Buyer's Guides

Way back in March ’23 (deep in snow here), I gave you the problem...

Flight testing for longitudinal stability problems continues this month as columnist Barnaby Wainfan details tests for stick force as related to trim and stick-free stability of an aircraft. The object is to gather data and analyze it to see if the hypotheses about the nature of the problem hold up under scrutiny.

The BD-5's reputation precedes it: long in development, company bankruptcy, investor losses, challenging to fly, early accidents. With an introduction like that, who would think this micro plane would be such a positively straightforward blast to fly?

A major advantage of a fixed-pitch prop is that it is lighter, simpler and cheaper than one with variable pitch.