Bill Freeman wrote:

snips

  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.

snips 

Bill

To be a bit more accurate Bill, Ken was flying a direct drive VW. Prop 
bolted to the wrong end of the shaft and the new Pulsar engine is a geared 
VW based engine. Whole different situation on the crankshaft loads.
It is now well known that there is a limit to the weight of the prop
you can bolt to a VW crankshaft and that appears to be three pounds.
Ken died 20 years ago as I recall. I will take a close look at that 
new engine and gear box soon.
 
Paul Lamar
 
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