Today, I was flying my third flight and I had been up for about 45 minutes just leisurely flying around getting to know my KR. I was really having one of those YeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa moments, as it was as smooth as glass up there. I was having the time of my life. Then, all of a sudden, over the radio, I hear this voice say "Mark, look over your left shoulder". I did, and there was Joe Weber in his KR sitting off my left wing tip. What a beautiful sight. Joe had heard me reporting my positions as I was test flying close to Hartford airport. Knowing where I was, he decided to sneak up behind me. What a blast we had flying loose formation with each other. I really enjoyed it when he was out front and I was following him. Kind of made me feel like a fighter pilot. Any how, Joe had been on my left wing tip for only a few minutes when all of a sudden something hit my prop. I immediately radioed Joe and told him I had a bird strike. He acknowledged that he had seen something and I immediately turned to the airport. Joe in turned pulled up beside me to check for damage on my stabilizers. He reported to me all looked ok. I could not detect any abnormalities either in flight characteristics or engine performance. Landing back at the airport was normal. Upon exiting the plane and checking it over, I found no indication of a bird, such as feathers or blood but I did find the front part of my spinner was gone. The spinner had separated from the aircraft and struck the prop being thrown up and over the top of my plane. It did absolutely no damage except for a small scratch on the prop. The contributing factor to this event was the lack of a front bulkhead spinner. Do not fly without one. I am just waiting on some farmer to show up on the news tonight with this strange looking piece of alien spaceship that fell in his field. After that bit of excitement, Joe and I then went to the local restaurant and Joe bought me lunch. I now owe him one. When we got back to the airport we went flying again and he took air to air photos of my plane. What a YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA day.............I now have 3.6 total KR flight hours.
Mark Jones (N886MJ...FIRST FLIGHT made 3-20-2005) Wales, WI USA E-mail me at flyk...@wi.rr.com Visit my KR-2S CorvAIRCRAFT web site at http://mywebpage.netscape.com/n886mj/homepage.html
