Brian, Thank you for that story. I try as hard as I can to emphasize that to new KR flyers, but maybe you really can't get it in your head until you decide to try it the other way. Bob Muse Sr. is the one who told me to raise the tail, and I did that, but got a little impatient once and thought, as you did, that I could bring the tail down. NO NO NO, you cannot "bring" the tail down. Do not allow the tail to come down until you cannot keep it up any longer. My mistake ended in a ground loop. No serious damage, but that convinced me.
Why do we have to learn the hard way? N64KR Daniel R. Heath - Columbia, SC da...@kr-builder.org See you in Mt. Vernon - 2004 - KR Gathering See our KR at http://KR-Builder.org - Click on the pic See our EAA Chapter 242 at http://EAA242.org -------Original Message------- From: eng...@earthlink.net; KR builders and pilots List-Post: krnet@list.krnet.org Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 12:09:03 AM To: KRNET Subject: KR>How not to land a KR 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. _______________________________________________ see KRnet list details at http://www.krnet.org/instructions.html .
