Well folks, after many years of dreaming and planning, I am finally working on
my KR-1!
I picked up a project from Portage, WI, and hauled it back here to OSH, where
I live and work at EAA. It is currently sitting in my garage on the retract
gear, with a HAPI conversion installed, and the foam and fiberglass had been
started, but was not acceptable. I have spent the past 2 weeks removing all the
foam and glass from the structure, so basically it is now in the boat stage
with center section. I also have the outer spars and aileron wood strips and
hinges, and most of the metal parts and pieces too, so it is a good start.
The previous builder had obviously seen Ron Scott's "Ol' Ironsides" airplane
which was based here in WI, or read the articles about it in Sport Aviation,
because it has fiberglass sheet for the sides and bottom instead of aircraft
plywood. EAA now has "Ol' Ironsides" in storage so I was able to look it over,
and it is the same construction exactly. I am just going to leave it, rather
than try to remove the fiberglass sheet down to the wood structure, which would
probably damage it beyond repair if I tried to remove it anyway.
I purchased a set of plans from Jeanette Rand back in 2009, so these might be
the last KR-1 plans that she personally sold. I will use the new airfoil, and
am pretty sure I will convert it to fixed gear. Any KR-1 flyers that have
actually used the retract gear and like it? I have read all the posts about it,
so if I do keep them I will change the latching system in some fashion.
My goal is to have the lightest KR-1 possible, using Ken Rand's original 310 lb
empty weight as my target. No starter, bare minimum equipment (have nav/strobes
though) and probably MGL instruments with a tablet and Icom A24 handheld radio.
Any advice, comments, and especially real-world experiences welcome!
Tim Hoversten
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