showed her driver's license), to the curator of the museum. I myself have never seen one.

Bob Found

Sir, thank you for this post.

My father flew an original Found on occasion and always spoke highly of them. If I was to win a lottery I'd fill a big hanger with a selection of Canadian aviation marvels, FBA-2C, DH2, Fleet 80, C-64, Vedette 803 to name a few.

wannabe wrote:I got to ride right seat in one from McCall to the Flying B and back with a load of groceries. My biggest concern was the proximity of that damned carry-through spar so close to my head. The owner could not stop extolling the qualities of the plane.

I hated that spar behind (CLOSE behind) front seater's heads.

FWIW, I understand that the Bush Hawk (maybe by a different name) is now being built by a company in New Zealand.....anyone have more information on that?

MTV

I first heard about this years ago, but haven't actually seen a real example flying here in New Zealand yet. I have no firsthand information, but here's a link:
https://www.nzaero.com/aircraft/e-350-expedition

I note all the images on the above link are of North American-registered aircraft, so maybe all the examples sold thus far were directly exported.

Looking at the vital stats of the e350, I wonder what the market is like for such an aircraft these days? Many local operators seem to be buying larger, quieter, turbine aircraft (Caravan, Kodiak, etc).

I had the first one of the newly certified Bush hawks at the time and a second one with the higher Gross and fowler flaps later.

Spend many thousand's of hours on floats and skis tundra tires - loved the plane.

Once we had the VGs and wingtips sorted it was a very good working aircraft. While it does nothing a 206 or 185 can not do it is just a nicer

aircraft to work with, skis and tundra tires in particular are much better than Cessna products due to the solid gear .

A Baby Beaver .

Like everything it had its maintenance issues that we figured out quickly. the big Lycomings are thirsty but there are 2 very large tanks

and a good useful load makes it all work.

I tried to buy the test Aircraft that was recertified after the test-program but missed it by a day.

So interestingly, this video was posted this week - a walk through the company which makes the e350 (Bushhawk successor).

You can see the one currently under production, it sounds like it's destined for North America for pipeline inspection duties.