Dana soloed at 16 and has been messing around with the low and slow side of aviation ever since. An aerospace engineer by education and mechanical engineer by trade, he’s been taking things apart almost since birth and usually manages to put them back together again. He’s owned and tinkered with a variety of homebuilts over
the years and currently flies a Hatz CB-1 biplane.
While I owned my Fisher FP-404 (“Restoring a Stored Homebuilt,” February 2017), I was using an Android smartphone running the free Avare navigation app...
Doug Rozendaal brings his considerable experience to a discussion of flight handling characteristics and his favorite aircraft. Among the factors designers consider are stability, control response, feel, personal preferences, FAA requirements, stick force, center of gravity, center of pressure, and the flight envelope. Every design is a compromise.