Kitplanes

Buyer's Guide

2012 Engine Buyer’s Guide

In Part 1 of our 2012 Engine Buyer’s Guide, Marc Cook explores what’s currently available in traditional powerplants, and why such engines might be the best choice for your homebuilt aircraft needs.

Flight Reports

Fisher Flying Products

Fisher Flying has been a fixture on the homebuilt scene for 30 years. With a new owner and a new home, the company—whose designs include the classic Dakota Hawk—is ready for a new generation. By LeRoy Cook.

Builder Spotlight

Building as a Group

The Independence Five is an Oregon-based group building a bevy of DH.2s. Dean Sigler explores their approach to building and reports on how the project is progressing.

Headlong For Headers

Tom Wilson, an avowed hot rodder, details his foray into the world of custom exhausts and the performance gains found on his Lycoming IO-540.

Firewall Forward: Choosing Your Engine

Many factors go into choosing the right engine for your homebuilt. In Part 1 of this new series, Dave Prizio provides an overview of the options available in Lycoming and Lycoming-type engines, and what you need to consider when making a decision.

Free Flight

Perfection is unattainable for most builders, yet it is what many strive for. Paul Dye posits that sometimes “good enough” may be just what you need to finally get out of the shop and into flying.

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.

Build It Better

The word “redundancy” is often heard in aviation, and with good reason. But a well-thought-out backup plan involves more than just having two of everything. By Paul Dye.

Ask The DAR

DAR Mel Asberry answers a reader’s question regarding the Experimental/Amateur-Built eligibility of an airplane he’s building with parts salvaged from a Cessna 175.

Shop Talk

Aero’Lectrics

An increasing number of pilots are turning to iPad and Android apps for use in the cockpit. Jim Weir takes an in-depth look at one of the more popular ones: ForeFlight.

Designer's Notebook

Wind Tunnel

Taxi testing may seem to be a mere formality, but it is a vital step toward bringing a new aircraft to flight, and is not without its dangers. By Barnaby Wainfan.

Exploring

Guest Editorial

Building an aircraft with a partner can be a rewarding experience. Dave Prizio discusses his relationship with longtime building partner Ed Zaleski, and how to go about forging your own successful building partnership.

What’s New

Garmin offers a GTN 750 training app for iPads; Dynon Avionics and Pocket FMS announce availability of worldwide AeroData for SkyView EFIS; KITPLANES® bookstore offers eBooks ready for iPad and Android.

Viewfinder

By getting an up-close look at the Sandberg reporting station in Southern California, Editor-at-Large Marc Cook finds out why the weather there is almost always worse than it is anywhere else in the L.A. basin.

Wingtip To Wingtip

Formation flying offers challenges beyond those you’d encounter on a $100 hamburger run. Dave Klages spends a day with the West Coast Ravens as they put their RVs through their paces.

Alternative Energies

Electric motorgliders are leading the way in low-cost, fuel-efficient flight. In the second installment of his two-part series, Dean Sigler profiles seven designs at the forefront of this emerging field.

Light Stuff

Roy Beisswenger encourages Americans to participate in the World Microlight and World Paramotor Championships to be held in Spain this summer, and discusses what is required to compete.

Kit Bits

Letters

Builders' Marketplace

Kit Stuff

Drawing on experience; by cartoonist Robrucha.

Download KITPLANES in PDF

Download the complete April 2012 issue of KITPLANES in one PDF file.