![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")
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...
Pilot Not In Command
An audible sigh and an acceptable landing punctuated the end of a stuttering cross-country. It punctuated it on a Wednesday, however, not the previous...
Night Flight
The theme of this month’s treatise is centered on flight operations at night. But I specifically chose the title because “Night Flight” happens to...
Thunder Struck
Some of my fondest memories are nestled in the early days of various race weeks—a special time in which those in the Sport Class...
Going Overboard
Have you ever lost anything out of an airplane? Gravity being omnipresent—and apparently increasing annually according to an equally decrepit friend while digging post...
IMSAFE
Early in my flying career, I had the good fortune of securing a part-time corporate gig in a new-to-the-boss Cessna 340A. My first trip...
The Art of Putzing About
Ahhh, putzing about. Is there anything more satisfying? Of course there is. Thousands of things, I’m sure. But like an ointment on an itch,...
Commander Klutz and the Lost Planet Airmen
It’s a fair assumption most KITPLANES® readers were not big on essay writing in school, which at least left me with a job (I’m...
Tail First
“Where did you get this?” my mom demanded, shaking a thick brown envelope at me. One that had been hidden under my mattress. I...
Do Diligence
About 25 years ago, my wife and I designed our home. We were intrigued by a new home heating and cooling technology called Triathlon....
In Case You Missed It
The Dawn Patrol
Dick and Sharon Starks help a fellow member of The Kansas City Dawn Patrol ready his WW-I replica aircraft—a Mariner amphibian in 1918 Curtiss Seagull livery—for its FAA airworthiness inspection.
What’s New
Dual Electronics debuts ADS-B unit, Garmin introduces GDL 39, Approach Fast Stack’s Pro-X hub and Dynon premiers D1 Pocket Panel.
Unusual Attitude
Sleeping on her first flight? Its the sign of a good builder/pilot, and a trusting and relaxed wife.