Marc Cook
Marc Cook is a veteran special-interest journalist who started as a staffer at AOPA Pilot in the late 1980s. Marc has built two airplanes, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glasair Aviation Sportsman, and now owns a 180-hp, recently modernized GlaStar based in western Oregon. Marc has 5000 hours spread over 200-plus types and four decades of flying.
Zenith Aircraft Offers Virtual Demo Flight
With the opportunity for would-be builders of the Zenith kit aircraft scuttled by COVID-19, the company has taken the initiative to “virtualize” several of...
What’s Next for Aviation in America? (Hint: No AirVenture)
Never have I wanted a column of mine to become obsolete, inconsequential, a curious blip in time more than this one. In the 30...
Garmin Introduces Big-Screen aera 760
Garmin today introduced a larger-screen version of its aera navigator. The aera 760 boasts a 7-inch screen, which is 2 inches larger than the current aera...
Experimental Vs. Certified
As I go through our back issues for our Archive page and relive the world of homebuilding in the 1980s (and, by extension, even...
Zenith Industry Spotlight
With no Sun ’n Fun happening this year, we took the opportunity to catch up with Zenith Aircraft’s Sebastien Heintz.
My New Toy: Rhino Label Maker
I’ve been accused of being interested in building and maintaining airplanes and motorcycles as cover for a bad case of tool want. From the...
Virtually There: Zenith Takes Next Builder Workshop Online
Instead of canceling an upcoming builder workshop, kit manufacturer Zenith Aircraft has turned it into a virtual affair. Zenith has been running a hands-on...
Kit-Aircraft Manufacturers: Okay So Far (UPDATED)
Many small manufacturers have been able to stay open with a combination of work-from-home employees, reconfigured manufacturing, and other tweaks.
AirVenture Go/No Go Decision Can Wait Until May
Jack Pelton, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s CEO and chairman, confirmed earlier reporting that this July’s AirVenture is still considered a go, and the next “decision point”...
What the Airshow Schedule Looks Like—For Now
The novel coronavirus pandemic is moving so fast it’s hard for anyone to keep up in real time, much less for armchair prognosticators or...
In Case You Missed It
Build Your Skills: Fabric
Fabric has been used to cover a wide variety of aircraft since the Wright brothers first started tinkering with flying machines. But fabric-covering processes have changed a lot in the last century, becoming more systematic in addition to being more reliable. Part 1 of this new series by Ron Alexander details the evolution of fabric covering and discusses some of the basics of getting started.
Bob’s Donut Shop
In my April 2021 column, I described making custom rivet nuts to replace self-tapping...
What’s New
The new Lancair Evolution flies, and the Aircraft Electronics Association speaks out on ADS-B implementation. The Arlington Fly-In and EAA sign new agreement, and Garmin introduces the GPSMAP 495. Aircrafters LLC is the distributor for a new overhead lighting console.
Spread Those Sheets
I'm kind of loose with my engineering and teaching. I don't have a lot of hard-and-fast rules.