Kitplanes

Flight Reports

X Marks the Spot

Light and slow, yet lacking control skittishness, the X-Air is a simple and fun way to go nowhere in particular. By Bob Grimstead.

Builder Spotlight

All About Avionics: Autopilots

Want to be fresh at the end of a long flight? Experimental-only autopilots beat their certified counterparts. They’re usually less expensive, more capable and far more user-serviceable (if you know what you’re doing). By Stein Bruch.

The Home Machinist

Phillips? Flat head? Double blade? Bob Fritz clears up questions you didn’t even know you had about screwdrivers. When you’re building a plane, the right tool for the right job (and right space) really does matter.

Cable-Exit Fairings

Don’t let unsightly cable-exit holes spoil the look or performance of your aircraft (not to mention your budget). Ishmael Fuentes shows you how to make a cable-exit fairing inexpensively.

Cool Runnings

Norm Ellis does the math and shows you how to select the right oil cooler for your engine-cooling package. Given the critical role oil temperature plays in engine health, it’s a good idea to go beyond selecting the smallest, lightest and cheapest cooler you can find.

To Launch a Light Sport

Bob Fritz presses on! In this installment, he powers up the Grand Rapids Technologies EFIS panel, solves a curious com antenna problem, installs the Zaon PCAS, fits the door to the fuselage’s curvature, and streamlines the air flow to the oil cooler.

Completions

Builders share their successes.

Shop Talk

AeroLectrics

Jim Weir continues his series on digital logic (CMOS), and makes the little logic circuits do things that their inventors never considered.

Designer's Notebook

Wind Tunnel

Accelerate, pull and fly—that’s not all there is to the takeoff. Barnaby Wainfan takes a second-by-second look at the aerodynamics of the takeoff: when it works, and when it doesn’t.

Exploring

Around the Patch

Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook looks closely the TSA’s proposed badging plan for GA aircraft, which was buried in the Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP). Also, is there a chance for a Superior Air Parts revival?

What's New

Lights, engines, action. Kuntzleman Electronics debuts landing-taxi-recognition LED lights; the Sherpa flies again behind the K650 Honeywell turbine; and Fisher Flying Products gets ready to resume production from its new factory in Ontario, Canada. Edited by Mary Bernard.

ACT III

With numerous world records in his pocket, Bruce Bohannon is trying to figure out his next trick. Holder of 30 world speed and altitude records, Flyin’ Tiger pilot Bruce Bohannon has even higher aspirations for his one-of-a-kind plane: a place in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Amy Laboda spent some quality time with Bohannon talking about the technology and the team behind Flyin’ Tiger, emergency training instruction, and looking ahead to his next goal.

25th Anniversary: Rotax’s Run

The Rotax engine’s continual development over the years has led it to become the dominant engines among today’s Light Sport Aircraft. Dave Martin details the engine’s evolution, and takes a look at what may be next.

Product Review: Garmin GMA 240

Garmin’s latest com offering is a streamlined audio panel/intercom that doesn’t do everything, but what it does—nav/com, music, muting and pilot isolate—it does exceptionally well. By Marc Cook.

Ask the DAR

Mel Asberry clarifies the requirements for a builder’s log. The bottom line? The requirements are minimal: It should show that you actually built the aircraft, but it’s helpful to show as much detail as you can. And make sure you’re in the photos, doing the work.

Unusual Attitude

The Dawn Patrol, led by Dick Starks, launches for Holden, Missouri, to witness the taxi test of an 80%-scale replica of a 1915 de Havilland DH-2. The unintended consequence of an innocent road trip leads Dick to consider becoming a repeat building offender.

Engine Beat

Steve Ells examines the RSA-type fuel-injection system, shows you how to set the idle speed and idle mixture, and how to clean the nozzles and screens.

Light Stuff

Dave Martin returns to Sebring, and found a healthy supply of browsers and buyers. A healthy supply of aircraft, great weather, reasonable ticket and food prices, and no race noise combined to make the show a success.

Kit Bits

Letters

List of Advertisers

Builders' Marketplace

The Classified Builder

Kit Stuff

Drawing on experience; by cartoonist Robrucha.

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Download the complete June 2009 issue of KITPLANES® in one PDF file.