> All that being said, it would be great for our members to do some > testing and report it, not even at next gathering, how about at next > time at the airport? Would love to see some empty weight, gross weight, > take-off, landing, climb rate, > and top speed reports!
OK, Here's the numbers for my O-200 powered KR for the last week. Flew a total of 2070 nautical miles and 16.2 hours for an average burn of 5.3 gph. If I back out the time horsing around near the airport and count only my cross country time, my average cruise was just a smidgen over 130 kts (150 mph) with most of it at 10,500' west bound and 11,500' for the whole trip east bound, with one short stint at 13,500' to get over the weather in the Cascades. Winds were headwinds to the west and tailwinds to the east, pretty much making them a wash. Each direction included 3 stops with corresponding long climbs back to altitude. Those are real cross country numbers once you roll in climbs, descents, fuel stops, etc for a 100 hp KR flying at 1200# gross. Will my KR fly at 180+ mph. You bet. Those that looked up when I entered the pattern at MMV coming back from the coast would have seen that. At lower altitudes where I normally wouldn't cruise it will true up at 158 kts (182 mph) in level flight, but that's cranking pretty hard on the engine and burning a lot of fuel. That's not how I normally operate my aircraft. I can't give any real numbers for take off and landing performance since everyone wants sea level numbers, and I'm based above 7000', so rarely get to fly at low altitudes. My numbers here would be meaningless. I don't think getting out of a 1200' sea level strip on a standard day would be a problem, but getting into a 1200' field and getting stopped would be a real problem for me, although I suspect I could improve that capability significantly with some practice. Since I normally land on a 6000' runway with my hangar at the far end, I simply don't practice landing short. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM
