Written by Jim Strock:
| I have been flying my KR-1
for about 30 Hours to date. My KR-1 is a 1800 cc VW based out of the Price Airport in
Youngstown, Ohio. I saw my first KR at Oshkosh 1973. A short curly haired man in tennis
shoes was walking on the wing of a very small airplane, much to the amusement of a very
large group of people. This turned out to be Ken Rand himself. My plans came in the mail 2/21/1974, with a receipt for $25.00 signed by Ken. The plans include a 16 page manual, 2 pages of drawings, and 1 page of photos. I had built models with less information , it still left a lot to your imagination. I now know why no two KRs are not the same. Now that I have about 25 hours flying time on my KR somehow makes these problems seem smaller. I actually built TWO airplanes, the one I kept and the one I threw away ! I cut the first wood in March of '74 trying to cut the longerons from spruce planks purchased at a lumber yard. After making a complete mess of it I ordered a plywood kit and a wood kit from Wicks Organ Co. (Wicks Aircraft now) and Aircraft Spruce Specialty respectively. I was soon into the "boat stage". I than ran into technical problems and needed help. I had joined EAA in 1971 but did not belong to a chapter. I became a charter member of EAA chapter 531. It was at one of the first meetings that I met Bill Reents. Bill had also started a KR-1 just six weeks before me so we found we had a lot in common. To make a long story short three years later Bill was flying and I brought a Stinson 108 Voyager. For the next two years I worked on the Stinson and my KR sat in the corner. Once side tracked it was easy to forget about the KR project, so it sat for the next six years untouched . Our EAA chapter started to do mall shows to generate interest in aviation. I was asked to drag out my project. I couldn't let people see it as a dusty mess so I started to work on it again. For the next nine years the mall shows went on and of coarse I had to have some progress to show for the last year so this kept me from stopping along with constant fly-bys of my house from Bill Reents in his KR-1. I side tracked myself with the engine and the landing gear changes that I had made. I had a complete airplane by the summer of 1993 but because I had installed my 40" long exhaust pipes inside my cowling I had a little problem with vapor lock in the fuel line because of to much heat. It took a few more months to solve this and by late fail I was ready for my FAA airworthiness inspection . My KR-1 was signed off for its first flight on 1/27/1994. Twenty years and seven days from its conception my KR-1 took to the sky for its first flight on March 13,1994. Flying my KR has been one of the most exciting events in my life . I have about 1,000 hrs. in tail draggers with 1,200 hrs. total time. Most of my tail dragging time has been in Cubs, Taylorcrafts, my Stinson 108, and Champs. Bill had warned me about how easy it would be to over control my KR. He was right but the control sensitivity also is what makes it so much fun to fly. My KR-1 demands your full attention on landing. There is so little airplane out there to see that it can be difficult to judge your speed and altitude. The ham handed pilot need not apply. My KR-1 reminds me of a big roller coaster, once you get over the thrill of it you want to go back for MORE. The two edged sword of over controllability and pure fun can be balanced to your advantage! I have had my moments with my KR but that is all they are, moments. I intend to keep on having all the fun I can with my KR. It's grrreat ! 5.00 X 5 WHEELS ON MY KR-1 I changed the landing gear of my KR because of two reasons. One: I live on a grass strip and have a need for a larger wheel. Two: I saw a need to find a way to slow down for landing. The first reason should be self explanatory, it was also the easiest to do. The second reason is easy to understand but was the hardest to do . I had a lot of time to watch others attempt this, wing flaps would drag on the runway when lowered and were ground off to dust, I also saw some try spoilers with little effect. I needed something new. I came up with the idea of a flat landing gear leg that would he a great deal drag when down and locked and still be some what flat with respect to the bottom of the wing. This seems to work well on my KR in that I can attain a 600 f.p.m. rate of descent with no increase in airspeed . The flat legs also limit the airspeed in level flight on my KR to 115 mph. at full throttle. I still get the normal speed reduction in my cruise because of having the retractable landing gear . The 5.00 X 5 Cleveland wheels and brakes let my 430 Ib. KR pick up speed as fast as they can stop it. They also add a total of 12 Ibs. to the airframe. When the gear is lowered at 110 mph. it feels as if you just flew into an airborne piece of jello. I'm satisfied with their performance. ENGINE EXHAUST AND COOLING I've always been a lover of annular cooling so I thought that I would give it a try on my KR. The biggest problem with any airplane is that it is one big compromise connected to another. You can't change one thing without changing something else down the road. Knowing this I tried to design the cooling system and the exhaust system together. I looked to my Stinson 108 Voyager for some help. I noticed that the Stinson had a tunnel just aft of the cowling that would pull the air from the cowling because it made a low pressure area. This low pressure also made an excellent place to exit the exhaust pipes because it acts to muffle the noise. By using the proportions of the Stinson's tunnel and adapting them to the KR I ended up with 4 pipes of 40" each (no muffler) at operate at a whisper in flight and still sound sexy on the ground because the KR stands so low. The spinner is 11 1/2" long X 8" dia.. The air inlet is sized to speed up the air into the cowling but it's not very deep so as to let the air expand once inside to slow it down keep it on the engine as long as possible to cool the engine. It operates in much the manner as the radiator on the P 51 . It seems to be working too well. The highest oil temperature on a 95 deg. day so far has been 185 degs.. The cylinder head temperature is about 285 degs.. The EGT runs about 1,200 degs. . This maybe a little to cool for a VW engine but I think that I can learn to live with it. CARL WEST : THE CRASH THAT KEEPS ON GOING & GOING .... You may have seen Carl's KR-1 crash elsewhere on this web site. I would like to tell you about the parts of his KR that are still flying. After the crash I bought the remains (the airplanes not Carl's). Believe it or not there were many good parts to be saved. His KR-1 has been resurrected in that many of it's parts are in my airplane. Among the parts are the control stick (made by sawing off a leg from one of his kitchen chairs) assembly, hinges for the elevators and rudder , all the steel wing spar fittings, landing gear retract hinges, aileron bell cranks, and tail wheel. All of these parts, when they were in his plane, saved his life. I would like them to do the same for me. To acknowledge his parts in my KR -1 my "N" number, N124SW, has my last initial "S" and Carl's "W" in it. I also think that "Sierra Whiskey" sounds pretty good too. All my best wishes to Carl West. |