Larry Flesner wrote:
Mark Langford, being the size person the KR was designed for 50 years ago, flies one of the most stock KR2's all over the Midwest on a regular basis. The flying characteristics are acceptable enough so that he is not yet motivated to repair the 2S he flew prior to that and put it back in the air.
I wouldn't say I lack the motivation, it's just that it's further down the priority list than the majority of other things going on in my life for the last ten years. I've been flying the KR2 that Jim Faughn built in 1991, and it's almost perfectly per the plans, except it now has fixed gear on it, rather than the original retracts that he started out with. It certainly does get me around, usually throttled back a bit getting 150 mph True Airspeed at my favorite 9500'-10,500' altitude range, burning less than 4 gallons per hour with the 2180cc VW.
But it's not a plane that you can let go of the stick in, generally speaking, unless it's calm air. Then you can fly it by simply leaning a little left or right, or moving a leg or arm a few inches in the direction you want to go. That's fun, but it's not something you want to do for long before you go back to hand-flying it. But that shows you how pitch sensitive it is, and how in general it won't go straight ahead on its own....it requires attention. It does have a tendency to drift off left or right and eventually into a banking dive if you sit back and just watch it, but just a few ounces of pressure on the stick keeps it centered and away from that kind of stuff. I only know that because of testing, not because it happens all the time.
I'll be quick to tell you that the KR2 is still a great way to get from point A to point B in a hurry, and quite capable of handling decent grass strips too.
But it can't hold a candle to my longer KR2S, N56ML, which has large flaps, longer horizontal stabilizers, and taller vertical stab/rudder. It was very easy to fly and especially land, mainly due to improved visibility with the Dragonfly canopy, longer tailwheel moment, and wider main gear (none of which are "per the plans". And with the 3100cc Corvair engine, my standard speed was 175 mph, burning about 5.5 gallons per hour.
I'll get it back in the air eventually, but unfortunately it's still a way down the To Do list.
See http://www.n56ml.com for more on my KR2S, as well as some stuff on the KR2 (at the top).
-- Mark Langford m...@n56ml.com http://www.n56ml.com Huntsville, AL ________________________________ -Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html -Change list delivery options at https://list.krnet.org/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ Affinity List Info Board -Search recent KRnet Archives at https://list.krnet.org/empathy/list/krnet.list.krnet.org/ -Search John Bouyea's decades of archive at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/
