Before pancake breakfast at the SAC ( Sport Aviation Center ) I went out for "Dawn" patrol and a few "touch-and-gos". After 1 very nice approach and 1 very good touch and go, I decided that it was time to land for pancakes. I thought I had the landing set up perfectly and was just holding attitude for the KR to settle on to the runway. I must have mis-judged my airspeed, kind of hard to watch it when in landing mode, and the bottom dropped out enough to cause a bounce. So, I lowered the nose thinking again that I had it made and the bottom dropped out for the second bounce. 2 bounces are my limit, so I quickly applied power for a go-around and ..... silence......
Visions of others having reported "porpoising" crashes started flashing before my eyes. NO..., if I go in, I go in flying and pushed the stick forward, only to continue the cycle of bounce, nose high, push forward, till finally the KR stayed on the runway only to take off to the left and end up in the grass. Sliding all over the place, I see a runway light in my path, so applied as much right rudder and brake as I could, to get back on the runway. I finally came to a full stop, can't remember if I had made the runway or was still in the grass. So I tried to start the engine and it came to life immediately. I proceeded to taxi back to the hangar, flipped the speed brake switch up, and the brake did not come up. I am now having visions of a large hole in the bottom of my fuselage due to whatever had damaged the speed brake servo, and possibly severe damage to the gear and possibly the spar due to slamming it so many times on the runway. So, I pushed the plane into the hangar and went into the SAC to eat pancakes. After pancakes, I reluctantly went back to the hangar to access the damage. The underside of the fuselage appeared to be intact and after a quick inspection of the gear, it seemed that I had only damaged the wheel pants, AGAIN! I took the back of the seat out and found that the control module for the speed brake servo had popped out of the socket and was laying on the floor. I replaced it, and the servo worked perfectly. Now I carefully inspected the gear and see that there was a large cracking of the upper fairing. And looking on the top of the wing, there was a bit of a bump just above where the gear bracket is attached. So I was very concerned that there might be damage to the spar and had to find out before I fly again. I cut a hole in the wing, in the front and back of the spar to get a good look inside. So far, I see no damage to the spar, but will look much closer tomorrow. I'll bet you are wondering why this really great Corvair engine that I have, quit on me like that. It was nothing but pilot error. I always run the engine as lean as possible due to the high lead content of 100LL, which I always use, and when approaching landing, I always push it a little more rich. Well, I did not push it enough rich and when I quickly applied power, the engine could not run with so little fuel for all that air and stopped suddenly. You know the moral of this story, but I will repeat it for anyone who may be tempted to do what I did, or rather, did not do. On approach to landing, be sure that your mixture control is on its optimum rich setting. I promise to always put my fuel selector on the most full tank ( a lesson learned from a previous adventure) and to push my mixture to the most rich position when approaching a landing. I promise. This KR is one tough bird!!! See N64KR at <http://krbuilder.org/> http://KRBuilder.org - Then click on the pics See you Oct. 4 and 5, 2013 - KR Gathering in Mt. Vernon, Il - MVN Daniel R. Heath - Lexington, SC
