Member Spotlight – Tony Kasabasich

IMG_0669This month’s Member Spotlight is on Tony Kasabasich, but call him “Tony K” because nobody can pronounce Tony’s last name. Tony can generally be seen flying low around Lincoln Airport on his electric scooter or working on vehicle suspension parts in his hangar. Many of EAA 1541’s meetings have been held at Tony’s hangar, courtesy of Tony. (Thanks Tony).

If you go by Tony’s hangar on a nice day, you might see Tony on his phone, taking care of business, while soaking up some sun, with an aircraft radio tuned to the local CTAF for Lincoln playing in the background. All the while viewing the traffic in and out of Lincoln.

Tony became interested in flying when he was 16. Tony was attracted to a girl, whose father was the airport manager of the Auburn Airport. The romance between Tony and the girl soon faded, to be replaced by a romance with flying.

Tony has been flying for 30 years, and has logged 1500 legal hours and 1500 non-legal hours. Ask Tony to tell you the story about the non-legal hours. Tony holds a SEL rating, almost has a glider rating, and has a tailwheel and complex endorsement. Tony has owned 4 airplanes, and loved them all for various reasons. Today, Tony owns a Grumman Yankee (originally designed by the famous Jim Bede) and a Just Aircraft Summit, which is affectionately named “Dusty”. Dusty is a low and slow airplane, and modified with Tony’s landing gear suspension mods and large tires so Tony can take Dusty to places that you wouldn’t take a mountain bike to.
Fresh out of high school, Tony built a successful business building suspension parts for off road racers and rock climber vehicles. Many of Tony’s suspension parts have been in the Baja 1000 off road race.

About 4 years ago, TK1 Racing (the name of Tony’s business) expanded into the aircraft business, and started building aircraft suspension parts. These suspension pieces allow an aircraft to land and take off in extremely short, rough, areas. This part of Tony’s business got legitimized a couple of years ago with Tony’s first order from Just Aircraft, a production aircraft builder. Recently, the aircraft side of Tony’s business has exploded.

Tony estimates that he has sold about 600 suspension systems to companies such as Kitfox, Just Aircraft, Back Country Super Cub, Cubcrafters and other aircraft manufacturers. Tony has also sold suspension systems to Zlin Aircraft, an Italian aircraft manufacturer so Tony can now claim that he is an international company. Tony is extremely excited about the future of the aircraft side of his business.

Tony is an active member of EAA 1541 and has served on the Board of Directors for a few years. Tony is an enthusiastic pilot or passenger. If you want a safety pilot so you can shoot some IFR approaches, call Tony. If you want a lunch companion for a flight, call Tony. If you need a ride somewhere that Tony can fly to, call Tony. I think you get the idea. Tony loves to fly.