Paul Dye
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.
Miracle Machines
When I was young, homebuilders were those crazy guys at the end of the airport in a falling-down hangar that were attaching Cub wings...
Training, Teaching and Coaching
With a title like that, you might expect that I’d excuse anyone without an instructor certificate from reading this month’s column. But if the...
Hardware Musings
Two thoughts come from the shop today:
First—all you RV pilots out there, the nylon locknuts you need are MS21083N8. They are about a buck...
Slack Time – Part 4
So about welding…
I have spent 50 years working on airplanes of all types and materials—from tube and rag to metal plus a bit of...
Parked Props
As anyone who studied for their private pilot exam 50 years ago should know, airplane propellers should be parked horizontally—that's so that when it...
In Case You Missed It
So Long, Lead
As the prospect of leaded aviation fuels fades into the sunset, the search is on for a replacement, and you may not like where things are headed. By Marc Cook.
Flight Review: Buena Venterra
What kind of performance can you get from a turbocharged Rotax 914 engine on the nose of a RANS S-19 airframe? Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook finds out.
