I flew 3900 miles in 10 days and I didn't get in 17 landings... wow Lee ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Langford" <[email protected]> To: "KRnet" <[email protected]> Cc: "Corvair engines for homebuilt aircraft" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 7:46 PM Subject: KR> another day, another 2.4 hours and 17 landings...
> NetHeads, > > You guys are soon going to regret egging me on about the "pilot reports". > I couldn't fly to my father's farm today because of weather on his end, so > the wife said "I'm sure you can still find someplace else to fly today", > so off I went. One of the changes I made in the last few days was to make > my static ports flush mounted, with nothing more than a 1/16" hole to the > outside world, so I needed to check my indicated stall speed anyway. And > I needed a little more shakedown on the new fiberglass spinner front > bulkhead. What better way than a tour of the airport "neighborhood"? So > I flew down to the Tennessee river, over the big bridge, and hung a left > and flew up river to Guntersville, Scottsboro, Stevenson, Marion County, > Jackson TN, Fayetteville TN, MDQ, and back to M38. That's eight airports > and 17 landings. > > After the first landing at Stevenson, a guy came on the radio and asked > "is that KR pilot Bill Clapp, flying a Corvair?". I said "no, but if you > want to talk Corvairs, I'll be back in two minutes". I was just impressed > that anybody in Alabama would even know a KR when he saw one! The guy was > building a Corvair for a Piet, and had one totally blasted engine that > he'd bought first, then he got super lucky and bought an entire 1965 > Corvair with a "new" 1969 engine in it. This thing looked brand new, and > he hadn't even cleaned the parts yet! I spent some time bringing him up > to speed on stuff like small block rockers and why he should keep his > original ones (which he had thoughtfully wired into pairs with their > balls, even though he was planning on throwing them away), preserving that > pristine crank at all costs, and then headed on up river to the next stop. > > Three of the landings I did were basically tailwheel first, as I was > trying to stretch the bottom of the envelope. Most observers would call > it a three point landing, but the "boing" noise tells me the tail wheel > hit first, and that always occured at about 63 mph (well, all three times > according to the GPS, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you that). > Maybe I can get around to extending my gear this week and do some > comparisons next weekend (another excuse to fly). I'm thinking it will > lower my three point landing speed a few mph. I even flew over Georgia a > bit just to say I'd been there, and made it back home with 289.0 hours on > the clock. Life is good... > > Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama > see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford > email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________ > 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 > > >
