Made the first flight with N6242 this morning. That's 26+ years of steady building, modifying, sanding, painting, fixing and tweaking coming together for 10 minutes of flight with 2 laps around the patch. Winds were supposed to be calm as reported by AWOS; not true at any altitude above 20 feet. My pitch trim was set for neutral, but soon as flying speed was reached, got immediate pitch up, which of course, I immediately over corrected. Nearly lost it, but managed to keep going while holding lots of forward stick. Started to encounter more gusts a few hundred feet up with more PIO. By 1500 feet was getting better control, but still gusty. Still had full down trim and holding lots of forward stick. At 2000 feet oil temp spiked at 240 degrees F and oil pressure was dropping off. Reduced throttle to idle to glide to an airport landing. Was to high and fast over the threshold. The low morning sun washed out everything on the Dynon during final approach. I did not know if the engine had enough oil for a go around, so pressed for a landing on the 4200' runway. Estimate the first touch was about 80 knots half way down the runway with more PIO. The third bounce bent the nose strut and trashed the wheel pant. Got to taxi speed with about 100 feet of runway to spare. Taxi back to the hangar was uneventful except for the fear induced adrenaline shakes. Inspection at the hangar revealed the nose strut bent at the curve up from the pivot. The wheel pant had asphalt scratches indicating a classic wheelbarrow touchdown and had been destroyed. Engine oil was at the full mark on the dip stick. Heat in the cabin during flight indicated inadequate airflow through the oil cooler; excessive air duct length may be the problem. The elevator trim tab would not extend beyond the neutral point using the cockpit control. The Nyrod shaft on the trim tab seems to be jammed to keep the elevator in the full up position. My right triceps still aches from holding forward stick so hard for so long. Troubleshooting is still ongoing to fix the elevator trim. Will also need a new nose strut and maybe a new oil cooler. My intent with persisting with the climb was to get enough experience with the controls to calm down the PIO for landing. Engine oil over heat preempted that training.
Sid Wood Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD, USA
