Jeff Scott wrote: >> If there was any one failing in Troy's post-flight, it was not >> emphasising to Mark that he needed to do something about his >> instrumentation prior to flying the plane. But in all fairness, it may >> not have been a big deal to him, so he may not have considered it to be a >> big problem for Mark either.<<
Troy gave me a list of stuff he'd fix before I flew it, and I tried to deal with all of them. I "thought" airspeed would be fixed by unporting the static to the cabin, but I was wrong. Something I've learned since then is that no matter how screwed up your static system is, it won't mess up your airpseed indicator by more than 5% or so (at least that's what I'm told). I had a huge problem with the ASI itself (off by a factor of two), but didn't realize it. I still have static port problems, as my VSI is out of whack, as far as I can tell, so that still needs work or relocating. That's what testing is for, I guess. Earlier this week I learned that I don't even need a VSI anyway. My problems landing my plane were definitely my lack of flying experience and ability. Bill Clapp came up on Monday and we did about 4 hours of nothing but landings (his plane is as close to mine as anybody's ever built), and then on Tuesday we did another 4 hours, for a total of something like 40 landings! Only the last one was so good that we both let out a "YES" after touchdown. Much of my problem is that I was (still am, probably) a sloppy pilot with no time in anything nearly as high performance as a KR. Bill immediately pointed out that my patterns were small and low (Champ/Cub size), and that I needed a longer final to set things up. We went to a larger pattern 1000' AGL and it made a big difference in workload. And attitude (as Harold mentioned) is everything. I just wasn't used to attitude making much difference in the Champ. Bill showed me what the picture ought to be over the cowling in all phases of flight (pretty much the same), and generally gave me some piloting skills education that I never got before. He used to be a CFI, and it shows. And sure enough, once I'd done the pattern enough times, I didn't even need an ASI! Just keep the right flight attitude, and the landings took care of themselves. The education that he gave me probably (hopefully) will save my plane from the scrap heap. I don't know how folks who just crawl into a KR after flying Cessnas survive it, whether tri-gear or taildragger. But maybe that's just my lack of piloting skills talking again. Speaking of total screwups, it was nice to have Bill along when I was leveling off to pattern altitude on crosswind and the engine quit. I don't think I've ever been in an airplane with the engine turned off and the prop stopped dead in front of me before. That was pretty exciting! Larry's got nothing on me as far a pucker factor goes. I was clueless as to what had happened, and barely had enough time to utter "what the ___", when he reached over and pushed the mixture back in and restarted it. I had no idea I'd pulled the mixture back rather than the throttle, but he'd been watching me and wondered why I did that. I now have a whole different attitude as to how I'll react when something like that happens again (and the answer is...way slower than I previously thought). I now have a throttle that's not only a different color but a different type entirely (friction rather than button lock). I'll put it on this weekend if I have a chance, certainly before I fly it again. That's also something Troy didn't like about it, but I didn't fix that one. I'll probably fix it so that the mixture won't kill the engine too, since I turn my engine off with the ignition switch, rather than by leaning. As far as landing it goes, he had two secrets that really help a lot. One is to land on just one wheel, which makes it a lot harder to bounce, and the other is to immediately push the stick forward as soon as the first wheel touches (although that's standard procedure wheel landing any taildragger, I think). That, coupled with being under a controlled descent when flaring, made it a lot easier. The last few landings we did were with 7 knot crosswinds in choppy air, and I really didn't even notice the crosswind. We also went over the plane again and I now have another list of things to upgrade, mostly ergonomics. I'm happy to report that he and I fit nicely in my plane, which has only been stretched less than 3" at the shoulders. I'd highly recommend that others stretch theirs at least 4", since I'm a thin guy. Troy also proved that even though my seat is just about on the floor, his head was right under the canopy wearing my rather tall headsets, so there's another datapoint for tall folks, but it works fine for me. My canopy is 17.5" above the longerons at the tallest point (where my head is). Bill could probably be talked into helping others out, as his work schedule is pretty flexible. Just make sure you make it worth his time! Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
