WHERE THE IDEA CAME FROM
Well, I've been itching to build for awhile because as much as I love my PAU ARFs nothing compares to the feeling of flying a plane you created from a box of stick. I had fun rebuilding my Pitts but again, it was a rebuild.
Now I have been considering the Hostetler 35% Pitts, but after a late night kitchen table talk with my dad I now have a different idea.
Dad has been wanting another bigger airplane, but he isn't the kind of guy to get an Extra or Edge he likes to be different. So sitting with him at the table that night looking at what was a available I remembered seeing the Seagull Models Bucker Jungmeister at the Sig booth at Toledo last year. As we looked over the pictures and specs dad made a comment that he liked the Bucker because it reminded him of Grampa's Krier Kraft and the lightbulb in my head went off.
THE STORY
1971 was the year, grampa Mick (short for our last name) just got out of the Air Force after his voluntary second tour in Vietnam. He moved from Massachusetts to Ohio for work after him and grandma separated and settled in. That winter dad came out to live with him and grampa who had been building models since he was a kid in the 30s decided to get started in the hobby again. During the following years, grampa Mick and dad built and flew to many airplanes to count.
As the 70s grew to a close, and dad now 18, had a fiancé and wasn't flying RC as much grampa started getting into giant scale airplanes after joining the IMAA. One of the first planes he built was a sport scale model of a little known full scale aerobatic Biplane designed by Hal Krier.
ENTER THE KRIER KRAFT ACRO-MASTER
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Grampa ordered a set of Flying Models Magazine "King Kong Krier" plans and went to town changing some aspects to make the model have the proper outline. He shortened the nose, removed the Bucker type hump in the turtle deck, made the belly skinnier, reduced the forward rake in the landing gear, changed the shape of the tail to look like the early rendition of the full scale, and reshaped the wingtips as well as stretch them 2 inches to get to the proper scale span of 71".
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He fabricated everything on his Krier with the exception of the pilot, engine, wheels and radio equipment. He even made his own fiberglass fuel tank. The landing gear was made from piano wire and made to have functioning bungees in the scale locations.
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The Krier's finished weight was 18 pounds, covered with Sig Koverall and painted with dope. It had a Quadra-Aero Q35 for power, and probably it's most unique feature was functioning boost tabs on all control surfaces allowing for use of STANDARD size servos. Keep in mind that standard servos of the late 70s and early 80s only had 30-40 oz of torque!
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The canopy was made out of pieces of other larger canopies and flat clear plastic stock, and all of the pen striping was painted on by reverse masking.
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The headphone jack next to the power switch was the ignition kill, putting the plug in the jack shorted the magneto to ground killing the engine. Gampa Mick did this to all of his gassers. Grampa built a few giant scale airplanes including a Hostetler Skybolt (which we still have) and a large Stinson Reliant.
He had and flew the Krier Kraft until the day he passed away in March of 1988 less than a month before my first birthday. My dad flew it a hand full of time afterward but not anywhere near as much as grampa. One day a guy approached him about buying it, and dad just starting a new business and with 2 young kids (me and my older sister) he decided to let it go.
Grampa's Krier I'm sure is long gone, but we still have the memories. I still close my eyes and see it sitting in the back of dad's full scale hangar ready to be flown.
FLASH FORWARD 35 YEARS
There will be more stories to tell as the build progresses but for now lets start with the build!
