Paul Dye
Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 50 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 and SubSonex jet that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra and an electric Xenos motorglider they completed. Currently, they are building an F1 Rocket. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 6000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, FAA DAR, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor; he was formerly a member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country.
Good Fundamentals
I am often asked what it takes to fly many different airplanes, especially when some are prototypes for which very little data exists. My...
Javron Cub Double Take
One of the dangers of walking through AirVenture is the possibility of whiplash as you suddenly see something out of the corner of your...
It’s About the Friends You Meet
I’ve written this once or twice in the past, but it’s worth repeating—the longer you go to Oshkosh, the less it becomes about airplanes,...
Return of the Wonder!
Charlie Becker, EAA Homebuilt Community Manager, announced Saturday morning that the One Week Wonder will return at AirVenture 2022 with the build of a...
Saturday Morning Scud
Pilots are sitting in their airplanes this morning at Wittman field, waiting on the IFR conditions to lift so that the mass exodus from...
One, Two… Three?
Take a look at the seat back just below the fist in this picture. Forget the fact that the fist is attached to an...
Working the Weather
So here we sit in a suburb of Oshkosh on Wednesday evening, “working the weather.” That’s a term we used to use in the...
Friday is the New Saturday
It's a natural evolutionary process—when an event gets big enough, the opening day becomes crowded. So those that don’t like the crowds start coming...
Just a Little Old Wisconsin Fly-In
While the Mega-Aviation event known as AirVenture is still officially a few days away, the gathering has begun!
Many EAA old-timers sit around bemoaning the...
In Case You Missed It
The Dawn Patrol
Dick and Sharon Starks help a fellow member of The Kansas City Dawn Patrol ready his WW-I replica aircraft—a Mariner amphibian in 1918 Curtiss Seagull livery—for its FAA airworthiness inspection.
Aero ‘lectrics
This month, author Jim Weir lays the groundwork for a solar battery charger, complete with preliminary circuit board considerations drawn from a rats nest and details about how to order a pre-fabricated board.
Dan’s World
Columnist and RV builder Dan Checkoway advocates keeping it simple so that you can actually afford to fuel and fly your homebuilt aircraft. He claims many builders buy into the hype about the latest and greatest equipment must-haves, and then complain about the price at the pump.