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
Taking a measured, conservative approach to the development of new technologies and basing decisions on real-world experience rather than hearsay is the best way to move forward in homebuilding.
Sun N Fun News: One Of Our Own Debuts
Contributing Editor Rick Lindstroms Zodiac 601XL made its show debut at Sun N Fun this year. It represents the first of the new quickbuild kits from Zenith Aircraft to be completed. This 601 is powered by a William Wynne-modified Corvair engine driving a Sensenich wood prop. Lindstrom says his 601 cruises at 105 knots while burning under 6 gph. Follow the story of Lindstroms project beginning in the June issue of KITPLANES.…
Sun N Fun News: Comp Airs New Monster, the 12
After the press conference today at Sun N Fun, Comp Air president Ron Lueck told journalists that a gentleman with a distinct Swiss accent had looked at the Comp Air 12 at the company's outdoor display and said, simply, You cant do that. It doesn't take much imagination to assume the man was thinking of the Pilatus PC-12 and the possible confusion with the massive composite from Merritt Island, Florida. Lueck chuckled at the…
Sun N Fun News: Lycoming Updates on Future Projects
Tuesday at Sun N Fun, Lycoming's Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ian Walsh, announced a continuation of the company's revitalization begun in 2004. Current projects for Experimentals include the Thunderbolt line, which is undergoing refinement and expansion of the options and a big push forward with the IO-580 powerplant. In addition, Walsh announced that Lycoming has received funding from parent company Textron ...
Good Vibrations, Bad Vibrations
Mating a prop to an engine requires more than a big wrench and some safety wire. Follow along on a real propeller vibration test.
Two Weeks to Taxi
Welcome to the first of what we expect to be many web-based updates on KITPLANES big project for the year, the construction of a...
KITPLANES’ New Airplane: The 18-Day Sportsman 2+2.
Welcome to the first of what we expect to be many web-based updates on KITPLANES big project for the year, the construction of a GlaStar Sportsman 2+2, N30KP, that will be both a traveling tool for the staff and a testbed for new equipment and technologies in the future. Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook picks up the story: …
In Case You Missed It
Label Those Wires!
A look behind most homebuilt instrument panels will present a maze of electrical wires....
Aero ‘lectrics
Jim Weir continues the project he started last month as he attempts to bring a little intermittence to a homemade tone generator so that it will go beep, beep instead of one long beeeeeeeeep when alerting you to an out-of-norm condition.
Unusual Attitude
RV builder Kathleen Evans makes a case for airplane building as a true partnership between spouses based on mutual interest and respect.