KRnetHeads, Keep in mind that as of sunset yesterday, I felt ready to fly my plane. So this morning I went out to get some MORE practice, and had 20 high speed runs in before the FBO opened at 8AM. I guess I'm crazy, but I was giving it full throttle, tail came up in 20-30 feet, then I'd back off to maybe 2000 rpm for a few seconds, and then to idle and coast tail up most of the way down the runway, with the goal of dropping the tail with a thousand feet of runway left so I wouldn't need to touch the brakes at the end. If it looked like I was a little short of making the 1000' marker, I'd add a little power to get me there. Whoever came up with that one was right on the mark. It's just like a takeoff, and just like a landing, one each for every run, and a little fun in between. I am tracking the centerline pretty well, and have gotten to the point of thinking "is that all ya got? That's all there is to it?". These are probably famous last words, but I feel like I have complete control over the airplane on the ground, but I also have more than 75 taxi runs under my belt, so that shouldn't be a surprise. It's kind of funny...late Monday I was thinking "I shoulda built a tri-gear", but today I'm thinking "I'm a better pilot". Of course the winds have been fairly calm too, and I should probably find some wood to knock on.
One thing I can say already about those big flaps is that regardless of whether or not they do anything in the air, they add at least 2000' to this 5000' runway. It makes a huge difference in ground roll with them down. If I start thinking I'm too close to the end, I'll drop them and it really starts slowing down, and it's amazing how much slower I can go with the tail up with the flaps down. It's kind of cool how I can just let it coast and keep moving the stick further and further foward til I hit the stop, and then the tail slowly drops. This happens at maybe 20-25 mph, so it's entirely controllable. The tail dropping happens closer to 35 mph with no flaps. I could ground loop the thing at that speed and just laugh about it! Funny thing is that I haven't come anywhere close to a ground loop so far. The neat thing about going out early (or staying late) is that I could "back taxi" doing the same routine, and there was nobody around to care. Bottom line is it takes maybe a minute and a half to do a run, and then do a U-turn and make another one. I announced them all on the radio though, so there would be no surprises. After the morning runs I went through the controls and tightened everything up again (the rudder had loosened due to me pushing on both pedals at the same time), and went home to get my floor jack so I could check the wheel bearings. While I was home I got a call from the "director" to tell me the world was basically on fire and I needed to be there pronto to help put it out. I just left work, so things are a little hectic. So there will be a little delay in the first flight, but I'm ready for it... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net --------------------------------------------------------------
