![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")
Murphy and the Flight That Almost Wasn’t
Most of us fly airplanes for fun. I would even venture to say that all KITPLANES® readers understand the fun side of aviation, especially...
Dating Your Docs & Paint Touch-Up
I’ve been reading recently through a collection of builder log segments with various descriptions of how the builders notated on their paper plans that...
Archive: August 2012
Our cover story for the August 2012 issue was a special one closely and personally followed by then Senior Editor Paul Dye. None other...
Bored No More
In a story full of admissions, I must start by confessing I had been thinking of ways to not fly the same old hour...
Broken Tailwheel Chain Link
Tailwheels and their associated linkage should be carefully preflighted. Here’s a partially broken tailwheel chain link that has the potential to cause a complete...
A Pea Sea Bored?
Text and phonetically, yes. But if you will sit down, fasten your seat belt tight and just hold on, I will show you how...
The Personalized Grip
There comes a time, fairly early in the kit-building process, where if a builder is constructing an aircraft to be flown with a stick...
What Are the Odds?
My first winter in Oregon came and went. The weather’s been fairly nice leading into spring, or at least my surroundings look just as...
Prop Blade Effects
We often treat the propeller as a uniform “actuator disc” and the slipstream as a uniform stream tube of accelerated and swirling air. While...
In Case You Missed It
Second-Thought Tie-Down Eye
Every aircraft has tie-down points. Most of us never give them a second thought...
Spinner Bulkhead Clocking
Spinner woes were the topic of midsummer musings on Van’s Air Force this year....
Rotax Factory Tour
Paul Bertorelli takes a tour of the Rotax factory in Austria and discusses the company’s new 912 iS engine and what it has to offer to homebuilders.