Good question Sid. And while Mark's notes are spot on and well thought out I think the ideas that are missing are the things you shouldn't do if you are set on building light and in range. One of the most glaring to me is the obsesion that a number of folks have with increasing the horizontal stab. along with that the additional mass balancing of the elevator. I flew 2 days ago for over an hour and the plane trimed and flew hands off for plenty long to fold maps, take pictures (that is what I was doing) or what ever other task is at hand. it really does not need to be larger than stock in my opinion for normal flying. keep it light back there and another thing back there is that silly tail wheel... move it up front where it belongs. Joe Horton ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Langford via KRnet" <krnet at list.krnet.org> To: "KRnet" <krnet at list.krnet.org> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:51:05 PM Subject: Re: KR> Pilots and Builders
Sid Wood wrote: >> Ok, excellent suggestion on building the airplane to the forward end of the cg limit. Just exactly how does one do that? And still follow the plans? << There's an adequate page in my 1990 KR2 plans (page 114) that shows how to do the weight and balance, and an example on page 115. That defines where the correct range is, although it's an accepted fact in the KR community that the last 2" of the 8" range should be avoided (to put it diplomatically). What the plans does NOT address is how to get there, but clearly it means shifting the heavy stuff around in whatever fashion is required to put the plane in the safe range, whether pilot and fuel only or fully loaded with passenger and baggage (or whatever configurations are at the extremes of forward and aft CG). Moving the engine forward is the most obvious way to get the CG forward, and spacers under the mount,
