Hey Larry Congrats with your new lady - wish you good luck and all the good hours you can find the time for.
I may be confusing two airplanes (two guys) here? My first knowledge of your bird came via a link of Mark Langfords site - a bird called N211LF with ver nice gull wing doors (door?) and a really neat cowl line. On this site there are pictures of her first flight. In your recent flight report your words - "still can't get over how smoothly the KR flares" suggests that this may have been your first KR experience. Did you rebuild something or have a mishap? I am trying to find the correct balance (of mods) for my venture - your airplane seems to be in the direction that I am headed - please put me straight on a few things. Is the 24" stretch over the 2 or 2S? I note that you have Aerodynamic balance area on the elevator and rudder - did you add weight as well for static balance? Did you change the HS in any other way? What did you do regarding the fuse width? You talk of a 4" tip instead of an 8" tip - not sure what this means but it does appear to be relevant to the performance? Can you say anything encouraging about your empty weight - I tried to peek through the canopy on one of the pictures - hoping to see if the panel reveals lots of heavy goodies. Everything else looks pretty standard, where did another 245lb come from. I know that weight tends to accumulate as we go along - I ask the question because you may know exactly where most of it came in. If you built another - could you (would you) make it lighter? Reason for asking Larry - I figured that 230lbs over the plans weight of a 2S should be enough to accommodate my changes, so I targeted 750lb empty with an 0-320 and some IF capability, possibly even a training wheel out front. Maybe I need to learn from you that this is not a realistic target I plan to use the 18% AS airfoil section for a deeper (stronger) spar so we can get back to +6G at 1450lb MAUW). The right time to consider changes to the wing area would be now. >From your comment you are using the RAF48 - on the pics it looks like you have flat plate tail feathers? Do you feel the need for a header tank with the 0-200? Your test flying is at 765+200+100 = approx. 1065lbs - I expect she must be very nice at that weight with the longer tail moment and enough grunt to climb out at the cruising speed of C150 and still see 1000fpm - not too shabby Mr. Flesner. I don't have HP curves handy for your engine, but I suspect that 2570 is providing something less than 80%. I did not pick up an altitude, but at 0 degrees C you are not giving away much (anything) to DA. That 0-200 has a lot more to give when you let her spool up to 2700. You are doing the right thing to first figure out if this will require a top overhaul, then consider a re-pitch. I really like the looks of the one in the pictures I have seen - chubby wheels and all, but some wheel /brake fairings will obviously make big difference. I am still worried about the under carriage configuration - I have very little tail dragger time - 0:35 on a Tiger Moth 27 years ago - Ok I have no tail wheel time. How much tail wheel time did you have to start with - what is your advice on this? I will appreciate any time you have to talk about the above and any changes you have made. Kind regards Steve Zambia - Africa
