![Trimming composites gets the full PPE job. [Credit: Eric Stewart]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/7-2.jpg?w=534&h=462&crop=1 "A Few of My Favorite Tools")
![Lowell Farrand spent years serving as an FAA DAR and is in the EAA Hall of Fame. He offers sound advise to builders. [Credit: Bill Wilson]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/unnamed-4.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Think Like a Builder")
![Author Bill Wilson takes a break from measuring and cutting the Lexan windshield during his Onex build. [All Images Credit to Bill Wilson]](https://www.kitplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/image-2.jpg?w=265&h=198&crop=1 "Think Like A Builder")
Calculating Weight and Balance
Tackling weight-and-balance calculations is a task we have all faced with some trepidation, but it is so vital, so important, so fundamental to flight...
Build Your Skills: Metal, Part 1
An RV builder begins our journey through the gritty details of working with metal.
In Case You Missed It
Ly-Con O-Ring Trick
When you join two halves of a flat aviation engine together, they often weep between the starter and the alternator. Not only is this unsightly, its wasteful and makes completing an overhaul more cumbersome than need be. Enter Ly-Con, whose groovy O-ring process promises to stop leaks before they start.
