Under Construction

KIS Cruiser

Index to factory photos

Photos taken at the KIS factory. I have not yet organized these.

  • 1963 Piper Cherokee in front yard.

    April 1996

  • Plane parts 1
  • More plane parts

    July 27, 1996

  • Horizontal Stabilizer & Elevator pre-fabed sheet before cutting apart
  • Horizontal Stabilizer Spar glued-in
  • Closer view of above
  • Dry fit of ribs
  • Closer view of above
  • 1st Rib taping
  • Ribs glassed in place
  • Closer view of above

    The above took 18 hours to complete over two weekends. About four hours was spent studing the instructions and dry fitting the parts to get a good understanding of how things fit together.

    Aug 31, 1996

  • Stabilizer tip before close-out
  • Partial tip close-out
  • Reinforcement for elevator hinge (one of four)
  • Closed-out tip and another reinforced area
  • Completed stablilzer rear view
  • Completed stabilizer front view/
  • Strength test!

    The total time to construct the horizontal stabilizer was 26 hours. The next part is to construct the elevator with it's trim tab. This looks to be a bit more complicated than the stabilizer. I'll be starting that at the end of September.

    Nov 19, 1996

  • Elevator rib parts
  • Evevator spar placement
  • Elevator spar
  • Glassed spar and trim tab area
  • Overall view of glassed spar

    Nov 29, 1996

  • Elevator rib placement
  • Elevator ribs glassed
  • Re-inforcement for trim servo
  • Above with servo shown
  • Elevator ribs bonded before close-out
  • Elevator close-out
  • Elevator with trim tab cut out
  • Trim tab U-channel glassed
  • Mockup of trim servo
  • Trim tab hinged on elevator

    Dec 4, 1996

  • Elevator trim tab servo
  • Stab. to Elev hinges
  • Elevator control horn
  • Elevator/Stab hinged

    Jan 26, 1997

    The following were taken with a Sony DKC ID1 digital camera. The originals were 768 x 576. These have been scaled to 500 x 375

  • View of fuselage, front seat cutouts & conduit
  • Conduit fillet, not glassed
  • Conduit glassed

    Mar 10, 1997

  • Station 139.5 bulkhead
  • Close up of Station 139.5 bulkhead
  • Station 180.5 bulkhead hard point
  • Above w/glass
  • Seat front bulkhead hard points

    Mar 31, 1997

  • Front seat bulkhead top support
  • Rear seat cutout and supports
  • Rear seat, idler hard point
  • Rear seat support point
  • Rear console fitting
  • Front console
  • Stick linkage
  • Front console seat belt area
  • Rear seat bottom support flange
  • Overall view

    June 7, 1997

  • Front seat bottom
  • Front seat bottom
  • Front seat bottom
  • Front seats in position
  • Rear seat bottom support flange
  • Testing front seat
  • Testing front seat

    July 6, 1997

    A floor panel is used to mount/support the rudder/brake pedals.

  • Little aluminum metal pieces
  • Little nylon bearings
  • Rudder pedal hard points
  • Above installed from underside

    August 10, 1997

    The horiz. tail is mounted a little above the 0.0 water line by using side panels cut out of the vertical tail panels.

  • Horiz tail side panels
  • Too many clamps
  • Horiz tail tacked into place
  • Using water level

    September 1, 1997

    Rear 180.5 bulkhead installed and tail post installed.

  • 180.5 bulkhead
  • Tail post

    September 1, 1997

    Installation of various mechanical stuff.

  • Elevator doohickey
  • Rudder doohickey
  • Aileron doohickey
  • Flap torque tube

    October 1, 1997

    Installation of various mechanical stuff.

  • Electric flap actuator arm
  • Flap actuator arm in position
  • Tail tie down mechanism
  • Another view tie down
  • Stick linkage overall view
  • Stick linkage close-up
  • Stick linkage right side

    August 1998

    The new hangar/shop and airstrip! (and reason for lack of building progress).

  • hangar in which to finish KIS.
  • Inside view.
  • Bonny Doon Airstrip.
  • Main landing gear.

    January 1999

    Landing Gear and wheels.

  • Front castering gear with wheel.
  • Main gear brake assembly.
  • Main gear wheel.
  • Main gear wheel, rear view.
  • Fitting of right fin.
  • View from other side.
  • Overall view of plane.

    March 1999

    Front floor area.

  • Front floor area painted with Zolatone paint.
  • Rudder peddles on floor.

    April 1999

    Rudder.

  • Bonding rudder spar and ribs in place.
  • Rib with hole for counterbalance weight.
  • Preparing the left rudder panel for bonding.
  • Left half in place and held with weights.

    May 1999

    Right vertical fin.

  • Bonding right vertical fin in place.
  • Another view of above.
  • Cut-out for ventilation scoop
  • Scoop bonded in place

    I built various dipole antennas and measured their performance over the com band. One of the things I found out was that mounting the antenna near the vert. stab. hinges caused problems. (the hinges were just taped into place). Moving the antenna back helped lower the VSWR over the whole band. I swepped the antenna from 110MHz to 140MHz and measured the response around the plane with a calibrated receiver/antenna combination. A quarter-wave shorting stub was used as the balun, working better than the ferrite beads I tried. The final test was connecting the antenna to my handheld com radio. It worked great, even inside the hangar.

  • Testing of COM1 antenna
  • Com1 antenna on garage wall
  • Com1 antenna installed on plane

    The KIS Cruiser is a 4 place composite construction homebuilt airplane from TRI-R Technologies. They are located in Oxnard, CA 805 385 3680. (E-mail is flykis@aol.com)

    I'll try and keep this page updated as I construct the plane. This may take years! (but it's fun)

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