Rotax 583 powered KR2

[Jean Crous]

Lyk my jy het al Builders Warehouse se klampe opgekoop
J

[Henni]

Hi Jean,

Yes, one can never have too many clamps! If I had more, the other side would now also have been in place.

Hopefully I can start making the canopy soon now. I am so tempted to sart making my instrument panel, but at this stage it will limit my access to the firewall from the inside and I need to make the engine mount, move the rudder pedals forward and move the landing gear to the rear of the forward spar.

Cheers my friend,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Both window sills in place. Now I have to clean off excess glue and sand smooth so it's nicely curved.

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

[Loco]

Very inspirational and entertaining, thanks for all the detailed posts please keep them coming

& best if luck!

[Henni]

Hi Anthony,

Will do my friend. Tx for the feedback.

Cheers,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Sanding to shape & ridding it of excess glue.

Keep well all my flying mates,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Whilst my progress is not too fast, let me tell you all how I started flying:

1st attempt

Back in the 1970's, I read an article in the Popular Mechanics about a Rotorway Scorpion helicopter. The article was short, but did mention that it was built from steel and used a 140hp V4 engine.

I did not come from a flying family, neither did I have any flying friends. I knew nothing about flying, but I definitely knew that I wanted to fly.

So I go buy myself some light steel square tubing & started building myself a helicopter (or at least my idea of a helicopter). Oh, how everyone laughed at me. When I was done building the main fuselage, I went to the scrapyard and purchased a Taunis V4 engine. Then I mounted this neatly under the seat of my "helicopter"

Now the laughing stopped and I was asked questions like:

Who will teach you to fly this thing
Where will you take off from

etc. Well, after all this work I saw another article about the Rotorway helicopter & this time round they mentioned that it was built from chrome molly steel & was powered by a Eveinrude 140hp V4 modified outboard engine.

I cut my "helicopter" up and used the pieces to build myself two car ramps. I've had this till fairly recent, even many, many years later.

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Attempt no.2

Here is another funny story on how I started flying. Remember that this was during the 1970's. I knew NOTHING about flying, never saw or knew a homebuilt plane or even knew that the idea of homebuilt aircraft even existed. Yet I wanted to fly!

I bought this hang-glider from someone. Was working at Welkom at the time. Very, very flat area. So one day I loaded this hang-glider on my roof & drove off to find a sort of a mountain from which to launch. After driving for many kms, I found a little koppie on some ones farm. Asked the farmer permission to use it & his only concern was as long as I do not kill myself, it's okay.

I was there all by myself. Carried this hang-glider up the koppie & assembled it there. Right at the bottom of this "koppie" was a rather deep quarry. I was not at all concerned about it as I intended to be flying long before I reach it.

So, I strapped myself into my flying machine and started running down this koppie as fast as my legs could carry me. I knew nothing about hang-gliding & was pushing the bar way to the front whilst running down.

Of cause I was stalling all the way & when I reached this quarry, down plunged I with my flying contraption & all. Got a strained ankle as a result. Was no one there to help, so I assembled my flying machine in my injured condition & sneaked away before the farmer could see me. Yet I was determined as ever to fly...

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Attempt no.3

So, now I come up with a better idea. My friend has a six cylinder 1300 Kawasaki. I approached him for help. Bought myself a nice long rope & head out to the veld with my friend.

Strapped myself in, had him tie one end of the rope behind his Kawa, the other end to the top of the triangle bar of the glider and tell him to pull with everything his Kawa has. I think we tried five or six times. The reason I'm alive today is that I could not get off the ground. I kept falling forward with the nose of the glider dug firmly into the ground.

I only read long afterwards how many were killed by attempting this and of the special harness required to do this with and how the pull from the vehicle keeps on increasing the climb or turn unless connected to the correct harness. Yet I still persisted: I want to fly...

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Attempt no.4

Well, now I have a better idea. I saw a picture somewhere of a trike microlight. Well, I already had the glider, so why not build myself a trike.

Off to the hardware store again to purchase some more square tubing. Built myself something that roughly resembled a trike cart. Purchased two chain saw engines and mounted one on either side, slightly behind the seat. Purchased some small lawnmower wheels, had bearings fitted to these and installed on my "trike".

The swivel where the wing attach was just that - a swivel that could swivel in most required directions.

So, I load my "trike" and drive off to behind the factories in the town where I lived to find a suitable gravel road for take-off. Mounted my hang glider on top of this contraption. The security guards of NATREF factory saw me, and quite a few bakkies followed me to see what would happen.

I'm sure that the only reason I'm alive today was that the gravel roads were quite rocky, and every time I nearly gained enough speed to take off, some biggish rocks would cause the very small wheels to slow down so that I just could not gain enough speed to get airborne.

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Success at last!

Attempt no.5

Note, this was nearly 35 years ago. I was stupid & would NEVER recommend this to anyone. In the meantime I received full training and a valid license. Don't threaten me as a result of this story!

Well, this was the beginning 1980's. I managed an hour and a half of official flight training at the old Barragwana airport. Now I motivate someone to buy a Quicksilver MXI microlight from America.

When the box arrived, I helped him to assemble this thing in his front yard. It came with flying instructions, and I told him the little that I knew.

Well, it sat in his garden for three months. He was too afraid to do anything with it. So he asked me to take it to my plot and to store it there for him, which I did. I said to him that if he EVER wanted to sell it and would accept three monthly payments, that I would take it from him. He would however not consider at the time.

One day he phoned me out of the blue and informed me I can buy the aircraft from him under those conditions. Boy, I did not wait, but took off early from work & drove straight home. I assembled everything in a jiffy and took it to an open field on my plot. It was just big enough for a qualified person to fly from without any room for error.

Told my wife I'm just going to taxi it around a bit & that I would not try to fly it. In the middle of this field was a small trench. When I went over it for the third time, I did not feel it & new I was almost flying & pulled back on the stick. In the air we went.

The last thing my instructor taught me was stalls, & that was all I had on my mind. So I sat as quiet as possible whilst waiting for this thing to gain some height. When I reached roughly 1000ft (I had no instruments), I levelled off & decided to see how this thing stalls.

So I cut the power completely & yanked the nose up to about 45 degrees. Boy, did that thing go into a snap stall! The next thing there was nothing between my face & the ground, & before I knew what was going on, I let go of the controls & grabbed a tube to each side of me.

There I sat, frozen solid in that position. The aircraft dove, picked up speed, pulled itself out of the dive & after a few oscillations was flying level again. Yet, it took quite a while before I could let go of those tubes & concentrate on flying her again.

By now, my wife was going crazy on the ground. She called every neighbour to come and help. When I approached for my first landing attempt, there were already quite a few cars that arrived to watch all of this commotion. I had to land between a water tank & some out buildings and because of a cross wind, found that rather hard to do. Well, to cut a long story short, I landed on about the 5th attempt, safely by the way without bending anything.

And that my friends, was how I started & finally succeeded in my craving for flying.

Keep well all,

Henni

[vernon11]

entertaining story Henni.
Vernon.

[Jean Crous]

Hennerik, jy verbaas my..............en dan het ek gedink jy is so n sedige karakter
J

[Henni]

Hi all,

So one day I take off from my same veld in same MXI. I could fly her properly by now. As soon as I took off, I realized that I made a BIG mistake as it turned out to be EXREMELY turbulent. I battled to gain some altitude, and when I did reach it, I battled to stay aloft. I really had very little control over flying, I was just being thrown around like a paper bag in a strong wind.

There was no way I could attempt a landing at home in those conditions, so I headed towards Vanderbijlpark airfield that was only ten minutes away. When I reached it, I gave up, cut the throttle and did everything in my power to get her on the runway. It was a miracle that I made it. As I taxied out to the parking area, I saw a man & his wife staring at me and walking towards me.

As soon as I got out, the man grabbed my hand, shook it violently and said: Congratulations. That was the BEST aerobatic display I've EVER seen performed in a microlight. To which I replied: That was NO aerobatic display, it was me fighting for my life!

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hennerik, jy verbaas my..............en dan het ek gedink jy is so n sedige karakter
J

No my friend,

Just because I'm totally & unconditionally His does not make me abnormal or daft in any way or form. But please, let's not discuss this over here. I love flying just as much as any other guy out here.

Cheers,

Henni