I'm completely on the opposite side of the patch with Dan when it comes to control sticks and retractable gear. Sitting in the center of a standard KR-2 with a center stick gives you more headroom and side room. You have plenty of elbow room to move in all directions and although it's been quite a few years since I sold my KR-2, I remember my knee served perfectly well as a wrist support. It was exceedingly comfortable for one person, sitting in the center with a center stick.
And it was absolutely miserable with two. No room to move, and with the very aft CG flying became quite strange. I'm sure the new widebody KR's are more comfortable than the original when it comes to sitting next to someone in a tiny, cramped cockpit, but having two sticks in an original-sized KR seems pretentious and useless. I suppose there may be a reason to put a second stick in if you want to use the plane as a trainer, but other than that what's it for? Does anyone ever use the second stick? Seems to me it just takes up already scarce legroom and if you remove it you're still left with the other one in an unnatural position. If you sit on one side, squished up against the fuselage, it will be heavier on that side than on the other, which means you can't steer the plane by leaning to one side or the other as you can when you sit in the center. With the original design and with the original canopy, two people jammed together in a KR finds both people bending their necks to the center. If you watch, when two normal sized people get out of a KR after a flight they walk around with their heads tilted to one side for the rest of the day :-) Unless you are the size of Ken Rand and only plan to take midgets as passengers, you'll be a lot happier with your plane if you think of it as a very comfortable single. I've never tried one with the side stick but if I were building one I sure would think about it. Mike
