![[Credit: ChatGPT]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/What-did-you-miss-Topaz-Gigapixel-4x-scale.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "Last Bits"){kind=tracking}
![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=265&h=198&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")
This Is an EXCELlent Idea
For a long time after I bought my first airplane (N2014V, the Cessna 120 heavy), the problem of keeping the aircraft data (weight and...
Metal Magic Special: Paul Dye Shop Tour
Join KITPLANES editor at large Paul Dye for a quick tour of his home shop. A multi-airplane builder, Paul has collected tools and techniques...
Design Process: Pitch Force Trim
For an airplane to maintain steady-state level flight it must be trimmed in pitch. The airplane is trimmed when the net pitching moment acting...
IRAN
It is sometimes easy to remember that we do annual condition inspections to find things that might be wrong with the airplane. I know...
Unfit for Flight
Our culture’s version of schadenfreude often distills down to something called the Darwin Award, where hapless individuals appear to be disproving Charles Darwin’s theory...
Firewall Forward: The Oil Change
Let's get started with the KITPLANES Firewall Forward video series, sponsored by the Tempest Aero Group. In this episode, our editor at large Paul...
The Repairman Certificate
Those of us who have built or are building Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft know that one of the rewards besides the airworthiness certificate is another document...
Dispassionate Pursuits
At the very moment I was on final for Oshkosh’s Runway 9 in pursuit of a tailwheel endorsement, my flight instructor’s son was rising...
In Case You Missed It
Repeat Offender
This time I want an airplane strictly built for the joy of flying. I want something simple and relatively cheap for that magical first and last half-hour of daylight, to be low and slow with no place in particular to go and sporting a massive grin.
Soaring with Sonex
Sonex Designer John Monnett returns to the motorglider scene with the two-place Xenos.
25th Anniversary: Change Is Good
At AirVenture 2009, Amy Laboda took the opportunity to talk with 12 key innovators in the world of Experimental aviation, with one question in mind: What do you think has been the most significant change in homebuilding aircraft in the past 25 years?