I don't have to worry about the snow. I too have a 20 year old KR2 with the retracts. No door though. I did see yours at the gathering. I may make a set of doors.
Lee ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: "KRnet" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 9:33 PM Subject: KR> Re:Wet Runways in the winter > > > Just a note to tell you about a flight that i made today in my KR that > > can remind all of us about what can happen if you don,t take ALL of > > the weather factors into concideration when you go flying. As a side > > note i probably have one of the last krs that still have the retracts. > > For those of you that made the gathering this year my KR was the one with > > the full clamshell gear doors. This is all relevent to the story. Flying > > a KR in the north in the winter means that you usually don,t have that > > many days that you can fly without freezing to death so you take everyday > > that you can get and today was such a day. The temp was in the mid 20,s > > with bright sun and not too much of a cross wind at the field where i > > base my plane. We had just had a large snow storm 2 days before but thr > > runway ws plowed with mostly bare pavement showing. As i taxied my plane > > to the active i passed over a lot of snow patches and damp spots on the > > black pavement. Takeoff was normal and. i headed for a local airport > > about 20 miles away. Ther was a lot of traffic at the field so i > > extended my upwind leg a ways to allow for spacing. After entering > > downwind i reached to lower the landing gear only to find that it was > > frozen solid in the up position. Pucker factor riseing rapidly at this > > point. After several min,s of trying i was begining to think that the > > only option was that i was giong to have to land on the ski runway on the > > belly. I tried one last dive with a sharp pullout while pulling to lower > > the gear at the same time when it finally broke loose. I proceeded to > > land and when i got out to look the wheel wells were full of ice from the > > snow and water that had splashed into them. I flew home with the gear > > extended with no further problems. Now i will have to get my plane into a > > heated hanger to melt all of the ice before i go flying again. This > > turned out to have a happy ending but it could have gone the other way > > with a plane that needed a lot of repairs. I have been flying this plane > > for 18 years and this is the first time that this has happened. It has > > given me a new preflight and taxi item to check. Maybe this will help > > someone else from having a similar problem. Kip > > > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected] > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > > >
