John Bouyea said, "Bottom-line; I don't know if the owners who didn't respond aren't interested in expanding their circle of friends (or KR nuts like us!) or what. I do know the number of returned/ undeliverable pieces was proportionally low; about 5%. I'm open to other ideas. Fire away."
Thanks for all that effort! Seems like a great idea that should have brought a lot of builders and their phantom KR's out of the woodwork. I've got no better ideas about it than yours. I can easily presume a number of reasons FOR the lack of involvement, but nothing on how to fix it. When the KR was so frequently on the cover of the aviation magazines and of course, the Popular Mechanics issue that stirred up so much interest, the guys who built all these planes in the 70's and 80's are getting old. That's no excuse of course, but it's a common one I think - in combination with all the worried wives. When people get old they sometimes get paranoid about dying. Also, some of them found out they had no aptitude for flying the KR and after a couple of near-death experiences trying to get it on the ground (always because they were going too fast), they just parked the planes. Or donated them, such as the one hanging on the ceiling at Chapter 14 here at KSDM. It was immaculate and beautiful, but the builder never flew it. Sparky test flew it then the owner donated it to the Chapter. This "ageing out" phenomenon covers a lot more than just KR's though. The hangars are full of expensive metal at my airport, their owners no longer interested (or possibly able) to take further interest. We've apparently become just another niche market that will probably go away completely once we are all dead. The direction of things is clearly electric propulsion, 3-D printing of components and NextGen ways of doing things. Did I just read that the FAA did away with the 51% rule? I think so. ****************** Tinyauto said, > He used aircraft construction as a way to satisfy a creative desire. Absolutely that's a big factor. I've known several builders like this . . . I think we all have. They usually do beautiful work too . . . and end up selling their planes just so they can start on another one. Harold "Siggy" Sigenfield, Convair engineer who built 3 KR's and a Barracuda was like that. My first KR was one of his creations and he built it like it was a "real" aircraft. Maloof CS prop with a Revmaster, two large wing tanks along with the header (had about 3000 miles range), machined panel of the gray dimpled metal like military planes used, extra strong cross-bar on the landing gear (thank goodness), and lots of other very professional touches. He never flew any of his planes. Built them just for the joy of building. The Barracuda, along with the Falco, is one of the most challenging plans-built aircraft but Siggy thoroughly enjoyed just the building of them. His Barracuda and at least one of his KR's are still flying. Siggy is long dead, as are many of those who built KR's back in the day. We've seen them pass through KRNET fairly frequently. Building a plane can be a very long-lasting tribute to the people who build them and carries their name forever . . . or until it's taken off the FAA Registry decades down the road. ************************* Somewhat related . . . since technology like this is the direction everything is going . . . is everyone keeping track of Uavoinix just now? Amazing products. This one below uses your current transponder and gives you full in/out compliance for just under $1000. https://uavionix.com/products/echo-uat/ Mike Stirewalt KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Thinning Hair? Pour This On Your Head And Watch What Happens revivethinninghair.com http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5bb7b1f613d5931f557f7st02vuc _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected]
