KITPLANES

Eyeballing airplanes and easy access to their designers/pilots.

All seven classes of racing will return in new home of Roswell, N.M. next year

Are the high prices here to stay? Are alternative engines finding an avenue to success? Are Jet A-burning engines like the DeltaHawk an important part of our future?

Wouldn't it be nice to have the EFIS and autopilot take over while you diagnose an engine problem? Like having a copilot you don't have to feed.

What's on the horizon for Lycoming and Thunderbolt? Watch to find out.

For owners of Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft, the best news is the rescinding of the so-called LODA rule.

Rotax’s 916 enlivens Sling’s four-seaters.

The Gweduck is a hero-class Experimental three decades in the making.

Lockwood’s Rotax-powered RV-9A is more than just fancy rhinoplasty.

Kitfox’s Super Sport gets more than new pep from Rotax’s turbocharged 916 iS.

Can a modern replica actually be better than a classic original?

Getting a multi-engine sea rating in the always-entertaining AirCam.

Part 11: Starting to wire my Advanced Flight Systems panel, installing a new fuel selector and more!

(Or how to build a Zenith CH 750 in just 11 years)

Creating access panels in your airplane.

“I may never be able to buy an airplane…but maybe I can build one!” —Dale Stanley

Part 10: small, important projects— brake lines, fuel lines, baffling and fairings.

Time to replace the nose gear bungee.

Another customization?

Tightening rod end bearings is easy when you make the right tools.

Checkpoints: Diagnosis.

A handy tool to have in the shop, avoiding a bunch of random long wires that always seem to get in the way.

The Lone Ranger

Plane and simple.

It’s time to roll the plane up on a set of calibrated scales.

Cheap and colorful ties: there is a place for them in the building process.

Building time.

Plane and simple.

That last 20% that feels like 80% is the time to slow down and pull out checklists, get other eyes on the project, call for a TC visit and sit in the airplane making noises.

After 20 years the long-gestating DeltaHawk diesel is suddenly hotter than Jeff LaVelle’s turbos on a 400-mph lap.

This time I want an airplane strictly built for the joy of flying. I want something simple and relatively cheap for that magical first and last half-hour of daylight, to be low and slow with no place in particular to go and sporting a massive grin.

If you're not careful, your non-building friends will find a way to change the subject.

Matco presented new DuraWear and UltraWear components which provide an upgrade to their standard brake discs and pads while maintaining the same pricing.

Tundra's line of no excuses off-road tailwheels.

Aircraft Specialty Flightlines, an AirVenture Veteran, has been innovating safer, more capable and easier to use components for experimental amateur aircraft builders for years.

Tom Swearingen has been making hose assemblies for homebuilders for quite a few years now and is well known for quality custom work done very fast.

One advantage of arriving early to AirVenture is that you may have the opportunity to preview deals before others arrive and the tents fill.