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.
Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook takes the temperature of the homebuilt industry at the first big fly-in of the season.
Zenith CH 750 Kit Passes NKET Evaluation
Zenith Aircraft Company is reporting that its CH 750 kit aircraft has cleared evaluation by the newly formed NKET (National Kit Evaluation Team) as...
Low Compression to Make 94UL Viable?
AvWeb's Paul Bertorelli continues coverage from Teledyne Continental Motors' press function today:
While the industry wrings its hands deciding what to do about the...
More Than You Bargained For
It doesn't take a fortune to get a homebuilt aircraft completed and flying, and we look at a few designs that prove the point. By Marc Cook and Mary Bernard.
TCM on Fuels: Can 94UL Replace 100LL?
AvWeb's Paul Bertorelli continues coverage from Teledyne Continental Motors' press function today:
Continental is moving forward with its research to pitch 94UL as a replacement...
Continental Unveils Diesel Engine Project
AvWeb's Paul Bertorelli is in Mobile, Alabama, at the Teledyne Continental Motors headquarters for an alternative fuels summit. Here is the first of his...
Electric Aircraft Symposium
With electric airplanes continuing to gain favor, the fifth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium was held recently, and here's a video report from Kitplanes magazine...
Europa Returns!
Europa Aircraft is gearing up for the future with new leadership, a larger, more sophisticated manufacturing facility, and a sales force on the move.
New Honda Aircraft Engine Breaks Cover
Well, not really. But we found this project while practicing a little work avoidance (ah, that would be research) here at the KITPLANES world...
New Ace Aircraft Website Goes Live
The home of the Ace family of kitbuilt aircraft, including the Junior Ace 6 and the Junior Ace E, is now supported by a...
In Case You Missed It
25th Anniversary: Engines of Change
In the days of the Wright brothers, the Flyer would have been impossible had the boys not endeavored to develop their own powerplant. While the Experimental/Amateur-Built movement has been carried aloft by versions of certified aircraft engines, the alternative engine movement has provided viable options for builders. By Marc Cook.
The Dawn Patrol
When the chainsaw starters they'd been using on their airplanes for years finally started to give out, Dawn Patrol members searched for a replacement. It turned up in a garden tractor.
Classic Caretaker
Easy to build, easy to fly...and affordable too. No wonder the Fly Baby remains popular decades after the prototype debuted.
Dan’s World
Sometimes its surprising to see homebuilt aircraft kits languishing in garages or hangars or workshops. Especially the quickbuilds, which raises the question of whether there's something about buying a QB kit that leads to procrastination. Columnist Dan Checkoway ponders the question, looking to his own experience for an answer.