![Careful planning and determination will get you to your goal of building and flying your own airplane. [Credit: AdobeStock]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Pulsar-Sunset.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "Last Bits")
![[Credit: AdobeStock]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AdobeStock_262642207_AGCuesta.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Winging It")
![Lowell Farrand spent years serving as an FAA DAR and is in the EAA Hall of Fame. He offers sound advise to builders. [Credit: Bill Wilson]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-4.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Think Like a Builder")
![The 160 hp turbocharged Rotax 916iS is a four-stroke piston engine with redundant electronic fuel injection and ignition. [Credit: BPR Rotax]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/PIC_916-iS_iSc-2.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "2026 Engine Buyer’s Guide")
![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")
Engine Beat
As Lycoming and Continental vie for market share, the two power players are updating and improving long-existing engine designs and introducing new products to meet demand. By Steve Ells.
Down to Earth
As environmental regulations and market pressures converge on avgas boutique industry, Amy Laboda investigates whats going on in energy research… and whats to come.
Engine-run Requirements for the DAR Inspection
Do you need to run your engine for the DAR? How does using a certified engine and prop affect your Phase I test period? How about the gray areas regarding dual flight instruction? DAR Mel Asberry gives you the straight scoop.
News from Sun n Fun
Attendance may have been down a bit with the slumping economy, but that didn't stop innovators from introducing new products for homebuilt aviation. A Staff Report.
Letters
Sawtooth MythIn his article All About Avionics: EFIS Dreams Stein Bruch complains about the sawtooth altitude display on MGLs color EFIS. What he fails...
Around the Patch
Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook takes a moment to put lifes challenges in perspective as Senior Editor Bob Fritz enters the fight of his life with his characteristic positive attitude.
What’s New
CubCrafters ships CarbonCub kits; Forward Visions EVS-100 system will be available in RotorWay Experimental/Amateur-Built helicopters; and MotoPOD will produce cargo pods to haul a street-legal motorcycle underneath the RV-10. Edited by Mary Bernard.
Report from Friedrichshafen
625 exhibitors in 11 exhibit halls? Amy Laboda was up for it at AERO Friedrichshafen, Germanys extravaganza of a trade show. Engines of all kinds were the order of the day.
In Case You Missed It
A Higher Velocity
Marc Cook reviews the new twin-turbo Velocity TXL from Velocity Aircraft. Among the benefits of the new configuration, which includes two Garrett turbochargers on the Continental engine, is power that keeps performance consistent well into higher altitudes-to the tune of 250 knots at FL250.
To Launch a Light Sport
After being hauled on a trailer down a winding mountain road, the Jabiru J250 unintentionally has its first short flight (at the airport). By Bob Fritz.