Well, I was told that my first landing would be perfect and then it would be 30 hours before I had another good one. I guess I lucked out because my first three were pretty good. Today I did more "bounce" and goes than when I was a student pilot. I will pass along my embarassing landings so that hopefully someone else will not make the same mistake.
My previous three flights all had landings that came in on a runway that has about 1,000' of grass between the airport fence and the start of the runway. I was able to get low and slow over the fence as soon as a landing on the airport was assured and keep in some power to get me to the runway. This gave me a nice slow stable approach and I was able to chop the power and get my wheels down right at the start of the runway. Today the wind was in the opposite direction and I had the proverbial 50' trees that were 100' of the end of the runway. Even with a good headwind the best I could hope for was getting in a flare a few hundred feet down the runway and then floating another hundred feet or two. I botched the first one and came in to fast and decided to go around when it was apparent that I would be half way down the runway before I touched down. In a Cherokee it wouldn't be any problem, but in the KR I like a lot of stopping distance since I can't start braking until the tailwheel is down and the plane is definitely done flying and then I need a good distance after that since the brakes are not that effective. On the second one I was doing O.K. until the tower told me that there was a Mooney close behind me and I would need to exit the runway immediately after landing. I pulled the plug early and told them I would go around because I wouldn't be able to turn off fast and I didn't want a Mooney up my butt. I know that it was my runway and I could have made the Mooney go around, but the tower has been real patient with my taxii testing and first flights so I figured I would be accomodating this time. The third and fourth attempt were where I learned a lesson. I had been doing my landings per Jim Faughn's excellent write up on landings and raising the tailwheel right after touchdown, but on these I attempted full stall three pointers. I held the plane off as long as possible and touched down in a three pointer like I had done before, but I did a better job of holding it six inches off today and was probably only 40-45 mph when I touched down. I figured that at that speed the plane was done flying and I would be able to keep the tail down and start to brake sooner so I didn't raise the tail. I made a 1' bounce and figured no big deal I am way under stall speed now and it will come back down and stick. Wrong, the second bounce was three feet and more nose up than I care to be that close to the ground. Good news is that full power in a KR will bring you off the top of a three foot bounce at an airspeed so slow it barely registers on the ASI without any loss of altitude from the top of the bounce. Proof that a KR will fly in ground effect at speeds that you would never imagine possible and the moral to my story: Get the tail back off the ground right after you touch down and don't get lazy and put it down until you can't hold it up any more. You FLY a KR long after you are on the runway.
