Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
When is an airplane in trim? At least to the pilot, the airplane is trimmed when no stick force is required to maintain equilibrium. So how do we achieve this? Barnaby Wainfan explains any number of ways to go about it, including the use of trimtabs, spring systems, sparrow strainers and variable incidence tails.
Dan Parker was just another enthusiast looking to make his mark in aviation with some kind of crazy, notable project. Then he came across the Facet Opel, current altitude record holder, and the race was on. Since then, hes been working on his airplane full time, hoping to break the existing record, and along the way hes come up with some innovative and exceptionally efficient building and design practices.