Well, here it is, my project. I've been working on it since July of 1996, and hope to have it flying by the Fall of 1999. The airplane is a KR-2S, pretty much stock, with the following exceptions:

• Diehl fixed gear (conventional)


• Diehl wing skins, with wing roots set at 2 degrees of incidence


• Electric elevator trim


• Digital cockpit with HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) ergonomics

Here's my elevator trim tab installation, an example of a salvagable mistake. I had planned to put a piano hinge on the top of the elevator/tab, like on the ailerons, but goofed and put it on the bottom. This left me with an unsightly gap on the top of the elevator. So, I ended up filling and contouring the leading edge of the tab so that it would hide the hinge and actually retract into the elevator. I contoured the inside of the elevator to accept the tab, and voila, it looks like I designed it that way! Now I have a gap seal on the bottom formed by the piano hinge, and a smooth transition from the tab to the elevator maintained throughout the range of motion of the tab on the top.

I wouldn't recommend this arrangement to anyone, as it took alot of time, but it turned out really nice. The problem with it is that the range of up travel on the tab (nose down trim) is limited by the leading edge of the tab, so I may have to make some modifications during flight test.

Here's another recovered mistake. I was referencing the stock KR-2 plans when I put the tail post on, and neglected to put in the 1/4" plywood doubler that the KR-2S requires. So, I had to cut off the tail post to put on the doubler, reglue it in place, and then laminate some plywood on the sides and back across the tail post. I tapered the leading edge of the plywood before laminating it, and then filled and contoured with micro. Again, a mistake made and compensated for.