2003 KR Gathering at Red Oak, Iowa


2003 KR Gathering at Red Oak, Iowa

Apparently I didn't take a single picture on Thursday, since it was pretty much a "washout" from my perspective. Larry and I made it most of the way without a drop of rain, but the last couple of minutes was a race to beat a downpour. We made it down just in time for the bottom to fall out. I was too busy making sure that I knew where the airport behind us was, to be taking any pictures!


One Friday, John Backer showed us his unique wheelpants and the mold he used to make them. They are very light and very aerodynamic, and are a creation of his own design. He might be talked into selling a few of these, but I'm first in line!


Marty arrived, in the customary fashion.


Steve Alderman also arrived from Colorado shortly afterwards. He hasn't made a Gathering since Covington in 1993, so it was quite a treat!


The clean lines demonstrate why this is THE fastest KR on the planet!


Here are his Hoerner wingtips, done the way the plans call for.


The yellow tape covers a gash cut into his wing at SNF about 8 years ago by Marty Roberts, who was having some sort of problem taxiing.


This snorkel leads to the 0-200's carb. Marty said he pulled a mold off of this while Steve had it parked nearby one weekend. This cowling became the one that Dan Diehl sells for 0-200's.


Steve's exhaust is four individual pipes.


Note aerodynamic balances on both rudder and elevator.


Marty's plane is similar. Note tail light at top of rudder.


I always check Marty's g-meter. He resets it at the beginning of every trip, and today it was reading 6 g's! Larry likes to call Marty's plane his "proof of concept" that high gross weight will probably not be a problem.


This tailight is on Steve Bennett's KR1.5. The light bulb looked strangely familiar...


... so I pushed it and turned it and it popped right out. This is just too slick.


This is what I mean by KR1.5. Ken Cottle built this as a KR2 narrowed to KR1 width (probably a little wider, actually).


This is Steve's Hoerner wingtip.


The red truck is Steve Bennett, the rescue squad trailing Marty as he returns from a flight in which he lost most of his elevator travel. He was doing another 6g pullup with Steve and heard a loud bang, and couldn't get the nose up anymore. There were some anxious moments, and he used up the entire runway getting it down, complete with a high speed U-turn at the very end!


This is all the travel he had in the up direction.


The baggage box was the culprit. A supporting member had pulled loose, and the baggage box came crashing down on the elevator cable.


Needless to say, it was Miller time for Marty!


Here are Marty's wingtips.


And a closeup of his canopy mechanism.




His panel, showing another 6g's. The thing in front of the stick appears to be another fuel tank, but it might also be a beer cooler!



Note trim tab position for landing!


Short tail spring, same as Troy Petteway's. Troy says it works great.


Interior.


Steve Bennett's KR1.5 interior.


Jim Faugh finally made it out of Trenton, where he had to put down due to bad whether on Thursday. Low ceilings kept him from getting out until lunch.


Another feeding frenzy was in order.


Video Bob was on the scene when Terry Chizek showed up.


This U-haul pulled up full of KR parts, which is a story in itself, I'm sure.


Later in the day Jim Faughn lost an aileron counter weight at something like 200 mph. He'd have never known it, but Steve was behind and below him and saw it drop off. Steve seems to have been around when all the bad stuff happened...


This is where the aluminum angle that held the counterweight used to be.



Joe Horton checks out Steve Alderman's interior.


At dinnertime, Larry Flesner, Ed Janssen, and Steve Bennett cooked burgers, brats, and polish sausages for us.


The local constabulary was checking out Terry's suspicious KR2.








Terry let me fly his plane for about 15 minutes. Very nice, and controllable. I took this picture to show the EIS in action.



Steve Alderman holds the light while Jim Faughn T-88's his aileron counterweight back in place (it's also bolted).



If the photos are not displaying for you, you are probably low on RAM, and can load Return to Page 2. Otherwise, continue on...


On Saturday, we started out the day looking at Marty's 0-200 installation again.



The Iowa countryside is always interesting from the air. I was riding shotgun while Video Bob hung out the back door this time around, but I was still able to get some excellent pictures.


This is Ron Lee's RV6-A. He's the guy that bought Roy Marsh's KR2S, but sold it last year.


Terry Chizek's KR2.



Marty Roberts.


Steve Alderman.


Jim Faughn.


The three in formation.




The main forum this year was a talk on first flights. It was excellent, but I missed most of it flying and talking to an old buddy that came by to visit.


John Shaffer finally made it through the weather late in the day. He's the only guy with the unfortunate distinction of flat-spinning a KR from 8000' all the way to the ground, after he lost his canopy in flight. Needless to say, he did some serious hospital time, but recovered and built this nifty KR2SS, complete with retractable tri-gear.


Marty was doing the welcome-wagon thing.


And another feeding frenzy was now underway. We haven't seen this one since the first Lake Barkley Gathering, and the paint was barely dry then.


How's this for a nice panel?


He'd just upgraded his 1835cc engine to a 2180, and didn't even have time to install the spinner before he flew out.




This is the end result of a serpentine four-into-one system.



How about a plywood aft deck? It looks great from the outside, that's for sure! The thing at left looks like a do-it-yourself strobe kit.


Canopy latch.


Here's the hinge...


...and the stop.








Mark Strothers tells the audience about his first flight.



Late Saturday, after most of the sane ones had left to get cleaned up for the banquet, those left guarding the keg had a real blast swapping stories. It's the first time in years that I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.



Jim sang a tribute to Ken Rand that Larry wrote.


The vote to hold next year's Gathering at Mt Vernon, Illinois was almost unanimous.


The awards this year were fantastic. Somebody remind us who won what...



Jim's telling us here that he's downright embarrassed having to win all of these things. He REALLY wants some of us "new wave" folks to share in the goodies next year!


And of course, we sang Jim's KR sanding song again...


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