This page documents my move from San Angelo, TX to El Paso, TX. Uncle Sam decided that he needed me to move to El Paso so I had to pack
everything up and move. Even though the government moved all my household goods, an airplane is not one of those things they will move
for you. So once I knew where I was moving and when, I packed up the airplane (and all the other "stuff" the government won't move) and
made a road trip. I needed to have the plane out of the garage before the movers came just so it was out of the way and to make it easier
to get through the garage. I know there have been many questions on the net as to how to move a KR, so here is how I moved mine. I did
not take any picture while I was loading it, but I did take some as I was unloading so you will get an idea. These first photos show the
whole thing all wrapped up and ready for the 400 mile road trip.
Once on the road, everything was fine until approximately 100 miles from El Paso. I was driving along minding my own business,
when I happend to look in the rear-view mirror and saw a chunk of tire that I did not recall driving past. I slowed down and
pulled over only to discover that it had been a piece of one of my trailer tires! Specifically, the front left tire had lost
its cap. Since I did not have a spare, and still had three good tires on the trailer (at least thats what I thought), I decided
to continue on (I really did not have much choice anyway). Well, you can guess where this is going. Ten minutes later, I noticed
the same thing happen out of the right side mirror. I slowed down and pulled over and discovered that my right rear tire had
blown. Again, I had no spare, so I had to slow down again and continue on. These two photos show what is left of the tires by the
time I arrived at the storage shed I had rented in El Paso.
Once I arrived and pulled the tarp off, I took a few pictures to document the unloading process. To give an idea of how things are packed,
the "side walls" at the front of the trailer are my main workbench. I took it appart and screwed it to the deck of the trailer and then
used a piece of 2X4 to keep it from falling in (removed in these pictures). Under the plane is my cabinet used to store my rolls of CF and
fiberglass. The canopy is at the back along the side and all my remaining spruce stock is on a shelf attached on the other side. At the end
wrapped in black plastic is my corvair motor. The only damage I could find from the trip is lots of rubber "dust" along the back from the
shredded tire.
How does one unload a trailer full of airplane by oneself? Very carefully. Getting the motor down was much more difficult than putting it up
by myself. Here are some of the straps used to hold everything together.
Once the motor was off the trailer, I could start on getting the plane off. To put it on the trailer, I simply put a few boards down as a ramp,
then experimented to see if I could just pull it up. Once I got started, everything just sort of worked out. I put the plywood under the wheels
and screwed them to the trailer so they could not move. I also put the wood blocks to keep the plane from rolling forward or backwards. That was
easy. Now I had to figure out how to get it off by myself. Not to worry, burn a few brain cells and the
answer comes to you. Do the same thing you did to get it up there. Only this time, you have to use an additional piece of plywood on each side
to act as a ramp to get onto the down ramps (otherwise you would just push the downramps off).
Now the plane is in storage shed.
The canopy at the front of the trailer and the remainging spruce (all wrapped up).
This move happened on the 20th of March, 2007. I have now moved the plane home and she is in my new garage. She came home from the storage shed on the back of a friends truck (my house is only about a mile and a half from the storage shed).
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