Do you need Bearhawk Flight Training?
If you have your own flying Bearhawk and need an instructor, that’s easy to fix- just hire your favorite local instructor.
If you are planning to fly a Bearhawk solo but have never flown one before and don’t have access to one, that’s not so easy to fix. One solution is to find a flying Bearhawk and ride along with its regular pilot, sort of an unofficial transition training. This can work if you can find a willing Bearhawk owner and if your insurance company doesn’t require any flight time logged as instruction received.
On the other hand, if your insurance company requires that you have dual time in a Bearhawk, or an official transition training program administered by a flight instructor, that is the hardest problem to fix. The regulations prohibit a Bearhawk owner/instructor from providing instruction in his own Bearhawk, because this would require him to use his airplane for a purpose other than his own recreation end education. The FAA has authorized me to deviate from that restriction, as long as I comply with all of the requirements that they have specified in the LODA.
To summarize those requirements, the transition program is structured with ground and flight lessons, and lists student prerequisites including at least a Private Pilot certificate with a SEL rating and a tailwheel endorsement. The intent is that the student will enter the program as a current and proficient tailwheel pilot who just needs to learn the Bearhawk-specific skills. The intent is not to re-train a student who has not flown since he started building, or to teach tailwheel skills to a pilot who has not flown one before. The authorization includes a provision for using the training to meet the requirements of a flight review also (subject to a few more requirements) but the intent is to give a flight review to a current pilot who happens to be due for one, not to bring a non-current pilot up to flight review standards.
The hourly rate for this training is $225, which includes the airplane and instructor. For more information, contact Jared Yates at 828-308-1543 or email bhflighttraining@gmail.com.