The retired Convair engineer who built my first KR-2, N33751, put in an
extra strong crossbar and carefully machined the downlocks. The plane
had large wing tanks plus a larger than normal header so was designed
from the beginning to have a heavy gross weight.
I first flew the plane after not flying anything at all for over five
years. I unthinkingly chose Oceanside airport, closest to where the
plane was stored. Today the runway is 2700 feet long but in 1984 when I
first flew that plane it was only 2200 or so. It's amazing that the
plane and I survived that experience, but we did. I was feeling
asphixiated from gas fumes in the cockpit and instead of taking the plane
up and getting a feel for it I wanted to get back on the ground right
away. I made two attempts, going way too fast, and on the third - a make
it or break it landing - one of the mechanical brake cables broke and I
ended up going sideways down the runway. Tremendous stress on the
retractable gear.
It was fortunate that I wound up going sideways and coming to a safe stop
instead of going off the end of the runway as I surely would have done,
messing up the plane pretty badly in the canyon just off the runway's
end. Naturally, thanks to witnesses I ended up having to talk to the FAA
and do a checkride with them but the point is, that gear was tested to
the max both in that flight and in later ones. It held up just fine. I
eventually sold that plane to a fellow in Rialto before I moved to South
Africa. See attached picture of plane and new owner. Notice the
fairings that act as speed brakes with the gear extended and which helped
aerodynamically when the gear was retracted.
Although I never hit the trailing edge of the wings on anything, it would
have been easy to do since there is only a few inches between any
obstructions on the ground and the inside trailing edge of the wings.
Rolling into a dip or hole could easily hit the the wing so the
retractable gear needs to be used on smooth runways. The plane sure
looks nicer in the air with retracts - for whatever value that is.
So . . . based on my experience with that plane, use a thicker, stiffer
crossbar than what is called for in the plans and they'll work fine, even
with hard landings or sideways slides down the runway :-).
Mike Stirewalt
KSEE
____________________________________________________________
Study Reveals What Just A Single Diet Soda Does To Your...
nucific.com
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5c3e5184cc2665184787cst04vuc
_______________________________________________
Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/.
Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html.
see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change
options.
To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
