Magazine

This month, fabric expert Ron Alexander discusses attaching the fabric to the aircraft parts using either a pre-sewn envelope or individually cut pieces of fabric. The process is optimized for strength in flight as well as aesthetic appeal.

Heres something to ponder: By the time you get to the point where you are ready to build the panel in your homebuilt aircraft, you've already mastered many of the skills and techniques you'll need to do it by virtue of completing the airframe. That statement is all the more credible when it comes from someone with a vested interest in the subject, our own avionics expert Stein Bruch.

Almost from the beginning of aviation, the idea of a plane you could drive/car you could fly has captured both the popular imagination and the hearts of some dedicated experimentalists. The dream remains alive, and realization, the author says, is fettered only by the lack of willing investors; by Murry L. Rozansky.

Author Bob Fritz got the bad news that he would likely not pass his FAA medical and was faced with a choice: Finish the RV he was working on and resign himself to flying with a partner, or try to find a suitable Light Sport Aircraft that he could build and fly solo. In this first installment in the series, he details his search for the right design and reveals the decision he ultimately made.

Builders share their experiences.

This month Home Machinist Bob Fritz answers readers letters and passes along some of their better ideas.

Columnist Jim Weir puts two, two, two LED lights in one hole, angled to ensure the maximum nav light visibility in any direction. He explains how to put the system together and explains why heat matters.

The discussion of lateral/directional stability continues with an examination of dihedral effect and the effect of roll;

Test pilot Chuck Berthe flew the Arion Lightning not once but twice, in two different factory demonstrators.

The BD-5's reputation precedes it: long in development, company bankruptcy, investor losses, challenging to fly, early accidents. With an introduction like that, who would think this micro plane would be such a positively straightforward blast to fly?