Magazine

All it took for author Doug Rozendaal to gain additional respect for his F-1 EVO Rocket was a couple of months without it. Even though he didn’t have to go cold turkey and had other airplanes to fly, they weren’t the same. He offers an appreciation for airplanes with that fighter feeling.

Ken Pollock did not come by his interest in flying in the usual way. His father was the first to want to learn, but then when he changed his mind, his son took up where Dad left off. All this despite the fact that Ken had broken his neck in a car accident, and had no use of his legs, and little use of his arms and hands.

Some builders of Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft are builders in name only, deferring primary construction of the aircraft to the pros. So concluded the FAA, which is determined to clamp down on those who would flout the 51% rules. What does it mean to regular homebuilders? Those who are building now will be unaffected, but for future builders, the FAAs guidance revisions could be significant.

Many of those who attend the big airshows, Oshkosh AirVenture or Sun n Fun, for example, stroll right past the buildings where would-be builders are trying a building technique on for size. Not so our intrepid contributor Cory Emberson, who got a schedule, circled three sessions of interest, and not only completed each class but lived to write about the experience.

Builders share their successes.

Using a real computer-assisted design (CAD) program to design your panel has multiple benefits.

Jim Weir continues the project he started last month as he attempts to bring a little intermittence to a homemade tone generator so that it will go beep, beep instead of one long beeeeeeeeep when alerting you to an out-of-norm condition.

This month Barnaby Wainfan turns his attention to the control system and how various aspects such as linkages, the elevator planform and tail aspect ratio, and trailing-edge treatments affect pitch control.

Rick Lindstrom revisits Canadas Dream Tundra, this time when its on floats. Dream Aircraft Founder Yvan Desmarais spent 10 years developing the prototype for this design, with the intention of building and kitting a better bushplane. Lindstrom says hes achieved that goal and then some.

Two builders helped each other build RV-9As, each employing significantly different outlays of cash. The results are impressive in both cases, but for different reasons. They help us ponder the question as we build: “What is something worth?” By Marc Cook.