Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook takes the temperature of the homebuilt industry at the first big fly-in of the season.
What’s New
Sportairs Sirius LSA is available for demo flights, the Spider Tracks viewer allows you to track flights on your iPhone and MGL Avionics Second Generation EFISes debut. Edited by Mary Bernard
Unusual Attitude
On his way home from an unexceptional summer jaunt, author Bill Repucci got a most exceptional call from the tower.
Safety Is No Accident: Van’s RV series
It’s been a couple of years since we looked at how homebuilts generally fared in the accident statistics vis-à-vis certified aircraft. This time around we’ll look at the safety records of specific homebuilt designs, starting with the Van’s RV.
Learning Complex Systems Means Knowing How They Work
The importance of understanding your aircrafts avionics systems in terms of form, function and troubleshooting.
Vacuum-Bagging for Homebuilders
This month well go through the step-by-step vacuum-bagging process for an aileron trimtab part to see how to deal with extreme contours.
AeroLectrics
Why we need regulated voltage in our aircraft and how zener diodes, resistors, transistors and semiconductors help us get there.
Wind Tunnel
When the airflow separates from a surface, the result can be unsteady forces or turbulent wake shedding, neither of which is desirable.
Kerosene Dreams
Designer John Monnett has been waiting more than three decades for his SubSonex very short-winged glider to take off, and now it just might.
In Case You Missed It
Light Stuff
Roy Beisswenger takes a look at how you too can join the league of record holders in the ultralight world.
Light Sport, Done the Van’s Way
Van’s founder Dick VanGrunsven has long been active in the development of consensus standards for Light Sport Aircraft. Until recently, however, no one knew he was developing an LSA of his own. Enter the proof-of-concept RV-12. If testing bears out the viability of the concept, it may become available as an amateur-built kit.
