![Ten hours of dual instruction in a tailwheel-equipped aircraft is usually required for proficiency. [Credit: AdobeStock]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/AdobeStock_354747155.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "Learning How to Drag Your Tail")
![The alternative to bending down as the propeller is pulled through the compression stroke is to keep the back straight and bend the knees slightly, stepping away in a crouch. [Credit: LeRoy Cook]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/IMG_1519-scaled.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Manual Starting Methods")
![The newly-restored F-24 enjoying the morning sun. [All Images Credited to Mike Davenport]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/DSC_0001.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Golden Age Revival")
![[Credit: AdobeStock]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AdobeStock_176619176.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Instructional Inflexibility")
Get the Lead Out
We’ve all been there. The airplane is pulled out and baking on the hot ramp. Preflight complete. Passengers and bags are loaded and ready...
Experience for Experience Sake
I’ll admit it, I like merit badges. I like certificates of achievement. I like the recognition that comes with doing something new and different....
Challenge Yourself
It’s human nature to learn a new skill, work hard to “perfect” it and then settle into a peaceable existence just inside your comfort...
Helping Out
You may have noticed, but things have gotten sort of expensive lately. The daily stuff has a new bite to it and the once...
Buy, Buy, Buy
Time to talk about the “parts” portion of my column tagline. I’ve been a professional buyer for over seven years and while I still...
“Glare” Shield
The body of this month’s column is part informational, part confessional and part Zen and the Art of Experimental Maintenance. One of the most...
Ripples
I wrote this in April to meet a May deadline for this September issue of KITPLANES®, which came out before AirVenture in July. I...
Clattering About Diesels
DeltaHawk’s DHK180 engine has received its FAA certification. Yes, that’s the same inverted-vee, four-cylinder, two-stroke Jet A-burning diesel we’ve heard about for years. And,...
Training, Teaching and Coaching
With a title like that, you might expect that I’d excuse anyone without an instructor certificate from reading this month’s column. But if the...
Basically Bad
Last month this column was full of low-skill derring-do; this month I’m back with another blood pressure raising potboiler, this time more of the...
In Case You Missed It
All About Avionics
Todays homebuilt aircraft avionics packages often incorporate a number of boxes behind the panel, all requiring a particular type of wiring to go with them (not to mention all the other power draws such as lights, flap motors, etc.). Its advisable, then, to consider the length and nature of the wiring to be included in your project from the moment you start building. Avionics techno Stein Bruch explains the how and why of managing the wiring requirements for your aircraft.
A Custom Maintenance Manual for a Custom Aircraft
It may not be required, but it's essential for performing thorough inspections.
Archive: February 2014
A decade ago, we highlighted the almost bewildering array of WW-I replicas made by Airdrome Aeroplanes.
Highly Evolved
The Lancair Turbine Evolution might be the ultimate Experimental kit aircraft. By Doug Rozendaal.