Aside from bringing my plane to the airport, I had a doubly good weekend by getting a ride in another KR. Here are my first KR flight impressions.
Conditions Empty weight 526 pounds Fuel (appx) 66 pounds Pilot and passenger 344 pounds Total weight 936 pounds Temperature (appx) 90 degrees Weather sunny with scattered clouds at 1,500' Engine He said it was the next size smaller than my 2180 VW, I think that is 1936cc or somewhere thereabouts? My experience About 150 hours total, about 4 in a Citabria and the rest about 50/50 in Warriors and 150/152s My comments on takeoff and landing would not be accurate for most KRs because this one had a tailwheel problem and I did not do the takeoff or landing. Climbout was performed by the owner of the KR. He didn't have a VSI and only had a one hand altimiter so I really don't know how fast we were climbing, but I would guestimate it at about 500' per minute at around 100 mph. That was pretty impressive since we were near gross weight. After all I have read about pitch sensitivity I was really expecting to have my hands full, but I took the controls at 1,000' and had absolutely no problems controlling the plane. I did about three oscillations worth of porpoising, then I just stopped moving the stick and it straightened right out. I don't thing the KR has a tendency to porpoise, I think people have a tendency to fight it and overcontrol instead of just letting the plane settle down. Other than that one brief instant, pitch control seemed fine, and this was a KR with a very short stick. Aileron and rudder control were a little more responsive than other planes I have flown, but they felt perfectly fine. All in all, this highly loaded KR was no harder to fly than a 152 or a Cherokee and it wasn't even an S. I have a feeling that the horror stories you hear about pitch sensitivity come from people who have their C.G. too far aft. It just really wasn't an issue on my flight. The plane was well manared and a delight to fly. The owner of the plane did the approach and landing. He turned base just after passing the end of the runway and we landed right near the threshold with no flaps, no speed brake, and no slip. There didn't seem to be any tendency to float at all on the landing. It would probably be different with only one person in the plane. We flew final at 70 mph and he said that was about 10 faster than he does by himself. Other people have told me that if I get some tailwheel training I should have no problems doing the test flight myself even with my lack of experience in something similar to a KR. I finally believe that.
