Colin, I could not agree more. When I learnt to fly ZS-WEC, it was in Johannesburg, meaning high altitude (5300') and hot temperatures (up to 30 degrees Celsius), both factiors making take-off and landing rolls longer. I am not a very talented pilot, and at that stage, I had only 170 hours. At first, my landings were very, very long. I even, once, overshot a 1800m runway, ending on the grass! The main issue was to keep my approach speed accurately enough, and then to touch smoothly without bouncing. It took me a good 30 hours of hard work before I felt comfortable enough to take off and land from a 900m runway.
Serge Vidal KR2 ZS-WEC Tunis, Tunisia -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Colin & Bev Rainey Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 09:54 To: KRnet Subject: KR>Wheel landing vs 3 point Joel, Please pay close attention to the information provided by the pilots who have been flying KRs. They all agree that wheel landing the KR is virtually the only safe way to land this airplane due to the way it behaves, aerodynamics of this design etc... You will probably have to consider changing your home airfield if things are that tight, or choose a more suitable aircraft that has better STOL performance if you want to get in and out of that short of a field. Just as a reference, Cessna recommends that you calculate the takeoff and landing performance numbers from published information and then add another 50% as a safety margin for maximum safety. Most of the commentary about high speed taxi testing have been directed towards builder pilots preparing for their first flights. I feel it would be prudent, though not required to have a runway at least double what you think you will need, if possible triple for those first few flights. Even if the airplane can perform within the minimum standards I doubt the pilot can until he becomes familiar with his "beast". I fully intend to high speed test mine, as well as the take off hops, maintaining ground effect. I will let everyone know what I think of the process during and after I have done so. Soon as the rain stops, we are off to the airport with N96TA! Colin & Bev Rainey KR2(td) N96TA Sanford, FL [email protected] or [email protected] http://kr-builder.org/Colin/index.html______________________________________ _ to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected] please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
