![[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")
Plastic Tubing No-No
The symptom was a static system that leaked like a sieve when tested. Further investigation discovered this AN fitting being used with plastic tubing.
AN...
Two Years On
Habitual readers of this column know I’m not a fan of ADS-B, if only because I see such tracking technology as primarily the apparatus...
Archive: August 1985
The amazing Rutan Voyager was on the cover of our August 1985 issue. If you know your dates, you appreciate that ours was a...
Blast From the Past
Chris Hill’s Dr.I replica is as close as you can get to an actual 1917 Fokker Dreidecker.
Firewall Forward Video Series Introduction
A new video series about the major firewall-forward tasks a new airplane builder needs to know.
Repairman Certificate, Aerobatics, LSA Rules
Question: I have a question about the repairman certificate. Let’s say the FAA issues a repairman certificate to the owner/builder. After the airplane is...
In Case You Missed It
Ask the DAR
Applying for a Repairman Certificate, importing Experimentals, converting an SLSA Cub to ELSA.
