Forgive me kr and Corvair netters for I have sinned. I have been seduced by the Goddess of Grumman who tempted me with a beautiful AA-1B which had a recent paint job (spring 2010) and new glass but a wounded wing. The previous owner made a downwind landing on a 1400' grass strip and the wing hit a pole. Mostly skin and rib damage, no spar damage. In 2006 the tired old Lycoming O-235 was replaced with a newly overhauled O-320 and at present has only 68 hours on it since major. The Goddess told me I could buy the airplane for 14K and for another 3-4K I could be flying. She lied-- I'm presently at about 21K and still haven't flown. I brought it home on Oct 26th and started working on it under the supervision of an A&P/AI. Together we did a very thorough annual, and repaired the wing. Last Saturday I thought all was done and time to start testing so out to the runway for a runup and static RPM check. A previous static check yielded 2300 RPM but now all I'm showing is 2000 RPM. Further testing shows the tachometer to be off but I think we still have some troubleshooting to do to get the engine running just right. Tachometer is back ordered so it may be a couple more weeks before I can do any more.
What does this mean for the KR. Well I know what happens to most experimentals when the builder gets lured into a spam can and I can't promise that it won't happen to my KR but I hope that I will continue to work on it . Right now the KR has had the wings removed and was moved to the basement but that is because of another problem I had a few days ago. A pipe (CPVC) froze and busted in my attic so I have had drywall workers in the hangar for about a week. I sent the Grumman to a neighbors hangar and the KR to the basement. Between the Grumman, water damage and the tax man I got in a squeeze for cash so I sold my Corvair engine. Roy had it at the time so I called him and made a quick sale. I do have other corvair cores so someday when the Goddess of cash smiles on me again I'll start over on the engine. One thing for sure I will be at the KR gathering in September . Maybe I can get the Grumman flying between now and then. Jack Cooper Chuckey TN.
