![The best builders learn to combine both mindsets. They build like engineers but think like future mechanics. [Credit: Bill Wilson]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IMG_0037.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "Building vs. Fixing")
![[Credit: Wikimedia Commons]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/F-117_Nighthawk_Front.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Odd and Unusual Aircraft")
![After nearly 75 years, the basic Tailwind design remains sound. [Credit: LeRoy Cook]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IMG_4636.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "The Wittman Tailwind")
![Trimming composites gets the full PPE job. [Credit: Eric Stewart]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/7-2.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "A Few of My Favorite Tools")
![[Credit: AdobeStock]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/AdobeStock_125628775.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Roll Recovery, Part 2")
All About Avionics: Flight-Control Systems
As the industry matures, the sheer variety and capabilities of autopilots for Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft are flourishing. By Stein Bruch.
The Home Machinist
Bob Fritz visited the TechShop workshop in Menlo Park, California, and got to play with lots of big, shiny toys that any homebuilder would covet.
Mind the Gap
An ill-fitting joint where the wing joins the fuselage doesn't leap to mind as a foremost source of induced drag, but the effects can be significant.
Flight Review: Lockwood Super Drifter
Like piloting an AirCam, only more so, the Lockwood Super Drifter is for those who can’t get enough of that wind-in-your-hair feeling.
Flight Review: Revival of the Fittest
Part Husky, part Cub, the Bearhawk Patrol evokes 1940s-era shapes but with the benefit of today’s advanced manufacturing. By Chuck Berthe.
Letters
Fenced Goods (Best Letter) Thank you, Dave Martin, for your lucid and rational letter in support of airparks and TTF operations....
What’s New
Zeniths CH 750 kit is NKET compliant, Sportys launches new E6B app for iPhone and Inogens bottleless oxygen system. Edited by Mary Bernard.
In Case You Missed It
Aero ‘lectrics
Columnist Jim Weir comes up with what he thinks is the optimal design for getting power from the 12-volt aircraft battery to the LED without wasting any.
Viewfinder
Marc Cook spends a few days helping perform the annual on a friends RV-7A, and finds it much easier than doing his own.
