The plans built KR-2 is a notoriously aft CG airplane, which is why those of us flying KRs have been beating the drum about CG for the last 15 years or so since the inception of the KRNet. The other thing is that no 2 KRs are built the same. There are a host of wings, tail feathers, engines, control configurations and CGs that are used, so no two are going to fly exactly the same.
So, I could spout on here about how I've spun my KR and the recovery is nominal, but that is absolutely meaningless drivel unless your plane is built with the same wing, same tail feathers and same CG as mine. To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any other KRs in the same configuration as mine, so my test data is of little use to any other KR pilot. In each case, we are test pilots. That sounds cool to some people, but the fact is that test piloting brings an element of risk with it, and should not be taken lightly. The NTSB did not speculate on why the aircraft would not recover from the spin. In my opinion, the original plans built KR lacked sufficient horizontal and vertical stabilizers, rudder and elevator. But would still recover if the CG was within reasonable range (which does not include all of the published CG range). But if the CG is aft, recovery is unlikely. Even though the NTSB cites the engine failure as partial cause, I doubt the engine not running impeded recovery as I never add power until the aircraft is already recovering. Going to full power in a spin is a great way to convert a normal spin into a flat spin which makes life even more interesting. The video recorder gives a host of information. The one thing that really stands out to me is that the aircraft was stable at roughly 20? nose down and continued in that attitude until impact. That just screams out AFT CG causing the spin to go flat. In a flat spin, there is less air moving over the controls, so you have even less control than a normal spin. The aircraft stayed stable at 20? nose down regardless of control input says not enough air moving over the controls to even affect the attitude and/or not enough controls to catch sufficient air to affect the attitude. Add it all up. Small tail. Aft in the CG range. Either can kill you. It seems quite likely he was fighting both. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 at 10:43 PM > From: "Mike T via KRnet" <krnet at list.krnet.org> > To: krnet at list.krnet.org > Subject: KR> KR-2 in "Aftermath" > > Flying Magazine's column "Aftermath" is a detailed monthly analysis of an > accident in the NTSB database. October's column is about a KR-2 that went > into an unrecoverable spin in August, 2013. A great deal of info is > available, because he was running a video camera that recorded the whole > thing (and kept running long after his death). > > The analysis is good, but someone here who spins his KR may want to reply > to it. I'm mentioning this because Flying Magazine has almost no nothing in > it useful to homebuilders, so people here may not have seen this. (BTW, I'm > not recommending that anyone else subscribe to Flying Magazine. They > offered me a subscription practically free, so I took it, but I don't plan > to renew). > > Mike Taglieri
