![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")
How I Cross-Country
Way back in the previous century—closer to the middle of the century than the end—I learned that the secret to cross-country navigation was a...
Top Ten Favorite Tools for Maintenance
As I start this article, we are between Baker, Nevada, and Hinckley, Utah, which is quite remote. We are stranded “MOG’’ (motor home on...
Unattached Vertical Fin
Here is a photo of a vertical stabilizer attach point on an RV-9A that is completely missing the four lower attach bolts shown in...
Gone Pro
In the last three years I’ve been rewarded by the older of my sons taking up aviation in a most serious way. Every devotee...
Archive: November 1989
The airplane on our November 1989 cover was not some kind of Cessna 336 that got left in the dryer too long. Indeed, it...
The Virtue Of Simple
I had all the best intentions. When I bought my GlaStar, I had hoped to keep some of its very simple nature intact, but...
2023 Homebuilt Aircraft Directory
Welcome back to our annual extravaganza that is our directory of homebuilt aircraft. As with anything, our presentation of the kits and plans available...
In Case You Missed It
NPT and Aircraft Fittings–Don’t Get That Size Wrong!
National Pipe Thread is a U.S. standard for tapered threads, which we find on...
Breaking Bead
This month’s home shop project is a bead breaker for separating stubborn tires from rims.
Barefoot Flying
A relative newcomer to the U.S. kit aircraft clan, the Sport Air Corsario import from Rio de Janeiro borrows characteristics from other amphibians while displaying a personality and pleasurable flying qualities uniquely its own; by Dave Higdon.