Last weekend I had two flights, one on Saturday morning and the other on Sunday morning. Could have done more but economics is restricting my flying time.
Saturday, Taxied out after a Cessna 170, take off was uneventful, climb up over the mountain range behind Atherton and as I near the top I see the 170 still climbing to clear the range. Should have seen the smile on my face at that point. Got to Chillagoe 40 minutes later and lined up for landing, the approach was average but the landing was ................. YEEEEEHAAAAAAAA material. As I wheeled on I heard the tyres chirp but didn't feel the bump of the touchdown (now an even bigger smile). Had a drink and comfort stop, hoped back in and departed downwind (about 2 knots) back to Atherton. The air was quite turbulent on the return trip so a reduced speed was established for my comfort. Average ground speed of 104 knots for the round trip including both take offs and circuits (calculated from the GPS track). Sunday, Took off and tracked for Wangettie Beach from Atherton. Made my departure call, a little while later another aircraft said he was departing from a private strip that was along my track line but should be clear before I got there, I asked for an exact location. "Koha" he replied, to which I replied "overhead in 1 minute at 2500ft". His reply was "God that thing moves". Big Smile again. Continued on to the beach then tracked north following the beaches but just out over the ocean, nice and smooth. Once I reached my fuel limit I turned and headed home tracking a straight line. Again very turbulent and also very windy, so a reduced cruise speed for comfort again. All this bouncing around made it necessary to land for a comfort stop, so I landed at a little private sealed strip nestled in between the hills. A very turbulent circuit was experienced followed but another squeaker of a landing. Took care of business and headed home to Atherton. As I flew along, passing over a friends coffee plantation, I got a call to come and have a cup of coffee. I had never landed at Nat's strip because it is only 800m with very tall Gum trees on the approach end. I literally weaved between the trees and made a lovely 3 pointer, rolling to a stop 100m before the end of the strip. Had a drink of water and a chat (I don't drink coffee, but Nat is hopeful he'll convert me) and flew back to Atherton. As I was leaving, the hanger after packing up my KR2, I was reflected on the past 2 days flying and thought "I'm finally getting the hang of flying this KR2". 78 hours and can't get enough of it. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Barry Kruyssen Cairns, Australia RAA 19-3873 [email protected] http://www.users.bigpond.com/kr2/kr2.htm
