|
I had been flying the KR-1 for 1500 hours and 21 years. In the summer
of 1998, I sold it to Ed Newbold of
Columbus, Ohio. Old age and lack of ambition to keep it in flying
condition was part of the reason I decided to part with one of the loves of my life. The last 12 years of flying
the KR-1 was based at Salem Airpark of Salem, Ohio. As one might surmise, by
flying an
aircraft for twenty years, you might incur a few adventures.
You have surmised right. After learning to control the KR on the
ground (about ten hours up and down the runway), I proceeded to learn to control it in the
air.
I've watched everyone on KRNET
speculate on the sensitivity
of the KR, that is really what makes it so much fun to fly. Once I got
mine trimmed up,
with nice and calm flying, I could fly it no hands or feet just by leaning my head
whatever way I wanted to go. Now, this was not a fast change, but given a thirty second span,
it would go where you want.
After flying the KR, every other airplane flies like a truck.
The
only other aircraft that even comes close that I've flown, is the Casset.
One of my
friends at the airport has one, and once in a while him and I would go dogfight.
Now, the Casset has a 100 HP engine verse about 60
HP that was in mine, so to
make things even, he only used half throttle. I might add, that dog fighting
was the
most fun I've ever had. We had started at about 6 or 7 thousand feet, and end up on the deck.
I couldn't do that for very
long because I would make myself sick.
The KR does a good job in the aerobatics dept, the only thing I
didn't do is negative maneuvers (I didn't like them).
As to the adventures, I've had quite a few. One time an oil line
broke at 3000 feet, and by the time I got it on the ground, I had lost all of my oil.
The
KR was a real mess with oil everywhere.
Another time, was when landing at Kent Airport.
I couldn't seem to
stop, and broke a couple of prop blades on a runway light. Luckily, Carl West, a friend,
had a prop hanging on his garage wall for his own KR. He let me use it to get mine home.
I've made two wheels-up landings in the KR, (I'm not bragging)
like they say, those that haven't, will. On both times I was distracted by some thing down
on the runway, and it's really funny on the skid, no matter how hard you push on the
brakes, it doesn't help! :) For a long time I had eight prop stubs hanging in my garage (3
bladed prop). Other than a little damage to the gear fiberglass and the chin of
the cowling, I had it fixed and flying again in the time it took to get another prop.
The canopy had been blown off by other aircraft running up close
by. This has happened at two different airports, I knew to make sure it was locked when
I was not
in it. On both occasions I had someone tape me in and I flew the KR home,
much to the
amazement of the people at the gas pump at my home airport.
Almost every Sunday during the summer I would fly out to an airport
and have breakfast with friends in the KR. Most of the time it was to an airport
that was about
35 to 50 miles away, that made my weekend.
One time when on final to one of these airports, I just nipped a
lone high tree branch right on the tip of the left wing. It looked like someone took a
bite out of it. Needless to say I didn't land, but flew back home.
Another time, about nine miles from home base, the crankshaft
broke right in the middle. The engine started to run extremely rough, and I thought I was
going to lose the prop. I almost made the decision to land on the freeway right under me,
but then seeing the
engine was still running and not getting any worse, I decided to try to get home.
Flying as slow as I could with very little power, next to stall
speed, I did manage to get home, even taxing up to my hanger.
I'm sure every one has heard about the needle turning in the Posa
carb while in flight, (the older carb had no set screw). It's true, sure enough.
This
happened on take off right after the wheels left the ground, and very little runway
left in
front of me. Again, rather than make a forced landing, and being the engine was still
developing enough power to fly, I decided to try to get around the pattern.
Well, I did
make it, and on the last part of the final the engine quit. I landed on the runway, and
even did a BOB HOVER, Rolling up to my hanger.
Everyone told me that I couldn't fly the KR straight and level,
because I always fly in circles around them when going somewhere. It was hard not to play
around when you have a 40 or 50 mph speed advantage on them.. "make
believe", I've shot down
all my friends.
I find the hardest airplane to fly formation with is the
Cub. The
cruise speed of the Cub is next to my stall speed. I have to fly nose high with power to
stay even.
One time going to a fly-in at Dunkerk N.Y. airport, I was flying
formation with a friend in a Sonari at 10.000 feet when my engine started to act up. This
happened to be a very hazy day, and from this altitude you could just barely see the
ground, and it also happened to be a heavily forested area. It's needless to say I was a bit
shook up, and knowing I had to get
down, I looked down on my right, and low and behold there was an airport right under me.
Like someone that wants to get on the ground fast, we went down and landed.
This happened at the time the gas companies were playing around
with the gas formula, like putting alcohol in, plus other chemicals. About 6 months before
I had a small gas leak in my fiberglass tank, and I used a sloshing
compound to stop the
leak. Anyway, the gas attacked the compound and was turning it to a glue. This was
plugging up my strainer and gas lines, so after cleaning it up we went on to the fly-in.
At that time I was using car gas.
This was the time I decided to make an aluminum tank.
I
had
an eleven gallon tank in front and a six gallon tank right at my back. The back tank feeds
by gravity, and starts at the half empty point of the front. I have clear plastic lines
running to the front , and I can tell when it's empty. I only used the back tank on
x-countries.
Once after take off, I noticed the gear bar just didn't look
right. Sure enough, a bolt had broken on the hinge. I just happened to have a Phillips
screwdriver that was the right size. Over the years I had broken a number of bolts,
so
I drilled them out and put in bigger ones.
I've had a whole lot of fun flying the KR. I sure hope you do in
yours too. Minus the excitement. :) -
Bill
Reents |
