September 2001

The Gadget's flight authorization was going to expire on September 16 (they are only valid for 365 days). I could have applied for an extension, however decided to expedite the remaining hours and apply for the Special C of A directly.

Between August 6 and September 10 GFW flew 25.3 hours without incident (I know…I was surprised too). The aircraft and engine performed well and the pilot managed not to bend anything important. 

In Canada, at the end of the 25 hour test period you submit the climb test report and a copy of the Journey Log entries along with a mash note to your friendly neighbourhood Transport Canada and wait for what seems like a few years (actually about 2 -3 weeks). If all is in order they respond with the document you've probably spent more on obtaining than your college diploma.

So that's it!

While waiting for the C of A it was time to do the Annual/100 hour inspection.

I could not find any specific KR information on this item. Drawing from a number of other sources I produced a checklist which should address most of the maintenance requirements of the Gadget. The file is in Microsoft Word format. Feel free to use it and if you notice any errors or omissions let me know.

The Annual required about two days to do and no major deficiencies were noted. After the inspection was complete the paperwork arrived and it was time to go places.

The first trips were to nearby airports (60 miles or so) with which I was quite familiar. Both have long, wide hard surfaced runways with shorter cross-runways just in case. It was great to be finally using the KR for the purpose it was designed. This is an airplane you can go places with.

Flying x-country behind an engine you maintain (or even build up) gives you a whole new appreciation for your forced approach training. One of the first things I am planning is to assess the glide performance of the KR. I am going to use a quiet airport and my handheld GPS to run a number of simulated engine failures. It should be possible to record distance traveled using the odometer feature. 5000'AGL on a minimum of 3 runs would seem to be a reasonable benchmark to start from. In addition to providing data the practice will be a good idea.

X-countries will be flown as follows:

1) Watch destination airport winds carefully. I have yet to determine a maximum x-wind landing component.

2) Plan legs to stay closer to airports enroute whenever practicable.

3) Fly as high as practicable consistent with cruising altitudes, weather and winds aloft.

4) Take advantage of flight following when available (they can provide vectors and distance to emergency fields).

5) Use conservative estimates of fuel consumption until a good body of fuel burn data can be collected.

6) Always strive to identify enroute airports/aerodromes as early as possible.

7) When out of range of an enroute airport/aerodrome make certain you have a suitable candidate field picked.

8) Closely monitor engine operating parameters and do not hesitate to divert to the nearest suitable airport/aerodrome if any anomalous readings are noted (having current charts and airport directory make it easier to make this decision).

Seems pretty basic but I think all these points are worth reconsidering now that the Gadget is ready to start going places. The Revmaster is a pretty reliable conversion however I am a pessimist by nature.

The aux tanks were given about 1.5 gallons of fuel each about 20 hours ago. Carrying this extra fuel has hopefully cleaned any remaining sediment from the aux tanks. The header tank will be drained and this fuel pumped in and discarded (thanks to this practice I have the fastest riding lawn mower in Heimlich County I tell you what).

Once this has been done and the screens checked the aux tanks will be ready for use.