Robert Reed
Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 331
Location: Dallas/Ft.Worth
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 Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:11 am Post subject: Martin Hollmann passes & other important KIS updates |
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Thanks for the update Mark,
I don't know that I would call my progress a race unless we are in a discussion of snails (may be a bad analogy considering the Disney movie trailer I saw recently) but I am making some progress on my TR-4 Cruiser.
Completed primer and sanding of wings, ailerons, flaps, rudder, elevators and doors. Starting painting but unhappy with the results of the roll and tip process I used. The darn paint just setup too fast in the low humidity conditions and left brush marks. Decided against even trying the wings. Contacted local auto paint shop and found someone who is very familiar with water based polymers and would do the spraying for me sometime in October for $500. Hell, I was wasting more money on the paint than that.
Other work on the cowling is progressing and I should have it ready to paint by the October timeline.
I finally mounted the fuselage top permanently and have completed the glass work on that. Will be completing the brake system in the next week and finalizing everything from the back seat back both inside and outside during the last week of July first of August. Will wait on the windscreen until I have fully completed all firewall penetrations and some of the wiring.
The main goal right now is to have the fuselage ready to prime and paint over the winter when I can count on cool and damp weather. Sounds strange but the best weather for that stupid paint is 50 degrees and raining.
So, progress yes, race no.
Bob Reed
From: mark_trickel <marktrickel(at)gmail.com>
To: kis-list(at)matronics.com
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 9:32 AM
Subject: KIS-List: Martin Hollmann passes & other important KIS updates
--> KIS-List message posted by: "mark_trickel" <marktrickel(at)gmail.com (marktrickel(at)gmail.com)>
Milestones-
Recently posted on Martin Hollmann’s website is the announcement of Martin’s passing October 12, 2012. Martin was battling prostate cancer. For those of you who did not know Martin, he was one of the wiz kids of composite aircraft design. He was involved in the development of dozens of aircraft and was probably the foremost authority on composite structural analysis. Let’s face it if there were no Martin Hollmann there would have never been any Lancairs, and no KIS aircraft either. Rich met Martin when he works at Task Research and they became friends from the get go. Martin believed in Richard and became a partner in High Tech Composites. Martin steered many client Richards way to make their dreams become reality. He published many books and his widow continues to make them available through the Aircraft Designs website. Richard’s daughter was in close contact with Martin after Rich passed and he provided information about Richard’s business associatations along w!
ith much solace to her. He will be greatly missed by the aviation community.
I am sure you all know I am looking for all KIS kits my brother sold and the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to take shape. Original KIS builders may recall the name Wally Clingan. I made mention of him when Jerry Conners was looking for Ohio KIS owners but could not recall his name. Wally bought TR-1 kit #54 in late 1992 or early ’93. Wally attended Oshkosh most every year and some of the Sun & Fun fly-ins where he hung out with us. He always came to the KIS get together dinners. Wally had a huge family farm, some 450 acres in Perryville, Indiana. The farm had been in his family for generations going back to the early 1800s. He leased most of the farmland out and worked for Hyster lift truck, where he was hoping for early retirement. Wally was in no big hurry to finish the KIS as he had already built a Kitfox that he regularly flew from his private landing strip on the farm (officially called Geesie on the Chicago sectional). Finally in August of 2007, N215BW, in Yello!
w paint, took to the air. Wally told me he wanted to build the KIS so he could use it for cross countries to visit his daughter in Kansas. I don’t know if he ever made any trips to Kansas or even if he got to enjoy his KIS, Wally passed away August 12, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. I am not sure what happened to the airplane but I am still searching for information. My condolences to the family. Some of these sad KIS stories lay heavy on my heart.
Searching KIS
It is difficult to find KIS aircraft on the FAA website because each builder used different terms when they registered their aircraft. If builders used the term KIS in most cases that will show up in a search but not always. Wally called his a Model TR 2. There was no TR-2, that’s on the drawing board at the KIS design center (OK my wife’s dining room table for the last six months and she’s complaining she wants it back). Even searching Wally’s TR 2 yielded nothing I had to revert to using his last name. While searching the major search engines it is amazing how much difference there is in results from month to month. Most results are rated by the number of hits on each website.
More puzzle pieces-
When I picked up my KIS purchase this spring I made mention of an article in the paper work about Roland McDonald’s TR-1. There is a pic of it on Robert Reeds website of it. I searched for the airplane but nothing showed up on the FAA website. The reason for that was Roland’s plane was bought by Richard. Rich refinished it in the same paint scheme as the prototype TR-4 and then off it went in a crate to China in that infamous deal (more on that fiasco in the future).
On another KIS search an ad came up in the UK posted by a guy named Bryant. He was looking for TR-1 wing and door parts. Most likely he has the remains of Richard Wakeford’s TR-1C that was totaled in a landing accident that broke the wing and ended upside down. The occupants broke out the door to get out. Unless Mr. Bryant wants to pay the price to import something from the U.S.A. he will be SOL.
Mid to late 1990s the web was only a toy but now it is an incredible tool. Another search found a TR-1C in Switzerland of all places. The Swiss KIS (sounds like a tasty morsel) is advertised as 95% complete with a Continental IO-240B engine. Priced at a cool 25,000 Swiss francs (About $27,000 U.S. dollars).
For Sale List-
The list of for sale KIS aircraft continues to grow. The only ones to actually sell are the one I bought and a TR-1 build by Charles Traughler bought by a friend of Galin’s for about $22,000.
The List:
UK-
G-BVZD
G-BZDR
G-OKPW – Just listed by Keith Wadsworth
G-SKIS Subaru powered unfinished
Switzerland
Unfinished TR-1C
Australia-
AH-AIG
New Zealand-
Unfinished kit by Steve Moreton
South Africa
ZU-BOF – not sure on this one – may be an old ad
USA-
Unfinished TR-4 T. Scott
Unfinished TR-1 Conway
Subaru G. Moore – repeatedly advertised
Forester TR-1 – repeatedly advertised
J. Conners – repeatedly advertised – was just up on ebay also
4 other TR-1s - 2 flying, and 2 unfinished, are all quietly for sale
Not sure why these airplanes are not selling it could be economy, cost of fuel and ownership, low student starts, or today’s LSA pilots. I get the feeling the days of old when KIS and all the homebuilt market was at is prime (mid ‘90s) will never return.
End on a good note-
Not all is bad on the KIS front. This spring I received a call from Elden Lorah. He is building the only TR-1 kit sold by Pulsar. Elden is an older builder and is not computer capable. He bought it in 2000 and it took until 2007 to receive all the parts. One of the few Pulsar customers that Yaron Degani did not rip off, but he sure made him wait. After talking to Elden and seeing the pictures at EAA chapter 857 it is not hard to figure out the kit was a KIS buy back. The two different colors of the composite parts prove that to be the case. The power is a Continental O-200. The airplane is very close to being done. Looks like we have a 3 way race for the next to take to the air along with Robert Reed (TR-4), and Bruce Barton (TR-1C).
Hope you all are enjoying the hot summer
Mark T
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=404935#404935
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