Brock, There are still a few out there happy with their retracts. I enjoy mine. Having said that, they do have some inherent problems. The original locking mechanism left a lot to be desired. Apparently it was possible,if you had any bounce at all upon touchdown, to have the mechanism let go and then land with the gear unlatched. I have never actually seen this as I am a latecomer to KR2s. Mine has a good latch system using pins, but has it's own drawbacks. namely, I am not the same size as the builder, so depending on how I happen to be seated in the airplane it either works very easily, or I have a hard time reaching forward enough to unlock the gear from the up position and drop them. I will either work this out with practice, or design a different way to pull the pins when the gear is up and let it drop. Also, the spring bar that the original gear is mounted on is quite springy, and set in pretty close proximity to the upper wing skins when the gear is down. So it is possible with any kind of a hard landing to have the gear flex up and through the upper wing skins. Easily repairable, but many of us have learned this lesson the hard way. Now I make sure either grease it on or go around. It's not a trainer.
Todd Thelin Spanaway, WA In a message dated 4/5/2011 10:19:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, durabo...@yahoo.com writes: The plans for the KR-2 I have seen have a retract system. I have got the impression that they have fallen out of favour. Is it just too much hassle or are the castings not available anymore? I know airplanes with wheel fairings can have good cruise speed but it seem like it would just be that much better with retracts. Digging through old posts I have read that because of the short wheel legs the plan can't get as close to a stall since the tail wheel contracts the ground first, this result in higher landing speeds, but this doesn't seem like an overwhelming problem. Brock _______________________________________
