![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")
What You Don’t Need to Know Can Hurt You
Building an airplane should be mostly fun, sometimes challenging, and infinitely rewarding, but confidence killers lurk everywhere. For instance, peruse metal-forming websites and textbooks...
Get-there-itis
Reading the title of this column, you probably think the topic is about weather and scud-running…and you'd be wrong (mostly). As we leave winter...
Odds and Observations
In a distant land, from which Vikings sailed and some of my forefathers sprang, three aircraft owners gathered and stared at a broken bolt...
Rear Cockpit
Youthful ignorant that I was, it took a few years for me to realize just what a disappointment I presented to my definitely older...
Fine Print
When I was young, dreaming of being old enough to solo, then old enough to get my private, I carried around an FAR/AIM book...
In Case You Missed It
Wooden Hangar Floors
Yes, its unusual, but for my hangar it makes perfect sense. By Steve Kessinger.