A friend of mine took me for a ride in an RV 4 built by himself, his brothers and their dad. It had a big engine and a constant speed prop.
I don't recall the engine size or designation, but it seemed huge. While flying the airplane, it felt like I was seated inside a bubble of alumninum foil attached to the back of a giant spinning anvil. While the airplane must have been properly balanced for flight, I could feel the plane being pulled (or resisted) every which way by that giant hunk of metal spinning out in front. It did not feel good. Except for doing a split-s at idle power, that hunk o' metal out front pulls you down and through.. Maybe I'd get used to it after a time. Perhaps the pluses to the arrangement would be revealed if I had been given free reign to try different maneuvers. I guess I am just saying, there's some good to not over-weighting your airframe with a big ole motor. jg On Wed, 2009-03-04 at 19:31 -0600, Larry&Sallie Flesner wrote: > > > > > >The KR2s is specified to have an gross weight of 980 lbs. Is this > >independent of the size of the motor. > > Yes. The motor has nothing to do with it. It is a factor of the > structures capability to support the weight.
