NetHeads, Today was a good day. The weather's been great, with slight wind right down the runway. Acting on the advice that several KRnetHeads gave me (both public and private), I started out by running up to full throttle, lifting the tail and reducing throttle to keep from gaining too much speed but still tracking the centerline, and slowly reducing throttle back to idle. Most of the time I was doing 50-60 mph when I backed off, and that only took a few seconds. I could have flown it from there every time, by simply pulling back a tad. But from there, I'd just hold the tail up until it dropped, which was about 35 mph. I got to the point that I could do all of this in 2000 feet, and then turn around and taxi back and do it again. Before the day was over, I could pretty much track the centerline. But what else would you expect after FORTY runs in one day? After the traffic died down, I started going both ways, which was really efficient use of time. I watched a killer sunset while waiting for a King Air to land.
Taxiing that plane is almost second nature now, quite comfortable, a whole lot different from yesterday morning. I really feel like I'm ready to fly it (and I sure was tempted), although landing may be a different matter. Really though, after going ahead and taking off, I should only have to do several runs down the runway to get a good feel for it, maybe 20 or 30 feet up, and then eventually just go ahead with it. I'll do all of the usual "feeling out" at altitude first though. I feel like I can handle just about any extreme (as long as the wind is pretty calm). If nothing else, I learned to taxi with the canopy open for better cooling and slightly better visibility, and to latch the canopy with one hand while not looking. See http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/05051729m.jpg . I also tried the flaps, and they do make a difference, even on the ground ( http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/05051722m.jpg ). Basically all systems are go, but I'm going to get another day's worth in before I think about flying it. Thanks for all the good advice. I think I'm on my way now. Tomorrow will be an even better day... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net --------------------------------------------------------------
