![[Credit: LeRoy Cook]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_2791.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "The Safety Triangle: Balancing Skill, Knowledge, and Judgment in Flying")
![A SubSonex personal jet in aerobatic flight. Thea design will expand with a two-place model kit in the months ahead. [Credit: Sonex Aircraft]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SubSonex_Acro.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Sonex Reopens")
![A CubCrafter’s Carbon Cub headed to Sun ‘n Fun in the time-honored tradition. [Credit: CubCrafters]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Carbon-Cub-UL.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Sun ‘n Fun 2026 Highlights: Electric RV-10, Modular Avionics, and MOSAIC")
![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=265&h=198&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")
Good Fundamentals
I am often asked what it takes to fly many different airplanes, especially when some are prototypes for which very little data exists. My...
Failure to Launch
This month’s column is not about unmotivated or overaged adolescents living in Mom’s basement, nor honeymoon disasters. This is much more serious than those...
Shop in Comfort
I’ve confessed to building Metal Illness in a space that many, or most, would rate less than ideal. In my defense, my brain’s right...
An Open Mind
Normalcy had evolved in a fair way. Overcast and cool in the morning, the afternoon had opened to a moderate haze punctuated by a...
Speed Is in the Air
Air racing at Reno is part iron-age anachronism but also leading-edge development of the airplanes flying today. Where else can you say “4360 cubic...
Color Country
When I was mired in some of the more frustrating and tedious parts of building a kit aircraft, I would often reenergize myself by...
Your Head, Your Heart, Your Hands and the Truth
Three chords and the truth. That’s how songwriter Harlan Howard, who, with Hank Cochran, penned “I Fall to Pieces,” described country music. I got...
Glasair Aviation to Restart With Kits, Not Two Weeks to Taxi
Glasair Aviation is planning to emphasize kit sales and production first and restart TWTT later.
In Case You Missed It
Archive: February 1999
Our February 1999 issue teased a summer’s worth of aeronautical splash-n-dash with a “Water-Flying...
ERCuSi-A Silicon Bronze, the AlternaTIG Option
Last summer I had the chance to get some hands-on experience with TIG brazing....
Small-bottle O2: Aithre, Aerox Compacts
Personal-sized oxygen bottles save space and weight, while serving as belt-and-suspender backup. But go bigger if you use O2 regularly.
Rites of Passage
Throughout human history, societal groupings of like-minded people have developed certain requirements for new...