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Paul Dye

Paul Dye
930 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.

Parts Off, Parts On!

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Learning how to disassemble and assemble Lycoming engines.

Dropping in (and getting Airborne) at Sonex

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Whenever I find myself in Oshkosh in the "off-season" for EAA meetings and vents, I try and drop in on our friends at Sonex...

Drill Straight!

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We've finished up the left spar for our Xenos motor glider, and that means starting what seems like a whole new airplane project to...

Tundra Progress

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I keep getting asked how our Tundra repair project has been coming along, and since I've talked about it here before, it is only...

Editor’s Log

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The flying bug.

Something Different

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No, it's not experimental - but it is a little different. It's not often I find a J-3 Cub with a 100 horse C-85...

2017 Homebuilt Aircraft Directory

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Pick a plane, any plane-an overview of kit and plansbuilt fixed-wing aircraft and rotorcraft. Introduction Directory compiled by Omar Filipovic.

Discretion… and all that

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Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor. I'm sitting here in my home on the east side of the Sierra, just down...

Lathing Away

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It's always pleasant to spend a little time in the workshop making chips (or curlicues) out of 4130 Steel rod stock - especially when you have a use for the parts you are making. Such was my afternoon today - turning raw stock into squeezer die extensions to help set the rivets on our Xenos spar project.

A Modern Turn Coordinator

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The "little device" is the new digital, solid state turn coordinator from Belite - the makers of small, light airplane kits and gadgets for their panels. Their latest offering is something that will make folks looking for discrete gauges sit up and take notice.

In Case You Missed It

A Record Mojave

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The Mojave Experimental Fly-In adds record setting to the agenda in 2014.

Build Your Skills: Fabric

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The fabric has been applied to the airplane structure, its been tightened properly, and now its time to apply the first chemical coat to seal it. Ron Alexander takes you through the process and also introduces the various ways of attaching the fabric.

In Search of Speed

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Looking for the perfect next project, part 1.

Aero ‘lectrics

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The other Oshkosh (part II).