Hennie van Rooyen wrote: >>I am able to lay my hands on a good 160hp Continental engine, complete with prop & running. What is the heaviest & most powerful engine ever put in a KR2? I see it weighs 297 lbs compared to the 227 of the Corvair.<<
The "world's lightest KR" project sure didn't last long! I had this same conversation with a newbie on the list a few weeks ago. His goal, like so many other of us cheapskates who build KRs, was to fly in and out of a short strip on his own property, dodging expensive hangar rent. The problem with the KR is that it's a very slippery plane, so landing burns up at least twice as much runway as takeoff, if not more. You can get out of places that you can't even land at, which is problematic. Being light is good...it means a low stall speed, but if you add an extra hundred pounds of engine, you're stall speed will climb, and your landing glide will extend due to the higher speeds you'll have to land at, and you'll need even more runway to land. If getting in and out of short strips is a concern, you need the lightest engine you can live with (and afford), not to mention "real" flaps and a bellyboard. Landing is your limiting case, not takeoff, so the extra power hurts your overall mission goal, not helps it. Having said that, I'm a big fan of more power, but short strips demand compromises, and engine weight is one of them. If you have several thousand feet of runway at your disposal, it's not so much of a concern...unless you have to dead-stick it in a small hayfield someday... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL ML at N56ML.com www.N56ML.com
