Builder Spotlight

Deciding that you don't want to paint your homebuilt airplane yourself means placing your baby in the hands of a paint shop. Susan Brunner offers some tips to help manage this important aspect of the building process successfully.

If you're considering or have already made the decision to use a Jabiru engine on your kit aircraft, Texas Sport Cub builder Dave Prizio says this three-day course will add to your confidence when installing and maintaining it.

This month we look at installing the fabric on the wing and how to use rib-lacing, reinforcement tapes, pre-punched holes, and methods of mechanical attachment including pop rivets, PK screws and fabric clips; by Ron Alexander.

This month’s chronicle of building a Jabiru J250 Light Sport airplane covers the assembly of the wings and tail, and discusses the value of surface preparation.

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.

Avionics wiz Stein Bruch discusses the pros and cons of the most popular ways of labeling your panel including placards, decals, rub-on labels, silkscreens and laser etching.

In the third part of this series on building a Jabiru J250 Light Sport airplane, author Bob Fritz installs the elevator, trim and aileron cables, paints some of the interior, installs the master break cylinder, and moves on to the rudder pedals and flaps.

Chuck Deiterichs description of a do-it-yourself wind indicator project includes tips, drawings, a parts listing, in-progress photos and a look at the finished product. His experimentation with the highly visible design takes the guesswork out of doing it right.

Oshkosh AirVenture gave Ed Wischmeyer the opportunity to look around at the newest ideas in aviation and to think about the larger implications of what he was seeing. He speculates about what works, what doesn't and how manufacturers and consumers alike could make the world of flying a better place.

Builders share their successes.