An elderly gentleman friend of mine needed his recently restored Aeronca Chief moved from a grass strip to the local airport. The only person that had flown it since the restoration was not available so he asked me if I would help him out. As I seldom turn down a possible adventure I agreed to move it for him.
The only favorable winds for the whole weekend was yesterday morning early. We arrived at the strip at 6:45AM and rolled it out of the hangar. A two minute briefing and preflight had him in the cockpit and me giving it a hand prop. It started on the first pull and we switched places. I added power and headed for the runway. The first 90 degree right turn to the runway should have given me a clue as to the adventure that lay ahead. The right turn continued an additional 45 degrees before I could stop it with the weak left mechanical brake. I added power and got it back on the runway and taxied to the end. A quick mag check and I was rolling for takeoff. I had considered doing some fast taxi tests but it was rolling straight and before I knew it I was flying. At about 100 feet altitude I glanced at the airspeed indicator and it was pegged on 60 mph indicated. It felt good so I held that and continued to climb out. A 180 degree turn at about 500 feet and I was headed off to the airport with a 30 mph tailwind. A 15 minute flight and I was on right downwind to runway 20, an 8000 foot by 150 runway. I was having to hold about a 30 degree crab to fly downwind but I knew the ground wind was 210 at 8 so I wasn't too concerned. 60mph felt good on climb out so I used that for my final approach speed. With the headwind on landing it seemed I was barely above walking speed when the mains kissed the pavement and started to roll. It took me a moment to realize I was down. A few seconds later and the nose started to drift right. Some left rudder brought it back but then it continued left. Some right rudder stopped that and it began drifting back to the right. At that point I was slowed to about 20mph and the nose continued to the right. The weak left brake came back in to play as the nose continued to the right. When the nose had gone about 45 degrees past runway center I knew I was just along for the ride. Full left rudder and brake had absolutely no effect. At about that time I realized I was switching pilot groups from "those that will" to "those that had". I caught myself leaning as far to the inside of the turn as possible like that was going to help. It came to a stop at the 270 degree point with the nose pointed back to the runway. I added power and got back to the runway center and taxied to the ramp. I lucked out as no runway lights were close and no damage done to the airplane. It was just a nice little dance step to finish out the flight, much like a dancer jumping in the air and clicking his heels on stage exit. One thing I learned from flying the Chief is that my KR is a real pussycat when it comes to ground handling. At 200+ hours in the KR I have never had a time when I felt the airplane was out of control or when it failed to respond to a control input. I'm hoping to get "one more dance" with the Chief before he sells it and next time I intend to "lead" and let the Chief "follow". Happy Easter to all those celebrating the holiday. Larry Flesner
