Greetings, Larry. I worked in Oklahoma City from 1983 until 1989. I
spent many weekends, at Riverside / Jenks Airport / Richard L Jones
airport,( these are one and the same) and Dan and Tom Diehl's
workshop.. Alvin and Calvin were indeed Twins and they grew up in
Ponca City, OK. Parents were still there when I met Alvin.. Al may
have worked in Arkansas, but told me he grew up in Ponca City and
shared stories about it. When Al was building his KR, a close friend
of his was building one exactly like it. Dan made up a couple of
engine cases, with a provision to run a Vacuum Pump, as both were
installing a full IFR panel. I was at Dan's when these two came up for
a weekend, to grind clearances on their engine cases, and camshafts,
for clearing their Stroker Crankshafts. Both were 2180 cc. Along the
way, the other fellow lost interest, or something, and another friend
of Alvin's bought it and was still building, when Alvin died. Money
was what slowed down his progress, and I never heard if he finished
it.
One year at Christmas or Thanksgiving time, Alvin called me and said
" John, you just saved my life. I said what? Well you see, often,
Alvin's oil pressure gauge would just drop to 0, and it had happened
so many times, that he just expected it was ok. He had changed out the
electric transmitter, and it still kept randomly going to 0 and
sometimes come back up. It bothered me, so I suggested he get a
mechanical Oil pressure gauge. I had some left over stainless wire
braded hose, and fittings, and gave it to him. He was leaving Ponca
City, after visiting his folks, and it was a really cold morning. On
engine start, he said his oil pressure gauge was nearly pegged, ( 100
PSI ) gauge), due to the cold temps. On the takeoff roll, he lifted
the tail, and saw the oil pressure drop to ZERO.). He told me that had
he not put in the mechanical gauge, he would have kept going, on his
way back to Texas. He shut it down, and pulled off to the side of the
runway. When he got out, he saw the oil streak on the runway behind
his plane. The Oil cooler had blown apart.
Calvin, Alvin's twin, bought his KR , and it had a History. Lance
Niebauer built it, and it was called Sweet Mildred, after Lance's
mother. It had changed hands a few times before Calvin acquired it. At
one point Sweet Mildred was on a used car lot. Calvin worked for the
Diehl's for quite some time, and he installed a Diehl Tri Gear in
Sweet Mildred. Calvin flew "chase " when I got my repaired KR2 back in
the air. I have a video of this, from 1999. I test flew both first
flights from Riverside, and Dan took the videos, both times. Calvin
sold his KR at one point, but I do not know any more about where it
went. Hope this answers your questions, Larry.
PS I do have more Oldtimer stories. Did you all know Ernest Koppe,
worked at Diehl's for a while, too? I spent 5 days, worked along side
him on one of Dan's Amphibious Ultralight projects.
-----------------------------------------From: "Flesner via KRnet"
To: krnet@list.krnet.org
Cc: "Flesner"
Sent: Wednesday May 3 2023 6:56:46PM
Subject: KRnet> question for old timers
A question for those around during the early days of the KR. There
were
two brothers or cousins with the last name of Campbell. I'm not sure
of
their first names. Was one of their names Keith and were they from
the
Midwest, Iowa to be more specific?
The reason I ask is that a friend of mine took their RV10 fuel tank
to a
shop in Iowa for repair and one of the owners of the shop is Keith
Campbell and he indicated he built a KR1 many years ago. I seem to
recall hearing their names back in the 90's at different Gatherings.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Larry Flesner
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