In doing a thorough inspection (annual) on a single-seat KR with about 1000 hours on it, I came across a truly scary situation. The aluminum seat bottom had pulled the heads completely off of the attachment screws securing the front of the seat bottom to the spar. The seat bottom was hanging by two remaining screws - one on each side. The aluminum lip which folds over the spar had been stretched and pulled completely away from the underlying wood and was hanging only from the two most inward screws, one per side. On the cockpit entry (left) side there is a three-inch tear at the crease and on the other there is visible stretching. One good solid mountain thump and the weight of the pilot would have snapped off the remaining screw heads and this weight would have come down on the elevator cables, either pulling out the control hardware in the tail or jamming the cables.
This extremely dangerous situation with the seat bottom has existed for quite some time, judging by the elongated holes in the aluminum and other wear signs. During that time the plane has gone through a number of "annuals." It was only due to a great amount of luck and conservative flying (no high-speed passes with high-G pullouts, etc.) that the remaining two screws have not given way. As many long-time KR people know, a number of KR's and people have been lost (and almost lost) to seat failures over the years. This KR was clearly next in line on that list. Check your seat attach points! It is apparently something easy to overlook when doing inspections. Ken's original KR had a sidestick with side-routed cables - a really excellent design/safety feature in my opinion. Mike
