Flying a taildragger is just a matter of training. The "older" aircraft you are referring to were, yes, a tail wheel or "conventional" aircraft. Nose wheels did not come into vogue until Cessna converted the 170 into the 172 by converting it to a nose wheel aircraft. Mostly to attract more people by making the aircraft easier to fly (by contrast most pre war student pilots soloed a Cub or like aircraft in @ 5 hours). Tailwheel aircraft are not hard to fly but do demand that you remain current and fly the aircraft from engine start to shutdown. Now why would anyone want one, well the tailwheel configuration will weigh less than a like Nose wheel and will likely have a better top and cruise speed. There is also the challenge and satisfaction of capping off a great flight by nailing the landing!
I think you need to do a bit of soul searching before you go any further 1. Are you willing to invest the time it takes to learn how to manage a tailwheel aircraft? 2. Do you think you will ever be completely comfortable in a tailwheel equipped aircraft? Comfortable not complacent! 3. Maybe you need to consider some other aircraft other than the KR that you will not have to put in the effort to convert to a nose wheel. It will take some time and expense, If you have a fixed Main gear it can probably be relocated to the back of the spar and you will have to add the nose wheel and associated mounting ahead of the firewall. If your aircraft is equipped with the original retract gear it will need to be replaced in its entirety. Do some research on your own. The information on the conversion is out on the web, search to archives, search the KR newsletters that Mark has posted (links on his web site). Tip: You will get better answers to your questions on this forum if you ask questions that reflect some effort on your part to seek the information on your own first. Respectfully Rick Human (not a "Super" Pilot) Builder/Pilot KR-2 N202RH Not an "S" and a tailwheel Houston, Tx From: Dr. Feng Hsu [mailto:fenghs...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, September 4, 2020 3:16 PM To: Rick Human Cc: KRnet Subject: Re: KR> PNW Mini FlyIn #2 Thanks Rick for the good suggestion to convert my bird to a trigear. I see most of the older air planes (in the 60s, 50s or earlier) were taildraggers, including some of the war planes and even bombers serviced in the WWII... Am wondering why folks didn't have much of a problem flying taildraggers back then...? It's going to be major efforts to do the conversion, if there still are components available in the marketplace suitable for the KR2. Will need to convert to hydraulic breaks as well. Regards, Dr. Hsu _______________________________________________ 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
