Right you are Stephen. Now the model and the real banana will not
necessarily react the same but the idea is right. My experience with control
flutter was always a result of something not being properly adjusted at the
plant and "most" of the time I managed to keep it under control and limp
back for repairs. The military is very sticky with regards to production
control and that is why they tend to keep their own pilots at production
facilities to fly each and every bird and turn her inside out to see if it
breaks prior to acceptance. They would rather have their test pilots bust
her up than have something go wrong at a most inopportune time or with a
relatively new pilot at the controls.
I myself prefer to build them strong and opt for a bigger engine if
required. It would be interesting to check the weights of those KR's flying
along with their flight characteristics. I would venture to say that those
with the higher weights the ones that handle the best. I believe the rather
squirrelly behavior of the earlier models was due to lighter wing loading
rather than a design problem. One has to keep in mind that Ken designed the
little bird to be built on the cheap which sometimes can contribute to poor
flight characteristics.
Doug
