Doran,
I'm sorry you felt threatened or challenged by our rather frank answers to a question asked on the net. Our response was based on thousands of hours flight time in KR's. While your statement "I have flown several low drag / clean aircraft without flaps and never had any unnerving problems with landing" may be true, it does not appropriately answer the question of whether or not flaps or speed brakes are necessary / desirable on a KR. While you may have experience in many different types, I suspect your answer was not based on flight time in a KR. The consensus, based on experience, was that every builder should give them serious consideration. We "kids" play in a sport where mistakes can be fatal. We're not here to make people feel good but to pass on knowledge based on experience. Each reader can assign a value to each post and use or disregard that knowledge as they see fit. Mark Langford is a very accomplished engineer and Mr. Dow's comments were totally out of line. Mark is not only a valued contributor to the net but one of the primary reasons the net exists. Given his schedule, I'm amazed he takes the time to share his considerable knowledge with other builders. Mr. Dow's statement that his post was "well intentioned as I have nothing to gain or lose from this" is wrong based on it's results. It tends to stifle builders from asking questions they might think are "stupid" or that they will be ridiculed for asking. There are many builds with many questions yet to ask. I hope they don't feel insulted by the answer they get that does not conform to their thinking. Larry Flesner
