![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")
Tipping Point
Sunrise on the Gulf Coast. No matter the time of year, the critical hour as the sun breaks the horizon is always interesting. In...
Do ADs Apply to Homebuilts? (Part 236)
Last month Kerry Fores’ provocatively titled column, “No One Is Watching” (Building Time, March 2023), resulted in comments from readers who latched onto one...
51 Questions
The press of business being what it is, I recently found myself in bucolically superior British Columbia at Murphy Aircraft. The major result of...
Tribute to Teachers and Mentors
I write this submission during the month of November when traditionally we ponder and express gratitude for things, some would say blessings, that we...
No One Is Watching
For better or worse, kit manufacturers are under no FAA oversight. There are no independent engineering reviews. No mandatory wing loading or landing-gear drop...
What’s Ahead?
As we close out 2022 (as I am writing this) and reflect on a year that showed both immense promise—people continue to build and...
Economics Buffet the Engine Market
Few disagree that the Experimental/Amateur-Built world revolves around gas-burning piston engines. Of course, the legacy engines have had a significant head start but Rotax...
Bingo Fuel
Having more gas on board than needed for a given flight seems easy enough to comprehend, yet every year an alarming number of flights...
A Cautionary Tail
One Monday morning I opened an email from the second owner of a Onex. It was sent at 8:12 p.m. on Saturday. An attached...
In Case You Missed It
Watch Those Sharp Edges
Grommets and bushings provide simple, inexpensive protection from sharp edges of all kinds.
Sometimes...
Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook reflects on the past years celebration of KITPLANES first quarter century, and finds that predictions for the next 25 years don't come easily.
Can We Talk? (Boy, Can We!)
One of my favorite AirVenture activities is eavesdropping as people tell their buddy about...
Restoring the RV-1
The very first Van’s prototype flies again, thanks to months of volunteers’ hard work, and its designer climbs back into the cockpit, some five decades after he built it.