Kr2 Gathering

Ken Rand came to the attention of the sport aviation world in the summer of 1972 when he brought his KR-1, N1436, to Oshkosh. It was a sensation and along with the KR-2, which was introduced at Oshkosh in 1974, turned homebuilding in a new direction -- toward the composite designs of today. Since 1972 more KRs have been built than any other design and the KR-2 remains at a peak of popularity. -- Source airfoilengineering.com

I headed out to KMVN for the annual gathering.  The location moves around, but KMVN is one of the favorites with tons of support from the airport and FBOs

I flew into St Louis airport and crashed overnight at a hotel, followed by a very rainy drive over to Mt Vernon IL.  When I got there, the first sessions were already under-way.  Lots of great information was presented from Wt and Balance to supplies and painting methods.  Some engine guys were there talking about a new water cooled engine, and another talking about mods to corvair engines to improve performance to 110-120 HP from a base 95hp engine.

When we stepped out to the hanger just before lunch there were already pilots leaving the airfield due to the storm I had driven through and the rest of the conditions for the next few days.  The furthest flier came from New York over 1000 miles.

 Jim Faughn flown by Mark Langford -- relatively stock kr2 (upgrades include dragonfly canopy, rear windows and seatbelt attachment.)

 Larry Flesner (Fairly modified KR2s, wing tanks no header, side canopy design tires O-200 engine)

 Brad Stone running an 0-290 one of the heaviest planes there.

Joe Weber relatively stock kr2, flaps on this one.

Rob VW powered with the Deihl trickle option.  If you look closely you can see it's a little tight with 2 people.  Something I'm going to have to figure out how to resolve if I ever take passengers...

Another Visit to Jay and Ingrid's

Another great visit to Steamboat and to Jay and Ingrid's retirement property.  We somehow missed the memo about taking mt bikes, everyone but Jay, Ingrid, Karyn and I went mt biking.  There are a lot of fun trails.

Instead we went to the airshow on Sunday, we saw some of the same aerobatic pilots we saw in Longmont earlier in the summer.  They had a rough time due to strong winds.

Complete with WWII planes and STOL competition.

 As always Jay cooks some great food, Cheesesteak!

BoomerPalooza!!!

Pork Pork and more Pork!

Of course we start out with the trip.  735CF which I was often getting confused with 756TK en route...

We took Faas and MJ.  I was the meany making them weigh everything for the flight.  After some checks, we would have been at max gross wt departing with 60 gallons of fuel required to get all the way to Ames KAMW.  We arrived at the plane and it had less fuel.  Good and bad.  I could get fuel to make it, but warm weather etc not great flying at gross wt.  Or stop on the way.

 We decided to stop along the way in Columbus and parked on the ramp.  Unique that during take off I heard the hint of the stall alarm suggesting we were tail heavy...  We moved one bag ~25lbs from the trunk to the back of the front seats and gained about 4kts.  Talking to some folks that stopped there in a similar 182 from Platte Valley (Denver) and heard the weather hadn't cleared as expected.

 I filed IFR for the final leg /g.  Karyn's first IFR with me.  No problem, flew just at the tops until descending, I was able to get 2500 feet  VFR  underneath so we cancelled and buzzed Boomers house. He wasn't home AGAIN!

 The next morning it was time to start cooking!

 We should take some time to golf while we're waiting...
Yes I did eventually hit the silos...  But I lost some money while practicing!  It's not like I golf more than once every 4 years!

 And the shirts

 As the party started it was time for the airshow, No... I was on the ground...

 The Nadas!

Scotty came out from Nebraska for the party!

 Somehow the day after always has a party wrapped up inside...  The morning post breakfast cleanup time...

 And we get to review the Lost and Found.  I must say not as good as last year!

 We stuck around for a fire the next night, another good time!

Copper Triangle 2016

Our Monoski Friend Hoss is a biker, he's been riding Seattle to Portland for 13 years (as far as I can tell all of those were a 1 day 200+ ride).  We attempted to join him for the traditional route last year 200+ miles in 2 days, but were not able.  He has been talking about the Copper Triangle for a few years, he came down to join us!

Karyn hadn't been able to ride her training rides, so she saw us off, and rode to the finish with us!

I feel like I hadn't trained as much as I have in years past, and with sea level lungs Hoss we rode a constant pace, which turns out is right in line with my averages.  Check out his Strava here: Link

A great weekend with Hoss visiting, and we had lots of fun with the cats!

Camping in Steamboat

Well near by.  Jay and Ingrid our new friends from Cinco-de-Mono 2015 and we met again in 2016 have some property outside steamboat.  They invited several monoskiers to visit for the weekend.

Don and I met up to ride Friday morning, Karyn was stuck in Georgia, you can see his bike in the back.   Don was headed out on his annual 3 week ride with his Portland friends.  He stayed one night, and we ate well.

Sean?  Did you bring the Jenga?  Don't I always make it interesting?  Both games I lost, yes me, my partner went down with me in a blaze of glory!



No camping trip with Sean would be complete if we didn't have to fire up the generator for some slushy drinks!

You see my bike the back.  Fun ride up except for the last 4 miles of gravel and grass...  Note previous post from Riding with old friends...

Sean can always get the selfie right!

Thanks Jay and Ingrid!

Supper Club

Another post of visiting friends.  Everyone had a great time.

The event meal was based around the Olympics...  Nobody brought Zika...

Great to see you Matt and Heather coming all the way from Maryland...

Riding with some old friends

Karyn and I set out to ride with some old sport bike friends.  It's been dubbed the used to be sport biker crew.  There were cruisers and all kinds of bikes these days.

At the start, we met in Loveland and of course grass and gravel are not fun with Sport bikes, of course I dropped mine...  Just a few more of life's scratches...

Meeting up in Nederland twice, we went through estes park down to Nederland for gas, then down Golden Gate canyon up Coal creek, back to Nederland.

The second stop we saw the start of the Cold Springs Fire.  Everyone headed out before the highway closed...

After some helmet cleaning, someone might be interested in the next ride...