Praise for Paul
Former Editor in Chief (and now Editor at Large) Paul Dye made a brief announcement through social media detailing the handoff from him to Marc Cook. Here’s a sampling of the response, indicative of our readers’ appreciation of his efforts over the last six and a half years.
We will miss you at the helm… under your guidance Kitplanes® became the best GA magazine in the field, not just for homebuilders.
—Jim Cunningham
I’m really sorry to see you changing roles, though I’m sure Marc will be great. I subscribe to lots of aviation magazines, many of which go unread or partially read because of lack of time. But I finish reading Kitplanes® cover to cover about two days after it walks in the door! Thanks for all of the great work and inspiration.
—Mark Meredith
Thanks for all you’ve done, looking forward to your future comments, advice and contributions as well. Have fun flying that new jet!
—Jimmy Young
Thanks for all the great effort and material over the years. Kitplanes® has been my favorite monthly read. Go enjoy that jet!
—Robert Vess
Enjoy quasi-retirement. You’re one step closer to organizing Pickleball tournaments. Thank you for the honor and opportunity to contribute regularly to Kitplanes®. Blue skies!
—Kerry Fores
Kitplanes® is wonderful. Thank you for your efforts to make it so. Now go fly your SubSonex some more.
—Carey Anderson
Thank you Paul for your intelligent and entertaining writing. Take some time to enjoy your jet but please don’t stop writing.
—Dennis Henschel
You are one of the articles I read every time all the time. I don’t care what your title is, just keep writing!
—Jim Murray
Tankless O2
Are there any reasons against using one of those ultra-light oxygen concentrators in a homebuilt? They require no oxygen bottles at all and are easily charged with replaceable batteries. Seems like a cool idea if there isn’t anything against it.
—Allan Spreen
We tested a couple of them about six years ago, and they work quite well up to about 15,000 feet. Above that, it seemed like blood oxygen started dropping off, possibly because they couldn’t find as much O2 to concentrate. The only issues we found that affect the decision to buy were that you basically needed one for each occupant of the airplane, so it can start to get expensive. Overall cost is an issue. By the time you bought one, you could have bought a bottled system several times, and filled it quite a few more times. So for the convenience of always having O2 available and saving weight and complexity, you pay a premium. If that’s acceptable, then no problem. But most folks use supplemental O2 infrequently enough that our informal poll of local pilots was that they couldn’t justify the added cost.
—Ed.
Finishing Up
In your June 2019 editorial, “The Homestretch,” you discussed making a list of tasks near the end of the build. I have always used two lists: one for tasks and the other for parts to order. The reality of any project is that you always need to obtain a lot more stuff to finish up.
—Vern Little
