I thought I share the final authority check on my KR-2S/GPAS2180 plans build, taildragger, but with belly board.
After the paperwork check the inspector wanted to fly. It should be the inspectors first flight in KR. I wasn't keen on letting the inspector fly, but he insisted as he had more than 1000 flight hours on 80 different types including taildragger (PA18 I found out later). Pilot in command was the authority guy and I was the shivering passenger... The airplane has 37:18 flighthours and 215 landings so far and here is the (problem-)report issued by our experienced pilot: Take off: take off roll was initially stable once the tail was off the ground at about 30kts the airplane veered to the right. We departed the runway at about 40 knots to the right and into 2in of slushy snow. However the airplane still accelerated and he yanked it of the soft ground at 50kts. The inspector was upset with the aircraft and recommended to "do something" with the ground handling. The flight: -)we did some normal stalls at around 46kts-ok -)we did stalls at 45° bank angle - scary but ok you can still hold direction and the airplane does not fall on its back -)we did slips - all ok and maneuverable -)flat turns - ok -)directional stability - ok -)static longitudinal stability - trimmed to 90kts and moving the stick and let go will decelerate or accelerate the airplane to destruction - conclusion unstable - not ok -)dynamic longitudinal stability - trimmed to 100kts moving the stick 2in forward and 2in aft and then let go will induce increasing up-down motion with the stick moving after the 3rd motion into full down and you end up with negative G (oil pressure light came on and everything not tied down flew up) not acceptable - unstable otherwise the inspector was impressed by the performance of the little bird. He recommended to install a elevator spring to stabilize the stick and therefore stabilizing the plane. After we finished our program we dove under the clouds, and the countryside covered with white snow looked the same everywhere we looked...it took us 15 minutes of finding the 655m long asphalt runway in amidst off all the white surfaces. Landing: I told him that I do long stabilized approaches at "exactly!!" 70kts and between 1800 and 2000 RPM. He did a short approach between 70 and 80kts. Flare was very high as he is not used to a very low KR. We bounced 3 times and went all over the place with the left gear ending on the left outer barrier of the runway and the airplane slid sideways. And stopped without a full ground loop (I guess it was a half loop) His comment - I guess we did not break it....and think about improving the ground handling characteristics I was mad, under shock and my mouth was extremely dry and I did not get final certification as I need to sort out the longitudinal stability issue eg. installing a Spring loaded stick. My conclusion, after my training with a former Air Force pilot for about 70 landings I am halfway capable of landing the little bird on my 655m (approx 1900ft) home airport. My landings are (please don't flame me) 3 pointers or something similar and I (120 flight hours experience + glider time) would have done a better job than my professional inspector. However the belly board is a huge improvement when landing on a short strip 655x30m (1900x90) its worth its weight in gold. I hope I didn't bore you too much but it shows if you don't know the plane you can have all sorts of take off and landing problems in what the inspector called "Giftnudel"-KR. Cheers Christian OE-VPD http://www.members.aon.at/oevpd
