![[Credit: Lisa Credit]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Experimental.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Have You Seen Your Oplims?")
![[Credit: Andrew Robinson]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/737_VGs2.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Vortex Generators")
![[Credit: Van's Aircraft]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Vans_RV14A.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Something New On The Horizon")
![[Credit: Lisa Turner]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Chute-Topaz-Gigapixel-2x-scale.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Should You Consider A Whole Aircraft Parachute?"){kind=tracking}
Ask the DAR
When can a project be registered as Experimental? Can a non-complying airplane be registered as an LSA? How is the 51% criterion determined? Answers to these questions come from DAR Mel Asberry.
Light Stuff
The Australian developers of the Jabiru engine wanted to build a sport airplane. But when their original engine choice went off the market, they developed its replacement, too. By Dave Martin.
Letters
Duck, Its a Canard As a Velocity builder, I sat down to enjoy Augusts canard article: Rutans Take. All was going well until...
Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook saw some reasons to be cheerful at AirVenture, especially the upcoming refinement of the 51% rule for homebuilders.
What’s New
Zenith offers a reduced price for its STOL CH 701 kit, featuring the 85-hp Jabiru 2200A engine. Dynon offers a rebate for Blue Mountain EFIS owners who trade in for the new SkyView units, as well as special upgrade pricing. Edited by Mary Bernard.
Build a Bear: Moving Right Along
It’s starting to look like a Sport Cub. Dave Prizio gets to work on the systems and finishes the wings.
The Independence Project: Forward to the Fuselage
Dave Martin marches ahead with the Van’s RV-12, inventorying fuselage hardware, attaching the sideskins, working on other subassemblies and mating the tail cone to the fuselage. Progress!
Flight Testing: Static System Error – Theory and Practice, Part 2
In Part 2 of the series, Kevin Horton shows you how to gather and interpret flight-test data to identify static system error (spreadsheets included).
To Launch a Light Sport
Bob Fritz uses a couple of HVLP paint guns in preparation for painting his Jabiru J250. Which one is the top gun?
In Case You Missed It
Improper and Proper D-Sub Connectors
The connector in the left photo was discovered on the back of an autopilot...
Homebuilding in South Africa
On an “aviation safari,” Amy Laboda checks out South Africa’s homebuilding activity (and some spectacular scenery) and discovers the industry there is thriving—along with some of the factors that help keep it that way.