![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")
The Personalized Grip
There comes a time, fairly early in the kit-building process, where if a builder is constructing an aircraft to be flown with a stick...
What Are the Odds?
My first winter in Oregon came and went. The weather’s been fairly nice leading into spring, or at least my surroundings look just as...
Bill Brennand Lied to Me
You’d be forgiven if you don’t recognize the name. Bill Brennand went quietly about his life yet a life so full it warrants a...
Forward by Degrees
I’ve ridden the early adopter bus before—found the seats uncomfortable, the ride jarring and the destination available only after many inconvenient stops. So it...
It’s Not Like You’re Building an Airplane
The skills needed to build an airplane are not unique to aviation, nor are they uncommon.
Matters of Awareness
On February 14, FAA Acting Administrator Billy Nolan issued an initiative that he called an “FAA Safety Call to Action.” After opening with the...
A Whole New Sun ’n Fun
It’s not fair to call last year’s Sun ’n Fun a dud. It had, after all, come back from a COVID-related interruption in 2020...
Sport: Air Racing’s New Beginning
With the catastrophic elimination of Reno-Stead Airport as a racing venue this coming September, pylon air racing must once again reinvent itself.
This won’t be...
Conflicting Cues
Many years ago, after a visit to my snowbird parents, I was IFR and climbing to my eastbound altitude of 9000 feet. We all...
Beware the Scammer
We don’t talk about scams a lot in Experimental aviation. Yes, there were probably a few companies in our realm we might have accused...
In Case You Missed It
The Home Machinist
Charlie Taylor, the Wright brothers trusted right-hand man and machinist, made their early powered flight experiments possible. And he built the engine using only a drill press, a lathe, a simple scale and more than a little ingenuity; by Bob Fritz.
