I had a conversation today with Ken Cottle, builder of my KR-1?. I was wondering about the early history of Jim's engine which Mark has had such unfortunate experiences with.
Back in the mid-80's when these planes were built, Jim and Ken were all over the place with them. They flew to Oshkosh together twice and whatever other fly-ins caught their fancy. Their planes (at least Ken's - don't know about Faughn's) won various awards and they had flour bombing contests - mine still had the release mechanisms attached to the drag flap and couldn't figure out what they were until I asked Ken about it. He figured Steve Bennet had taken them off a long time ago - but no . . . Steve didn't do anything at all to improve this airplane - he let it go to hell if the truth be told - but he put a really great engine in it and I can sure live with that. But Jim's engine has turned out to be not so great. So I called Ken today and asked him where it came from. Did it come from Great Plains? Back in that era Faughn was working as an administrator at a trade school (Ken couldn't remember the name) in St. Louis. Ken lived and still lives in Columbia, MO not far away. Jim built the airframe and assigned the building of the engine to the trade school shop class. They apparently didn't do a very good job since Jim had to do valve and head work early on with that engine. Having to repair the engine so frequently is perhaps partially responsible for Jim going from airplanes to boats. He did fly it to the fly-ins and Gatherings and wrote his well-known treatise on landing a KR. I think Jim also wrote the Sanding Song so many have sung. But he and wife bought or built a boat and spent several years sailing the Bahamas and Keys. I remember reading of their plans to work their way around the world. . . but life intervened and Jim has disappeared (not completely I'm sure) into the netherlands of Florida. During the years they were sailing the plane just sat. Eventually, Jim took it to Omaha to sit for a few more years. Steve needed a place-holder plane in order to keep his hangar at MLE which he used and needed as part of his business. So that plane sat some more, tail down as taildraggers do, until Mark came along and bought it. I've got a theory that taildraggers need to be propped up so the engines sit level if they are going to sit for any length of time. It keeps the oil from pooling to the rear. Keeps the cam and front crankshaft bearings bathed in oil. It's just a theory I've come up with so no hard data here but it just makes sense to me. Consequently I have always kept N335KC with an office chair with a couple pillows on it stuck underneath the aft fuselage so the plane sits level in its hangar. It also relieves the tailwheel spring although I've no idea if this is of any significance. Initially I did that because it made the engine and cockpit easier to work on. You can set something down and it doesn't roll off if the tail is propped up, for one thing. Some wise old A&P person came along one day and complimented me on my wisdom in doing that. He assumed I was doing it for the benefit of the engine . . . so that's when I realized it might be a smart idea to keep an engine level if it's going to sit unused for an extended period. So it's not my theory at all I must admit. I was smart enough to recognize something that made sense though. Faughn's plane sat with tail down for many years, engine never or seldom run. That engine started as a shop project done by people learning a trade and after a brief but very active period was left dormant and neglected. It's not a mystery that this engine had problems as soon as Langford brought it back to life. And it's not a mystery where it came from. Ken originally built a HAPI 1835 in N335KC and Jim got his as a shop project at the school where he worked. Ken said he has almost 500 trouble-free hours on his GP 2300 that he's got in Sam Bailey's KR-1 (of three that Sam built). The VW needs some basic care and needs to be built with quality components. When this is done, and when they are run with temperature limitations in mind, these chuggers will run forever. That's really an appropriate term for these engines I was reminded on this trip, beating against mild headwinds on my 8 hour journey from KSEE to MMV and watching the sun rise in the east. What gorgeous vistas these fiberglass and wood contraptions are capable of giving us . . . but anyway, as I was sailing along at 12.5 with my cannula in my nose I again took note of the comforting monotony of the chugging sound the VW makes as it does its work. As a teen-ager growing up in Alaska I worked on fishing boats in the summers and sitting at the wheel for hours on end with only the sound of an engine steadily chugging along is a familiar and comforting sound. My GP 2180 feels and sounds really happy at 3000 RPM just chugging along not missing a beat, consuming three and a half gallons an hour at that altitude. It's a darn shame Jim's plane wound up in Mark's garage instead of chugging to the Gathering this year but despite Mark's attentions, that engine didn't get put together right in the first place. Stock VW valves are built in two pieces for reasons that perhaps make sense when used in cars. They weld the stems to the heads and finish them to look like one piece but they're not . . . and when used in an aircraft application that weld can eventually come apart. Good Manley valves are not expensive but back in the early days people didn't know - at least a lot of people didn't know - how to build a good VW engine. HAPI's had flywheel issues and anything with stock VW valves had issues and people who pumped up a little VW without accounting for heat had issues. Everybody was learning what worked and what didn't. Steve Bennett and Joe Horvath did a good job of learning how to build and operate a VW engine in an aircraft. Faughn's plane just needs the engine in it that it never had. I'm sure in due course it will get one. Mike KMMV ____________________________________________________________ Want to place your ad here? Advertise on United Online http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/55eaa4fdad0a924fd1ae1st03vuc
