I had 115 hours the first time I flew my taildragger KR2S, 95 of which were were tri-gear Cessna 172 hours done 12 years earlier. I did about 15 hours in a Champ along with a little Starduster time, and two hours with Troy Petteway in N100TP. The biggest thing that helped me was getting some stick time with Bill Clapp doing landings in a plane just like mine. That's what got me over the hump, but obviously I was a really rusty pilot at the time, so I needed all kinds of help. Bill is probably still up for the challenge of doing the same for others. I'd have done much better in my plane if the airspeed indicator hadn't been inaccurate by 50%! Of course if I'd just done what I preach now (go to 5000' on the first flight and get real close to a stall so you know what your INDICATED airspeed is at stall), I'd have been much better off on that first landing.
Really though, once you get used to it, the KR is easy to land. Like everything else, there are good landings and bad landings, however. Getting there with the proper speed is paramount. For first flights, if you have a long runway, there's no excuse for not just gliding along right above the runway until you bleed off enough speed to gently roll it in (best done on a calm day though). As time goes on, you learn how to turn the bad ones into good ones without even thinking about it. As with all landings, arriving at the right place and speed is vital. That's where the experience comes in...knowing what it's supposed to look like and doing whatever it takes to make it that way if it isn't. I've yet to think that I was going to ground loop mine, but the thought crossed my mind once when I tried to take a taxi-way turnoff at about 30 mph once. I made it, but now I'm a little smarter. Troy Petteway has flown just about every taildragger made, and he swears the KR is the easiest. I've only flown a few, but from my standpoint, it does seem awfully easy. I did some adjusting on my tailwheel cables yesterday, removing all slack, and I have no springs. The tailwheel and rudder are basically locked together (except it's a breakaway tailwheel), but I only have 32 pounds on the tailwheel with no pilot anyway. This is really the ticket to having total control. I feel a lot more in tune with it now than I did with slack in the cables. Now it does exactly what I tell it to do. Just to check things out, I've done about 25 more landings in the last three days. I flew on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I can vouch for what Larry says, it's a drug that's hard to shake. Today I kept announcing "Experimental 56ML on final for 7, full stop", but about 8 times in a row I'd land right on the end of the runway and have so much of that 2600' runway left that I just had to turn it into a touch and go and do it again. The only thing that made me stop was the last one was right on the edge of "civil twilight", 30 minutes after sunset, and I don't have strobes or nav lights... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
