>>From your other email - I've seen my life flash before my eyes so many >times it's like watching re-runs on T.V. > >Gulp!! - are you fast, good or just lucky - please say more. >Steve J +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have nearly 1000 flight hours over the last 30 years but I only had 13 hours total tailwheel time for that same period when I started taxi testing the KR. Being a low time tailwheel pilot and teaching myself to fly the KR makes each takeoff and landing a new and exciting adventure. I'm probably premature with the full life re-runs but it's hard to think straight when your pucker muscles are clinched as tight as a boxer's fist! Actually I'm having a great time. I did get my first "bounced" landing today and as Jim Faughn would describe it, it was a "big" bounce. I flared and held it a bit high and with the speed brake full out it doesn't float very far. It settled in from about 2 feet high with the same feeling you get in an elevator that starts down. WHOMP and I'm two or three feet back in the air! Without hesitating I came in with full power, kicked the speed brake switch to the up position and did a go-around. I had a 6000 foot runway (Mt.Vernon) so I held it in ground effect until the brake was full up. I managed to do a much better job the next time around. I figure that by the time I get my 40 hours flown off I should start to feel comfortable with the tailwheel. For those of you that have little if any tailwheel time, and don't want to go through the learning curve, I for one would not think less of you as a pilot for putting the third wheel up front. I've wanted to learn to fly a tailwheel since my first airplane ride in a C-140 fourty years ago flying out of a little grass strip so I going to learn to do it even if it bites me. Good or just lucky? I'm not sure. Sometimes good judgement wears the mask of good luck. I try to do the best I can and hope for a little good luck too. Larry Flesner
