Magazine

Recidivist readers will recall last month I went on a bender over a breeze in Mojave and how a single chock saved the day....

In many ways, Robrucha’s cartoons are as much a part of KITPLANES® as the airplanes themselves. Through the years, his clever, classy, always humorous...

Finding the right prop.

Here’s something new for me. Until my recently acquired GlaStar, I have never owned an airplane without an adjustable propeller. True, the Pulsar XP’s...

A lighter, more powerful engine gives the Lightning better performance.

Many popular aircraft kits‭ ‬utilize a sheet of aluminum to form the‭ ‬glareshield‮—‬that‭ ‬“shelf”‭ ‬located above‭ ‬the instrument panel and below the‭ ‬windshield‭. ‬While this component‭ ‬provides a cover to the avionic components‭, ‬it also can function as a mirror to send blinding sunlight into your eyes and block‭ ‬your vision‭. ‬A more accurate description […]

It looks almost finished, but there’s still much to do before the jet is ready to fly.

Reliable transponder performance is critical in the ADS-B environment.

While I owned my‭ ‬Fisher FP-404‭ ‬‭(‬“Restoring a Stored Homebuilt‭,‬”‭ ‬February 2017‭), ‬I was using an Android smartphone running the free Avare navigation app for what limited cross-country flying I‭ ‬did with that plane‭. ‬As it was a wooden‭ ‬plane‭, ‬a homemade wooden holder for‭ ‬the smartphone seemed more in keeping with the wood structure […]

For a couple‭ ‬of hundred bucks‭, ‬why‭ ‬argue about whether a handheld VHF‭ ‬com radio is worth having‭? ‬Top-of-the-line tablets can cost five times as much and navigate with‭ élan, but no com. The VHF market isn’t nearly so vibrant as things that run apps, but Sporty’s is out with a new one called the […]