Build manuals for the Slow Build kit.
You will have to use jigs, line stuff up, and do epoxy work.
With fast build – anything that talks about jibs, lining stuff up, and epoxy work, skip those parts.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Download the Build Manuals for Veloce 400 here
Bob Reed’s
KIS Super Cruiser Project
It’s official and the N247BR has been registered and the numbers applied. It’s so close to being finished I can almost feel it lifting off the ground and taking flight. The above video was the first roll out for the Weight and Balance. 12/31/2018
Happy New Year!!!!
(NO, It’s not mine but I wish it were…Photo thanks to Bob Anderson.)
The KIS Aircraft are no longer being produced and the company was sold to Pulsar Aircraft Corporation which went out of business.
After many years of dreaming, planning, talking and reading about Experimental Aircraft, I finally decided that it was time to quit procrastinating and start building. Late in 1996, after an extensive review of my mission requirements along with the specifications of the available plans and kits, I choose the KIS Cruiser from TRI-R Technologies in Oxnard Ca. and started on a new adventure. This is going to take a long time and I am planing on enjoying every minute of the process.
April.2012 – I knew it was going to take a long time but here I am almost 16 years later and I am still inching along. It seems that life has a strange way of getting in the way of our hobbies. I have started working on the plane again after more than two years of no activity on the plane while I did some extensive remodeling of a bathroom and the kitchen. It was in storage for more than three years. I finally got a hangar but it is more than an hours drive from my house so that limits my available time even more. I am more determined than ever to finish but will make no estimate as to how much longer it will take. The fact is, it will be done when it is done. I will not make any more estimates on when it will be done, it may very well not be done until I finally retire and have more than an hour here and an hour there to work on it.
August 2017 – Is there light at the end of this long tunnel? I am am at the “90% done 90% to go” phase. Completed painting, 95% of upholstry, 50% of wiring, and I am about ready to install the wings. The one big holdup at this point is financial. This is and has always been a cash project. Because of the length of time for this project and the big gap in the building process some of the equipment and avionics I had purchased when the building process was progressing at what I thought would see completion in 2002-2003, I have had to literally throw out the Blue Mountain EFIS System and give the Aerosance FADEC system away. I am replacing the FADEC system with the FLYEFII system for Fuel Injection and Electronic Ignition. The Blue Mountain EFIS will be replaced by the DYNON Skyview System. That is a very expensive hit to the pocketbook and one I wasn’t prepared for. Add to all of that a wedding to pay for and a new house to get started for my age in place retirement.
August 2018 – Came and went and I am still not finished. I retired at the end of April this year and was able to spend several weeks working on the plane but that 90% to go was literal. I also went back to work in June working part time. The summer was very hot and it really slows down the progress. It’s now the middle of October 2018 and I sent in the registration paperwork last week. Two, maybe three more weekends of work and I will be ready for the first engine start. I am back taking flight training since it has been years of building and not flying.
December 2018 – Well, I am still working on it. The darn wiring is far more time consuming that I every thought it would be. I also had to wait almost three months for my Aircraft Spruce order containing the Dynon Com-Radios and Intercom. Going with the full Dynon Skyview system. Starting with a single 10″ monitor for now and will add the 7 1/2 inch monitor later on. I am thinking it will be done by end of year but the weather is cold and wet and I am not wanting to risk getting a cold.
This web page is a chronicle of Bob Reed’s project and hopefully an aid to other homebuilt aircraft builders. Bob Reed’s has expanded this info to provide a common repository for other Super Cruiser and KIS 150 Builders to share their construction photos, completion photos, and construction ideas. Their help in providing updates and ideas is a tremendous aid to all builders. Bob Reed’s Thanks to each of the participating builders.
There is a great KIS builders email list that you are encouraged to join if you are a builder or interested in becoming one. To join, send an email to [email protected] with the word “subscribe kisbuilders” in the body of the email.
Progress
Progress has actually been great this year and I am nearing the end of a very long journey.
I have played with numerous paint schemes over the years that I have been working on the plane but never could find one that I liked. I tried a number of similar designs but finally hit on the following after receiving my prop from Catto Propellors. The prop tip just flowed into the same lines and I redrew the paint scheme as shown. I know that I will have to refine it some as it is applied to the plane but I hope to be able to keep the basics of the design intact.
The plane was in storage for over three years but has recently been moved to a hangar in Lancaster Tx. I don’t have the time or the money right now to make any substantial progress on it but I have started doing a little when time permits. My new workshop is shown below. Not real big but I can work on the wings and transportable parts while the rest is in the hangar.
Main problem now is that the hangar is almost an hours drive from home. The electrical power service to the hangar consists of a single outlet and there is no water available. Other than that, the hangars are clean, have paved floors, and are very large. I do have to qualify the “Clean” part of the hangar. I have never seen a hangar where your plane would get covered in a thick layer of black and red dust with the texture of sand. Trying to keep the plane clean is a constant week to week task. It doesn’t help much that we have several very inconsiderate pilots who insist on running up their engines to turn their planes while blowing a ton of dust, dirt, and gravel into the neighboring hangars. One was so considerate as to do that knowing that I had been painting my plane that day.
