| This KR was flown a total of about three and a half hours, two times by myself, and two times by the builder. It flew very well, just like all KR's do. :) The final flight was flown by Carl. Carl is a Tri-Gear pilot, and fairly low time, and had never tried a tail dragger before. (A little lesson here). The builder and I had met about three years before the crash, and talked regularly about flying and building the KR, becoming good friends. |
| On the day of the crash, Carl was taking off on a narrow runway when the wind kicked up blowing him to the side of the runway. Fearing going into the ditch he lifted off too soon. The KR was not ready to fly, but still got him about 25 Feet into the air before it stalled. The right wing dropped, the beginning of a spin. I might add that the spin in the KR is very fast, I've done 1 1/2 to 2 turns in my KR, and it IS scary. The right wing hit first, spinning him 180 degrees into a muddy ditch. It looked like he went through the bottom of the aircraft, and then everything bounced up onto the taxi-way going out to the runway. Needless to say, all of us watching thought that was the end of Carl, it took us about 5 seconds to react. We all started to run at the same time. As we got to what was left of the KR, Carl sat up, brushing himself off, upset with himself at the loss of his airplane. We could not believe he could move, let along not being hurt at all.. We all feel Carl has been put on this good Earth for a special reason. Carl now owns and flies a 150, and has since built a Sonari.. you can't keep a good man down. |