Nice picture, Bob.  I would've had one today, but it sunset was something of 
a non-event in north Alabama today. I did get some flying in today 
though...something like 12 hours of it, but only 1.5 was KR time.  I left 
the farm house in England at 5AM this morning, and got home at 4PM...and was 
flying the KR by 5PM.  I was a little worried that it might not start after 
sitting for 5 weeks.  After all, my cordless phone, electric shaver, GTI, 
and everything else I own with a battery in it was totally dead, but the KR 
fired up instantly!

My wife said I should go practice landings before going to OSH, and I told 
her it was like riding a bike...it was going to take a lot longer than 5 
weeks to make me forget.  But I obliged, and takeoff was perfect, and the 
landings weren't bad either.  The only surprise was when I came back to M38 
and discovered corn growing where there's usually cotton.  That means 5 feet 
less of vertical clearance at the end of the runway.  That doesn't sound 
like much, but it translates into a good distance down the runway more than 
I'm used to.  It felt like a big drop after I came over the top of the corn! 
Well, OK, I got to practice braking a little harder with the tail up, and 
still had plenty of room, but I like to get it down to taxi speed as soon as 
possible. It also means corn on the cob when I clean out the tailwheel this 
fall, rather than bolls of cotton and weeds!

I was up at FYM doing touch and goes and some guy in an experimental joined 
the pattern, doing one of those huge patterns that ends in a long drawn out 
power-on final that seems to last forever if you're in a KR.  I had to 
extend way downwind and then did a touch-and-go behind him.  I did my usual 
crosswind at mid field or so, as he taxied around beneath me.  He called on 
the radio and asked what I was flying, and I told him a Corvair powered 
KR2S.  "How about landing and letting me check that out?  Sure sounds 
good!".  So I did.  What amazed me was I was expecting an RV, but found a 
P-51 on the ground!  Well as I got closer I realized it wasn't quite a 
full-sized Mustang, but it was one fine Loehle P-51. See 
http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/flights/p512.jpg and 
http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/flights/p51.jpg , owned by Fayetteville 
TN's Larry Mullins.  It's a nice "piece-o-kit"!  He said he could only do 
100 mph, so I told him a Corvair would sound right at home on that Mustang, 
but it turns out that 100mph is Vne on the Loehle Mustang.

Seeing his plane and comparing it to mine, I should be ashamed to park mine 
on the field at OSH or SNF...it's really rough and looks like some hack just 
threw it together.  Well I guess the truth hurts, and I just don't have time 
to make it look any better at the moment, so I'll have to accept the fact 
that flying a rough plane beats driving anytime.  But seeing Larry's P-51 
make me wish I'd have found the time to clean it up a bit and throw some 
paint on it...

Mark Langford
N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
website at http://www.N56ML.com
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