Joe Horton said, > "In my airplane as in life I prefer to see where I am going and avoid most obstacles instead of weaving around like a drunken sailor. I guess Dan just likes to drag his A$$ around."
I'm doing a prop balance on this Cavalier I'm delivering to its new owner in Indianapolis in a couple days and was driving it around the ramp this morning warming the engine up in preperation for the run-ups and again noted this tail-dragger drives just like a tri-gear. I can easily see over the nose without craning my neck. This Cavalier is a good example of having it both ways. It's possible with a KR to extend the fuselage enough that the angle it sits at is so shallow that taxiing a KR around would be similar or the same as with this Cavalier. Mine is almost that way since Steve Bennett (I think) put a block underneath the tailspring in order to raise the tail and thus make it easier to see over the nose. In Ken Cottle's original pictures of the plane it sat at a steep angle, something like Richard Shirley's. I can crane my neck and barely see over the nose so that's nice, but the penalty for that is you can't get the wing anywhere near stall when trying to make a full-stall landing. I've been meaning for a long time to take that block out but never have gotten around to it. It's fine the way it is and I've never had any trouble so far getting into tight spaces. Really short strips would be a different matter though. Jim Morehead's tri-gear (the only tri-gear KR I've ever flown) was/is a real piece of cake to stall the wing at touchdown and make extremely short landings. Not so with the KR taildraggers though - mine at least. I can't get very close at all to stalling the wing when touching down. Jim's wife Rae mentioned at McMinnville that they need to sell the plane since Jim's knee issues are preventing any further KR flying. If somebody would like a head start on flying I'd highly recommend Jim's airplane. It's very carefully built and "true." If Jim and Rae haven't sold the plane already, anyone wanting a really well-done KR-2 ought to get in touch with them. It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to fly it. That drag flap and really smooth and sturdy extension mechanism he built are examples of how to do it right. kr2jm at sbcglobal.net *********** One bit of odd information I picked up on the Google Group having to do with the Cavalier aircraft https://sites.google.com/site/cavalieraircraft/ is that some are claiming the tri-gear is about 15 MPH faster than the conventional gear (original) model. This is a claim I haven't seen disputed anywhere in the reading I've done on the Cavalier so it's possibly true even though counterintuitive. If it is true I'd be interested to read the theory of why this is so - sort of defies logic that sticking another drag producing item into the slipstream would make a plane go faster, but airplanes and engines sometimes have their own logic. Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ A Balance Transfer Card With An Outrageously Long Intro Rate And No Balance Transfer Fees That Can Save You Thousands http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5623ef8d9e9a96f8d0a65st02vuc
