Annual Directory, Part 1 2009 Kit Aircraft Buyer's Guide Let your fingers do the shopping with the specs and photos for 297 designs, offered along with a cross-reference that lets you easily locate the manufacturer if you know the design name; compiled by Julia Downie. Builder Spotlight Supercharged F-1 Rocket While builder Wolfgang Meyn loved the F-1 Rocket quickbuild kit, things got a little more complicated (and exciting) when he decided to add an Aero Supercharger Solutions supercharger teamed up with a modified Airflow Performance fuel-injection system; by Ed Wischmeyer. Roll Your Own When they couldn’t find a likely single-seat homebuilt that would work as an inexpensive but reliable commuter airplane, two builders who are well versed in metal aircraft construction took it upon themselves to design and build one; by Ken Scott. The Paint Shop Experience Deciding that you don’t want to paint your homebuilt airplane yourself means placing your “baby” in the hands of a paint shop. Susan Brunner offers some tips to help manage this important aspect of the building process successfully. University of Jabiru If you’re considering or have already made the decision to use a Jabiru engine on your kit aircraft, Texas Sport Cub builder Dave Prizio says this three-day course will add to your confidence when installing and maintaining it. Build Your Skills: Fabric This month we look at installing the fabric on the wing and how to use rib-lacing, reinforcement tapes, pre-punched holes, and methods of mechanical attachment including pop rivets, PK screws and fabric clips; by Ron Alexander. To Launch a Light Sport This month’s chronicle of building a Jabiru J250 Light Sport airplane covers the assembly of the wings and tail, and discusses the value of surface preparation. Shop Talk Aero 'Lectrics In this first of a two-part series, Jim Weir builds a low-cost, high-efficiency portable ground-based antenna system that he used to great effect in the recent CAFE 400 (fuel efficiency) race in Northern California. You can do it, too. Designer's Notebook Wind Tunnel The aerodynamics of an airplane sometimes don’t cooperate with the pilot’s desire to roll, and instead produce both yaw and roll. Contributing factors are aileron parasite drag, induced drag between the wings and changes in the roll rate itself; by Barnaby Wainfan. Exploring Around the Patch Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook offers an explanation of how the annual Aircraft Buyer’s Guides are assembled, and his attempts to enhance the usefulness and relevance of the information provided. What's New In this month’s What’s New, ECi announces a new extended warranty on its Titan cylinders, and Vesta, Inc. offers a new Experimental aircraft engine conversion based on a V-6 Honda auto engine; edited by Mary Bernard. Ask the DAR This month, a new column introduces Designated Airworthiness Representative Mel Asberry, who describes his background in homebuilding and details some of what he’s looking for as a DAR. Questions welcome. Light Stuff Earlier this year, columnist Dave Martin had the opportunity to fly Flight Design’s CTSW (short wing) factory-built Light Sport Aircraft. This month, he flies the company’s new CTLS (Light Sport model), and he details the differences between the two. Kit Bits Contributors Letters List of Advertisers Builders' Marketplace The Classified Builder Kit Stuff Drawing on experience; by cartoonist Robrucha
Follow these links to visit the web sites of companies you read about in the December issue.
KITPLANES sits down with Advanced Flight Systems' founder Rob Hickman to examine his new synthetic-vision EFIS.
JPI's Lance Turk explains the features of the new JPI EDM-740.
Ever wonder what it takes to be the largest kit manufacturer in the world? KITPLANES editor Marc Cook takes a tour of Van's Aircraft in Aurora, Oregon.
KITPLANES editor Marc Cook visits Matco Manufacturing near Salt Lake City to see how the company's brakes, wheels and master cylinders are built.
Get an inside look at how Dynon builds and tests its electronic flight instruments.
Kitplanes Magazine contributor Ed Kolano takes a first look at the Sherpa utility aircraft.
Annual Directory, Part 1
