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1 week ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
“The ship is now on internal power!”That’s always great to hear when launching a spacecraft—it means you’ve cleared the preflight checklist and are nearly free of all ground support equipment.
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1 week ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
Radiant Technologies (www.radiantinstruments.com) has a penchant for using new and innovative technology to build inexpensive instrumentation for experimental and ultralight aviation. We’ve flown with their solid-state altimeters, airspeed indicators, angle of attack indicators, and turn-and-bank instruments—just to name a few. Their latest product is a compact, USB-powered carbon monoxide (CO) monitor that plugs into any powered USB-A port in your airplane.
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2 weeks ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
It’s been a while since we provided an update on the big picture of our F1 project—mostly because we’ve been heads-down, working on the many details of fitting and assembling the canopy and its skirts. To bring those following along up to speed: The fuselage is at the point where we’re nearly ready to put it on the gear and hang the engine, so we can start the firewall-forward work—engine systems, baffles, and cowling.
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2 weeks ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
One of the bugaboos of acrylic canopies is fastening these massive—and flexible—components to rigid canopy frames when the thermal expansion coefficients differ significantly from metal. Cracks often develop in tightly drilled holes secured with screws or rivets—so adding some form of flexible canopy fasteners is a good idea if you can. Oversized holes are one way to mitigate the issue; adding a rubber grommet to an even larger hole is another.
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3 weeks ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
The instructions that came with the 20-plus-year-old F1 Rocket kit we’re building include a very “down home” tip in the canopy section. Mark Fredericks, the author—and creator of Team Rocket and the F1—writes: “Make sure to add a handle to the top of the front canopy bow so that the first time you get in the seat, don’t close the canopy—you don’t have to call someone from outside to open it and let you out!” You can bet that came from experience.
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3 weeks ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
CubCrafters—the Cub company from Yakima—dropped in on us with a brand-new NX Cub a few weeks ago and asked us to drop them at the airline terminal, leaving the Cub on our ramp with the instructions to “have fun—fly it as much as you can!” This is the very first XCub built from a kit, so they felt we at KITPLANES were the appropriate folks to check it out. Look for a full review in our July issue—but in the meantime, here are just a few things you can do with a Cub in western Nevada.
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4 weeks ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
I love designing and building the cockpit. More than any other part of the ship, the cockpit is where the pilot lives and works—it is home. Sure, there have to be wings, powerplants and a fuselage—but the beauty of those is for the outside observer—the cockpit is what defines the flying experience for the pilot. To be more specific, what I really enjoy is designing instrument panels and controls—getting everything in just the right place and making it all intuitive to the pilot.
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1 month ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
Are you changing your ignition system from regular mags (with impulse couplers) to P-Mags? You’ll probably find that the studs installed on your engine are WAY too long—you’ll be removing the impulse coupler spacer, and that’s about an inch thick. Fortunately, E-MAG Ignitions, (maker of P-Mags) has the right (shorter) studs available. They simply need to replace the longer ones. Removing studs that have been in the engine for a long time can be challenging.
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1 month ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
I have been an instrument-rated pilot for close to 45 years now. I have flown lots of single-engine, single-pilot instrument hours and much of it was with steam gauges. I grew up reading Richard Collins in FLYING magazine, so I appreciated all the subtle ways in which an IFR flight could end in tragedy and always remembered the lessons of others so that I wouldn’t come to grief. At least not in the same way.
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2 months ago | 
kitplanes.com | Paul Dye
While some of the KITPLANES editorial staff was busy in Florida last week at Sun ’n Fun, I stayed home—because we had some days warm enough to do canopy work! The result: The F1 Rocket project looks much more “airplane-ish,” and I’m quickly reaching the point where it might make sense to put it on its gear and think about mounting the engine. If we get to that point, it opens up a vast array of work that can be done—firewall-forward connections, baffle work, and installing the cowling.
