Anyone happen to know "what ever happened to" Ken Rand of
the KR1 and KR2 VW powered  homebuilt fame?

Bill

I thought he ran out of gas. Did the engine fail?

Paul Lamar

"David W.S. King" wrote:

He tried to scud run through a pass and hit the hill.

Dave

  I thought some one out there might remember.  He was flying home
to LA from Sun 'N Fun in his 100 hp VW powered KR2.   Arrived
over the LA area mtns in poor weather, on top; not a good plan.  His
aftermarket,
very expensive forged and counterweighted crank broke, after a relatively
few hours, like 200-300 or less.  He did not survive the dead stick approach
into a snowstorm over the mtns.  Very sad, but an object lesson on 100 hp
VW motors in airplanes, and pushing the weather.  Either incident separately
might well have had a happy outcome.

This is from my memory of a report in Kitplanes IIRC, so might have some
errors, but I remember it vividly since I thought the KR2 was pretty neat
and was more involved in VW engines at the time and had worried about
his 100 hp motor from the moment I heard about it.  Sadly, I was correct
in my estimate if the potential for VW reliability at this HP level.  Please
don't
do this again.  What's the old definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting a different outcome.  VWs can work
relatively well at up to 70 hp, but it is very risky to push above that level.

Let's stop with the VWs and go back to a really reliable core engine -
the Mazda, and try to work out the accys to make the whole package
as reliable as the core.

Bill

 
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