My Flying Tales

Please note that not all my flights are listed, only the mile stones and/or memorable ones.

Well, Yesterday, 28th Dec 2004, I did my first flight in my KR2 at Atherton Air Strip 2400ft.

Prior to first flight I did a little taxiing and only one run where I got the tail wheel off the ground for about 20ft.

After several false starts it finally all came together. The weather was perfect, nil wind and silky smooth air. For first flight I got the tail off the ground, looked at the end of the strip and tried to keep the attitude pointing at the end of the strip till the KR2 lifted off, a few little wobbles in attitude but I kept low in ground effect till my GPS indicated 75kts then I slowly climbed out. As the speed rapidly increased, I started pulling back on the stick to maintain 90kts. I climbed through very broken early morning cloud at 3500ft to 4500ft all my temps were good, CHT 50F below maximum. A few turns straight an level then power off and simulate an approach 2000ft above the strip, round out to stall, felt soooooo good. Now descend and join circuit, the water on the near by lake was like a sheet of glass, not a breath of wind. Lined up perfectly. My approach was a very long and a bit fast at 90kts. My intention was to do a practice approach and then to go to full power and come arround again, BUT, at about 200ft it all looked perfect, I had the speed down to 80kts, I got down to the ground effect and decided that this was actually nicely setup for a landing, reduced power to idle and held the nose off looking at the end of the strip, the KR2 just settled and I achieved a perfect 3 point landing, no bounce at all, I polled forward to get the tail off the ground and let it roll to a stop. I read somewhere that your first landing will be your best and they are so right, I greased it on like I'd been doing all my life.

Back to the hanger and my wife. I went over all the suspension bolts, engine mounts, prop bolts and anything else that I could check. All was OK so back out to the strip and out for a short circuit, a small bounce on the next landing and a very long roll out, back track and take off again. The next approach was way to hot and at half strip I went to full power went round , this time a much longer approach and I notice about 5kts wind at 60 degrees to the strip. This was a rough old landing with several small bounce. So back to the hanger (and the wife) and another though check over. Half an hour air time in total. Yeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaah and grin that will have to be surgically removed, if at all possible.

I have to wash the bottom of the aircraft as I'm operating from a grass strip and the early morning dew covers the bottom with water and grass, etc.

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This morning, 29th Dec 2004, I woke well before sun up, Doh.

Out to strip, pre flight the KR2, perfect weather.

A quick circuit with a near perfect landing (not as good as the first one), back track and take off again heading for our ceiling height of 6500ft.

Now for some stats.
    Engine is a 2.2L Jabiru 4 cylinder - total engine time only 1.3 hours on the ground, engine red line at 3300 RPM
    Prop is a Richard Sweetapple 56 X 56 timber prop
    Static RPM is 2800
    Initially max RPM was 2900, very tight motor.
    By 2.7 hours max RPM had increased to 3000.
    Best climb is 980ft/min at 80kts but the CHT's are climbing.
    Ideal climb is about 750ft/min at 100kts, Oil temp of 90C and CHT temp of 290F
    Cruise at 115kts no wheel spats or cover strips and still 2 big holes where the retract gear came from.

6 touch and goes and then run low on fuel, all not to bad. Only 40 Litres capacity and I was down to 15L so back to the hanger and another check all over. I can't get refueled to this afternoon. :-(

Next flight is planned for tomorrow (or maybe late this afternoon).

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Well, today, 30th Dec 2004, broke with a light breeze, 5kts down the strip.

With a little hesitation (having remembered my first day with the light breeze and the "rough old landing") I pre-flight the KR2 and taxied to the end of one five, I decided that I'd do one circuit and if my landing was OK, in the breeze, I'd continue doing circuits. The landing was 9.5 out of 10, so touch and goes were the order of the day as there was a broken cloud base of about 950 ft AGL.

As the time went by the breeze picked up to about 10kts and swung to 45 degrees across the strip. The breeze was very steady and I was still making good landings, so I kept doing circuits till the breeze started to get gusty and swing a bit. 1.3 hours and I decided that the conditions required more pilot than what I was, so a 9 out of 10 landing and back to the hanger, wash and put the KR2 away, race to my computer to share my excitement with those that understand me.

If I remember the camera tomorrow I'll get some photos and post to the my WEB page (I'm not a camera fan and in all my excitement it doesn't get a thought).

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I have now done emergency procceedures, cross wind landings and lots of touch and goes, and I believe the KR2 is the nicest powered aircraft I have ever landed. It is nothing like a Cessna (or any other GA aircraft that I've flown), The controls are light and very responsive, much like a modern glider, they are NOT overly responsive in my opinion.

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12th January 2005, I was doing circuits, as per normal, in quite a gusty 10 to 18 knots 30 degree cross wind and it was quite cool. After half an hour of circuits I was climbing out and at about 600ft the engine lost power. This is the second time this happed, the first time I thought I was low on fuel.

THE SECOND TIME: The prior landing was a long glide approach, touch and go, climb to 500ft, turn left while still climbing at 80 knots, then a big loss of power, nose down, yep I can make the strip, split ass turn and line up for a down wind landing, during the nose down push and turn I also turned on the electric boost, I still had more than half a tank of fuel.

The engine is still running but rough and now I'm to high and fast to land on the strip, sacrifice some speed for hight, back up to 700ft, and decide to continue to the downwind end of the strip and land into wind.

Oh, yea, I remember fitting that carby heat knob when I fitted the new engine (we don't have them in gliders), pull the carby heat on, start my turn back to line up and as I'm nearly lined up the engine smoothed out and started to pull like a train, so I continued my turn and circled up to 1000ft AGL without missing a beat. I joint a late downwind, staying with in glide of the strip, and did a normal base and final to an 8.5 out of 10 landing.

I taxied back to the hanger, changed my underwear, and removed the cowling to check the fuel filter, all was OK. Did some more circuits, now using the carby heat on all descents, no problems.

So now I've learnt about carby icing. :-)