How high have I pushed my gross weight? My KR ll is a joy to fly when light...unpleasant towards dangerous when overloaded which makes smooth landings more difficult. I did once fold up the gear. It was the end of a long day, I had my wife, camping gear, quite a lot of fuel and after bouncing my landing, failed to recover. The third bounce broke the (poor) welds on the hold down arms and we slid to a stop riding on the ends of the exhaust pipes. I still think retractable is cool, but would never land her on anything but pavement. Getting 160 mph out of 50 HP is amazing! The retracts may not help, but they sure don't hurt.
On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 11:12 AM Kevin Stolhammer via KRnet < [email protected] wrote: > I just finished a KR 1 with retract, and am still building a KR 2, also > with retract. Having read ML's opinions many times, I just decided to go > original, 'cause that is what fired my interest when I was 17(now north of > 60). Now to a question for those still having retracts, or have flown > them: How high have you pushed the gross weight? Having a real 2 place > might make me change my mind.... > > Thanks > Kevin > > On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 10:03 AM rdracer53 via KRnet <[email protected] > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone > > I agree that it seems like a lot of extra expense to convert from > > retractable ear to fixed gear, but I imagine for some folks the joy may > be > > in just having another project/modification for them to tackle. That may > > make it worth the expense.Certainly you work have to get some super > > performance increase to make it cost effective.Assuming you got another > > 10mph airspeed, that's another 30 miles out of each tank of gas, for > those > > of us with the plans built 12 gallon header tank, assuming a 4gph burn > > rate. If you also assume your fuel economy adds up to around 30mpg, that > > would be like getting and extra gallons worth of travel out of each tank > of > > gas. At 5$/gallon for 100LL you would only have fly 200 tank fulls of > gas, > > or 600 hours to recover the cost of converting if it had cost you $1000 > for > > the conversion. So I guess it could eventually pay off, but again I think > > for most people who go through with it there is probably a joy in the > > building and installation of the new gear, not to mention the finish work > > required afterwards.If it were just a matter of reliability as Larry > > mentioned, you could just modify your retractable gear with a few bolts > to > > hold it in the down position and viola, fixed gear.As Larry always says, > > your results may vary. > > Todd ThelinN825MW > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > I still like my retractable gear. Why are people going to the > considerable > > effort to replace it with fixed gear? What is the performance before and > > after? Has anyone ever really tried to seal up the retractable wheel > wells > > (I have to some extent) it should make a big performance improvement. > > > > > > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > > Done correctly, fixed gear is lighter, faster, and dare I say, more > > reliable. > > > > Larry > > *********************************** > > _______________________________________________ > > Search the KRnet Archives at > > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > > Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. > > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to > change > > options. > > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected] > > > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected] > _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected]
