Home Authors Posts by Paul Dye

Paul Dye

Paul Dye
936 POSTS 30 COMMENTS
Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 50 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 and SubSonex jet that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra and an electric Xenos motorglider they completed. Currently, they are building an F1 Rocket. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 6000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, FAA DAR, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor; he was formerly a member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country.

Pick a Little, Build a Little

0
Our twenty (plus) year old quick-build F1 Rocket kit came covered in a variety of twenty (plus) year old vinyl and plastic.

Why Not AoA?

6
If AoA flying is so great, where has it been all your life?

(Un)Boxing Day

2
Everyone knows that “Boxing Day” is December 26th (an old-world holiday that few celebrate on our side of the pond). This year, we celebrated...

Stewart Delivers

0
About ten days before Christmas, we fell into an incredible deal on an F1 Rocket kit (and a motor!) that was located in central...

Machine, Weld… Repeat!

0
The project was certainly educational, and those of you with lots of experience welding will chuckle at my expense.

How to Calibrate Angle-of-Attack on Garmin’s G3X Touch System

7
For pilots who fly with modern electronic flight instruments, having access to accurate, repeatable angle-of-attack (AoA) information can be transformative. But before you can...

Remembering Reno

1
Aviation just wouldn’t be the same without the races…no matter where they are held.

Stick Bushing

2
Things that move wear out. That’s buried in a law of physics I once learned having to do with entropy. In this case, that...

Plug That Hole!

2
Got an extra hole in your baffles? In this case, we were removing an unused purge valve return line that had penetrated the baffles...

Excess Horsepower!

1
Kitfox’s Super Sport gets more than new pep from Rotax’s turbocharged 916 iS.

In Case You Missed It

Maintenance Matters

0
Differential compression test.

Basically Bad

26
Last month this column was full of low-skill derring-do; this month I’m back with...

Will That Be Paint or Powder?

0
There are two popular options for builders to consider for covering steel components.

Avidyne IFD540 vs. Garmin GTN 750

1
Understanding the differences between these highly capable GPS navigators.