Just a few more whacks at this horse to make absolutely sure it's a dead one. Sorry, but I was out flying all day. I'll probably be drummed out of " KRdum" for this one, but I suspect a 75% elevator would be just fine on something resembling a KR. On my horizontal/elevator webpage, I wrote "In an effort to tame some of the pitch sensitivity, a made my horizontal stabilizer 6 inches longer on each side, but adjusted the elevator area to remain about the same as the plans call for. Increasing the horizontal stabilizer area was an effort to increase the horizontal tail volume coefficient."
This has worked out fine, but was written before I actually flew the thing. The reality is that the only time mine even sees HALF of full elevator stick movement is when I do the "stick movement free" test during the runup checklist. [People that know me are cackling by now, but that is something I usually make a point of doing right before I take off, because cameras, laptops, and other junk have been known to fall down the passenger's stick hole and make things difficult.] I guess I need to put some kind of feedback recording device (a ruler) on the stick and find out what kind of stick movement I have on it during a full stall, but it's nowhere near full back stick, and I'll bet forward (down) stick deflection never exceeds a half inch, and that would be a mind-bending dive to impress somebody with a 230 mph flyby. A ONE inch deflection would be an invitation to slam the laptop and camera into the bottom of the canopy as I start going very negative in the gravity department. I guess I should point out that my aileron control system is totally different from other KRs, but the elevator part is effectively identical. As for putting various holes in the bellcrank for adjustability, that fine...I did that too. But I haven't seen the need to move it from where I started...right in the middle....just about like the plans called for. I'm told that the early Glasair folks tried the longer stick and came to the realization that the longer stick meant that yes, you had to move it further to effect a given attitude change, but the downside was that the stick forces declined correspondingly, so it was even easier to overcontrol the plane. Just keep it short and out of the way. I think the reality is that however the plane is set up, if you follow Larry's advice and simply look out the window and adjust the airplane accordingly, you'll do just fine. Likewise, people do a lot of fretting over the prop turning the "wrong" way. Forget that stuff....you just do the same thing you'd do in ANY plane if it starts drifting off to the right on takeoff....give it LEFT rudder! As long as you are expecting to fly when you go down the runway at 50mph or higher, and realize that you don't want to go hauling back on the stick and then jam it forward after it does what you asked of it, you'll be fine. Run it up to 60 mph (you did check your airspeed indicator before first flight, right?), and if it doesn't fly away by itelf, wait a little longer if you have the runway, and maybe then give it a little back stick until it does. The KR is a great flying plane, period. I find it humorous that bizjet pilots drool over my ugly KR...they don't even have to fly it to KNOW it's more fun than they have in their day job. But it's all in what you're used to. I flew a Cessna 170 for my BFR a few months ago, and I'm sure the instructor thought I was an idiot because I couldn't seem to turn the thing on initial climbout.....I just couldn't bring myself to crank the wheel far enough to make it do that! I got over that shortly and everything worked out, but you have to expect light controls on the KR and be careful not to overcontrol it on the first flight. After five minutes you'll have it figured out. Spend an hour flying around getting used to it, do a stall or two to find out what the nose attitude looks like right before it breaks, practice landings at 3000' AGL, and find a long runway to bleed off speed over while you glide a few feet over it. When it's done flying, it'll land just fine. First flight should be early on a totally calm day. Anything else stacks the odds against you. Once past that first flight, you are almost home free. As mentioned by others, it's not the plane that's going to screw up...it's going to be you. I think a lot of landing problems are that people try to land them too fast. In windy or gusty conditions that's an invitation for disaster because of the relatively light wing loading. Bouncing around at high speed right above the runway is going to lead to controllability problems, especially when you start bouncing off the runway. At that point it's full throttle and go-around time, and come in slower next time around. I wish I'd had that thought in my head on my first landing! And keep in mind that a go-around doesn't involve stuffing the throttle in at light speed...make it gradual (spread out over a second or so) so the engine doesn't quit. Having said that, it's still a great idea to get an hour or two of stick time with an experienced KR pilot the week before you fly your KR for the first time. I think if you're signed off and ready to fly "right now" and post a plea for stick time on KRnet, somebody will show up to make sure you get it. I hope this helps. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do have 967 hours on my taildragger KR2S, along with over 2200 landings, and haven't experienced so much as a near-ground loop. I'll have to confess to killing a runway light or two, but those weren't the plane's fault.. Today I added another four hours flying down to my father's farm and back, picking up and depositing my brother along the way. I landed on the 3600' grass strip in the middle of the photo at http://www.n56ml.com/flights/101017-050m2.jpg , and used less than half of it. I also added another sunset photo from Wednesday night to the top of http://www.n56ml.com/sunsets/ ... Mark Langford N56ML "at" hiwaay.net website at http://www.N56ML.com --------------------------------------------------------
