Jim Weir
Jim Weir is the chief avioniker at RST Engineering. He answers avionics questions in the Internet newsgroup www.pilotsofamerica.com–Maintenance. His technical advisor, Cyndi Weir, got her Masters degree in English and Journalism and keeps Jim on the straight and narrow. Check out their web site at www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes for previous articles and supplements.
Power, Scotty, I Gotta Have More Power
“I canna give ye more, Cap’n. The dilithium crystals are already overloaded.”
—Star Trek
This month’s article is more of a simple tutorial instead of a...
Round…and Around…We Go
Stay with me here. This is going to be a very interesting and somewhat difficult project. But worth the read, I guarantee.
No matter how...
What a Darling(ton) Noisemaker
Mostly we’d like our airplanes to be quiet. Somehow, “airplane” and “quiet” don’t belong in the same sentence. We’ve got roughly 5000 explosions per...
Can You Hear Me Now?
For those of you in aircraft with magnificent audio systems—stereo music and multi-input switching panels that have push-button selection of your half-dozen headphone inputs—this...
LED to a Landing
We have come a long way with light emitting diodes. They went from $200 a bulb in 1968 to 5 cents a bulb in...
This Is an EXCELlent Idea
For a long time after I bought my first airplane (N2014V, the Cessna 120 heavy), the problem of keeping the aircraft data (weight and...
QLF–Amateur Radio in Your Aircraft
To find the earliest recorded amateur radio in an aircraft, we have go back to 1912 when Lieutenant B.T. James (RAF) strapped a pair...
Airshow Antennas
We are headed into airshow calendar time. I don’t care if it is the granddaddy of them all (Oshkosh) or the usual four beat-up...
A HOG in Time Takes…Forever
As I told you a couple of months ago, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is a...
Potpourri
Potpourri (pronounced “poh’purree”), taken literally from the French origin, is translated “rotten pot.” In English, though, it means a collection of small things; in...
In Case You Missed It
Design Process: Twist Effects
For the last few months, we have been looking at how the planform affects...
Light Stuff
Although Van’s has been a top-selling kit manufacturer for years, the company’s foray into the SLSA (factory-built Light Sport Aircraft) market with the RV-12 has proven to be challenging—and the airplane may not ever be sold ready-to-fly. By Dave Martin.
Experimotive
Jess Meyers of Belted Air Power continues to refine auto-engine conversion firewall-forward packages for homebuilt aircraft. By Rick Lindstrom.