Merry Christmas Everyone, I do hope that all of you and your families are having a safe, healthy, and restful holiday season. I hope that joy and peace are with you and yours.
I've have gotten a thorough education on the need and necessity of trailering an experimental plane to its' new home base. I've also gotten great recommendations on HOW it should be done. For all newbies who are thinking of trailering their planes home, I'm posting the excellent reply that Sid Wood sent to me off the list. He has included some precautions that should be heeded by anyone who is inexperienced in trailering a KR airplane or any composite craft over long distances over rough roads. His reply is as follows: Tom, About 15 years ago Jeannette Rand and I did an investigation regarding a retract-gear KR-2 that had been trailered from the Seattle area to Alaska on the ALCAN highway by the buyer. The previous owner had checked out the new owner during several left-seat flights at Seattle. An independent A&P had checked the aircraft on a pre-sale inspection - no gripes. The new owner had removed and securely crated the wings. The box was strapped on the trailer. No problem with that. The fuselage on the gear was placed on the flat bed trailer and secured with 2-inch nylon cargo ratchets running over a single 3/8 inch bolt at the stub wing attach brackets on each side. The tail wheel was secured at the spring with another 2-inch cargo ratchet wrapped around the spring. The new owner stated that the landing gear was deflected "one or two inches" and felt that was firm enough to prevent shifting. After arriving with the KR-2 on the trailer at home in Alaska, several cracks were noticed on the exterior skin at the lower left firewall. Closer inspection revealed cracks all around the plywood fire wall. The VW engine, prop, mount and firewall were making early preparations to depart the aircraft as a unit. So what caused this sad situation? The problem with the rig was: A 600 pound KR-2 was hard mounted at the main spar on a tandem-axel flat bed trailer rated for 6,000 pounds. Then it was run over hundreds of miles of gravel roads through Canada and Alaska at about 60 mph. The stiff trailer springs and its rock-hard tires had put who knows how many hard landings on that defenseless KR-2. Moral of the story: If you are going to trailer your KR, let the little Lamb tires and spring gear do their job. Secure the fully inflated KR tires with the right sized tire straps. Use a light weight trailer appropriate for the job. No one needs to set land speed records with a KR. Regards, Sid Wood KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD sidney.w...@titan.com Hard mounting an airplane is an easy mistake to make, but one that we should avoid at all costs. Thanks Sid for your reply. You may just have saved some lives! Thomas Brock Aniak, Alaska
