Luis, I just got to read your excellent essay about the three of us drove all the way from Texas to the KR gathering this year, and everything you described was quite accurate, except however you were about 1.5 hours or 30% off the target (under estimated) on your estimate of my time driving from Dallas back to Houston...
Thank you for driving all the way from KMVN back to KHQZ in Dallas, which allowed both myself and Brad the continued journey back home safely, after a whole night sitting in the car, and continued for another 5 hours back home which started around 5:00am right after arrived at KHQZ! Yes, we enjoyed every moment of the gathering this year, and meeting & talking with new friends and KR buddies came from all over America was absolutely unforgettable experience ! And yes, the newly remodeled KMVN airport restaurant and the buffet this year was gorgeous! My special thanks and appreciation go to AF veteran Mr. Adam for taking me on a tasty ride aboard his newly acquired KR2, which created two records: (a) it's my first KR2 ride ever since I bought my KR project three years ago, and (b) I became his first passenger been taken to the sky on his fairly new KR2 experience! I have to say that from the very calm and smoothy ride on the KR2 with Adam, I regained my confidence for not just wishing to finish up my training for my PPL, but will endeavor to make my dream of flying my KR2 a reality! I had to restore my confidence to become a private pilot because a number of sad events close to me occurred during the year of 2021 to 2022, which included the tragic loss of my close friend, and hangar mate at KAEG Mr. Randy Reimer & his wife Susie on October 12th, 2021 when they were flying back from Milwaukee WI on the two-seater glass air experimental aircraft he built with his own hands ... My solute goes also to John Shaffer for his determination and low-cost engineering solutions to fix and flew his beautiful KR2 (S or X?) from Ohio to Mount Vernon! I was totally impressed when knowing that he flew his fully retractable KR2(X) to the gathering, only after a year of "restoration" work from the lackluster status of the same bird from last year....!! Remember that John took this same KR2(X) to the gathering last year on the back of his antique pickup truck, which I had no doubt was inherited from his grandpa....?! Cheers! Dr. Hsu N8807 Piper N2830H KR2 On Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 6:45 PM Luis Claudio via KRnet <krnet@list.krnet.org> wrote: > This past Thursday, Brad Nichols, Dr. Hsu, and I traveled to our 2023 KR > Gathering at Mt Vernon, IL. This was Brad's first time attending and Dr. > Hsu and I had three other gatherings under our belts. > > My home port is KHQZ and sits under Bravo airspace in Dallas. The weather > was calling for 200 ft. ceilings and visibility of less than 1/4 mile with > embedded thunderstorms until Saturday evening. Even if I had flown off the > 40 hours off of my KR... there was no way to secure a VFR departure > clearance, so the decision to join my two KR buddies driving to KMVN was an > easy one to make. > > Brad drove to KHQZ from Navasota (2.5 hrs) and Dr. Hsu from the Johnson > Space Center in Houston (3.5) hrs. While we waited, I gave Brad a tour of > my now-finished KR and he asked a million questions and we talked about his > project. It was in a way like a precursor to the upcoming gathering and the > things we would see there. > > We arrived at Mount Vernon at 5 AM on Friday morning and almost froze to > death in the 57-degree morning in Illinois. We had been living in Texas > under 105 degrees days and 57 degrees felt like near Arctic conditions for > us...We jumped back in the car and waited till the sun came up... > > During the meeting, we visited with pilots already flying their KRs and > others who were still building... Brad in particular was able to actually > look at and touch some of the airplanes on exhibit and talk to their > builders/pilots. Dr. Hsu as always, mingled among the attendees and > questioned everyone about topics that interest him the most. > > In general, I can attest to the fact that Brad walked away a much more > confident builder. The exchange of ideas and information with the builders > has given him the confidence to continue to move forward with his build. > Brad and I talked ad nauseam about lessons learned and future plans for our > airplanes. > > We missed flying up to KMVN this year, but God willing, we are fully > committed to taking our steeds of wood and glass north to KMVN next year to > be one of the pilots/builders showing off our work. That is a promise. > > Luis > > > -- > KRnet mailing list > KRnet@list.krnet.org > https://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet >
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