Sam that is an awesome story as I am about to put my KR to the air...
Thanks for sharing
Luis R Claudio KR2S N8981S Dallas, Texas
On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 04:51:12 AM CDT, Samuel Spanovich via KRnet
<krnet@list.krnet.org> wrote:
My first time flying my KR2S was back in 2018, about a week after I purchased
the plane and towed it on a trailer to its home in Mississippi. This was
fairly early on in my flying career (~200 hours or so) and I certainly was a
little intimidated at the new bird. After all, the KR2 is known to be a sporty
little thing, that is a little sensitive in pitch, and I figured it would be a
massive leap from flying a 172 (what I got my PPL in).
I took about a week to get the wings on, start it up, and taxi it around on the
ground. I even did some high-speed taxi testing on the runway to try to get a
feel of how the differential brakes handled (again something I’ve never used
before).
One day, while getting ready to perform another high speed taxi test, I figured
I’d run up the engine a little bit more than usual to see how much it would put
me in the back of the seat. I ran the little Revmaster up (which was bone
stock at the time), and started seeing 20 mph. Then 30 mph. Then 40. Before I
could blink, 50 mph.
Better start slowing down, I told myself.
Nah, keep going.
60 mph
Better do it now.
Keep going!!!
The heck with taxi’d testing........I’m going flying.
80 mph - rotate.
At that point, I pulled the stick back and had my first flight in a KR, and it
didn’t take me long to realize what a great bird it was and how well it flew.
The engine ran nice and smooth, the weather was gorgeous, and despite what I
had read, it didn’t seem to be too overly sensitive in pitch.
I did notice that the plane performed a little differently than a Cessna 172.
Roll rate was quicker, climb rate was slightly higher, but most importantly,
the ride quality was much, MUCH more of a roller coaster ride. While the 172 I
had been trained on would handle most bumps with relative ease, my first flight
in the KR2 felt like I was on a buckin’ bronco. The 80-90F temperatures in the
south didn’t help. Still though, I wasn’t scared or even remotely discouraged;
honestly I just embraced it. I had my own airplane, flying high in the sky,
with just me, with almost no clouds in the sky, enjoying the beautiful scenery
that Mississippi has to offer.
I cruised around for about an hour, enjoying the sights, listening to the
little engine purr like a kitten, and taking in that I was now officially a
true aircraft owner. However it eventually hit me that I would have to get
this thing on the ground, and that I had a total of zero landings in this
airplane; I dialed up the tower for Key Field and requested to perform touch
and goes for Runway 1 (which is a 10,000 foot long runway, much shorter than
their 4K foot runway primarily used for GA traffic). The reply I got back from
them was nothing short of hilarious; “Experimental
6399U........Roger........report....um report a left downwind for Runway 1”.
I’m pretty sure the thought such a small aircraft requiring that long of a
runway absolutely blew their minds, but I wasn’t sure just how far down the
plane would float, and I wanted to have every inch of runway available in case
things got squirrely, especially for my first time.
I recalled what the seller had told me when I bought the plane: “it’s speeds
are very similar to a 172, you climbout about 80-90 mph and come in over the
numbers around 80 mph”. I figured I would add 10 mph for my first time, and
saw 90 mph over the numbers before I pulled power back. WOW did I float down
the runway. I definitely was glad I had that 10,000’ runway because I’m pretty
certain I didn’t touch down until about the 5-6k board. I immediately retracted
the speed brakes and off again I went. I did about 4x more landings, each time
floating significantly less and less, before making a full stop, then
proceeding to go into the FBO to have some ice cream and hot dogs.
At this point I called my wife, and explained to her that I had taken the plane
flying (when I left the house I had no intention of flying, just more ground
testing), so when I told her that I had landed in Key Field (just 15 minutes
from our house), she immediately got in the car to come see me and come check
out the little bird in action. While she didn’t end up going flying with me
that particular day, I did get to show off a little bit on my next takeoff
going back to my home field; taking off again on the 10,000 foot runway, and
staying in ground effect about 10-20 feet off the ground, until reaching the
end of the runway, then pulling back the stick to begin climbing out. I’m
fairly certain I saw 120-130 mph on the airspeed by the time I reached the end
of the runway.
When I finally returned to my home field, the landing was uneventful and by far
the smoothest one I had out of the 5 that day. I taxi’d the plane back towards
my hangar area, put it to sleep, and then drove home with a big smile on my
face.
That was the day I became a KR2 pilot. One of the most thrilling, exciting, fun
flights I have ever had. While it may not seem like anything real special, it’s
always going to hold a special place in my heart; as I’m sure most of you can
relate, it was my first flight in a KR2, in my airplane, and was the tip of the
iceberg of opening myself up to experimental aircraft ownership.
V/R
Sam
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jul 16, 2022, at 8:04 PM, Lulubelle Pitts via KRnet <krnet@list.krnet.org>
> wrote:
>
> Does anybody have any stories of flying a KR-2 for the first time, be it
> scary, exciting, or fun?
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