Things have been a bit slow on the net so I'll try to give the current builders some motivation to get back out to the shop and keep building.
Yesterday was cool and somewhat cloudy here in southern Illinois but the wind was near calm and the air was smooth. I got to the airport about 9:30AM and gave the KR a quick checkout. My friend Bill called me on the cell as I was driving to the airport. His son was visiting and Bill wanted to borrow the Tripacer to take him flying. I told him to bring his camera and the Tripacer was full of fuel and at the local airport. My home base (hangar) is about 20 miles from where we live so he was airborne before me. As I fired up the KR I heard Bill on the radio with two ultralight buddies flying Challengers headed to my home base. I quickly got airborne and did an intercept about 10 miles out. Bill was above the scattered cloud deck so I joined him at 4000 feet. His son took several really good pic's of the KR while the Challengers were landing. We started our decent to land and Bill was a bit slow getting down and doing a two mile straight-in approach. I informed him to continue his approach while I made a 190 mph dive for the airport and did a fly-by for the locals. I pulled up and joined the pattern behind him for landing. We made quick work of a dozen doughnuts and decided to head to the Challenger's home base about 25 miles west. I was the last to depart and gave the Challengers a fly-by on the way back. I then did a 360 and joined the formation flying at 60 mph between the two Challengers. As we passed over a friends grass strip, Bill in the Tripe and me in the KR had to give him a low pass to let him know we were out and about. Arriving at the Challenger's home base I had to make a low pass to check the wind and again joined the pattern for landing. As we sat in the hangar discussing the pro's and con's of the various flying machines, more and more of our flying buddies kept arriving. They finally talked me into flying (solo) the Tri-Star ultralight. It seems to be the ultralight they send unsuspecting suckers out to fly to introduce them to ultralights and then later set around and make fun of the poor newcomer and his flying abilities. This TriStar is a two axis machine with rudder and elevator only. That took some getting used to as the KR requires little if any rudder once airborne. Anyway, I managed to take off, circle the airport, and land without any PIO cycles or doing any damage to the TriStar. Did I mention that this TriStar has only two working instruments? The CHT and EGT guage. This was real "seat-of-the-pants" flying!! After an hour or two the crowd broke up and I headed South about 20 miles to a friend's grass strip. Two airplanes were setting outside and lots of vechicles in the drive so I gave them a low pass and landed. Turns out they were having a birthday party so I joined in having some cake. He later flew one of the aircraft setting outside, a Super Storch. It's one of a very few of this model in the U.S. He put on a short demo and then it was time for me to leave. I did another pass on departure and headed back to home base. About half way home I saw what looked like a Cherokee headed the opposite direction. As he passed, I could tell it was an Ercoupe. My buddy Steve woke from his afternoon nap and had decided to go flying. I joined up with him and he headed back to my home base. I put the KR in the hangar as he landed and immediately jumped in the Ercoupe with him and flew the 20 miles South to where the Tripacer was at. I jumped in the Tripacer and flew it back to home base in the dark. All the Christmas lights were glowing for the 10 minute flight. I got the airplanes secured and headed home. On my way home reality struck. I remembered I had to stop at the hardware store and pick up a part and fix a toilet when I got home. After the day I had that seemed like a minor price to pay. Soooooo, all you builder out there thinking you'll work on the KR tomorrow, go out and get something done today. There is not only light at the end of the tunnel, there is a WHOLE BUNCH OF FUN TO BE HAD TOO. GET TO BUILDING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll e-mail a couple of pic's to Mark L. to put on my site for you to check out. If they don't get you motivated you might as well put the project on e-bay !! Thanks Mark. Larry Flesner 111.0 hours and still grinnin'.....................
