Paul Dye
Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 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 they completed. Currently, they are flight testing a Xenos motorglider. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 6000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, 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.
Flight Testing
Even current pilots need to hone specific skills before attempting a first flight in their homebuilts. There's only one way to do that: practice. And then practice some more.
Build It Better: Building to Requirements
It can be tough to keep a homebuilt project from ballooning out of control when so many tempting innovations and extras catch your eye along the way. Having a specific vision from the outset can help keep things on track.
Free Flight
What does a video game have in common with building an airplane? More than you might think.
Flight Testing
Personnel roles, emergency contingencies, communications-there are many moving parts involved in the first flight of a homebuilt. Paul Dye catalogs them and offers a sample flight plan that worked for him.
Build It Better: Knowing how it works
How do you reconcile a discrepancy between two gauges in your aircraft, say, a float-gauge reading and fuel-totalizer data? It helps to have a deep understanding of your systems.
Free Flight
In a short, late-afternoon flight, Paul Dye takes on a particular Houston cloud formation and exalts in the glory of flying an airplane perfectly suited to his whims.
Build It Better: Testing, testing, one, two, three
There's no substitute for real-world testing--;something homebuilders should keep in mind when moving from the theoretical to the actual application.
Light and Capable
There are so many ways to try to keep the weight down in a homebuilt project, but some are better than others.
Restoring the RV-1
The very first Van’s prototype flies again, thanks to months of volunteers’ hard work, and its designer climbs back into the cockpit, some five decades after he built it.
Build It Better: Show Me the Data!
Don’t believe everything you hear when making an important building or maintenance decision—do your homework.
In Case You Missed it
All About Avionics, Part 6
Whether portable handheld or panel-mounted, GPSes are the wave of the future in avionics, and these units can store and display a remarkable amount of detailed information. With nifty docks, handhelds can perform much like the panel-mounts in the cockpit, yet be removed for use in other vehicles.
Ask the DAR
Electric motors, major repairs, combining parts from several kits, using completed wings.
