![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=534&h=462&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")
![sideview shows the Better Half with the full VW case. [Credit: Legal Eagle Airplane]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Milholland-V-Twin_Side-View.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Better Half VW")
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...
Bored No More
In a story full of admissions, I must start by confessing I had been thinking of ways to not fly the same old hour...
In Case You Missed It
Dimpling for Beauty and Speed
Each time you install a fastener on your airplane kit, consider whether the head...
Engine Beat
The Rotax 912 engine has become ubiquitous in homebuilt aviation, and now a company has found a way to improve its fuel efficiency. By Steve Ells.
Mike and Laura Starkey’s RANS S-21: Part 12
We have finally arrived at the “last 10%” of our RANS S-21 Outbound build—our...