The “Repeat Offender” epithet isn’t really mine. KITPLANES editor Marc Cook bestowed it upon me when I recently advised him that I was building another airplane. He’s just as guilty as I am, seeing how his first project (a Pulsar XP, back in his pre-family days) was just a warm-up for his Glastar [he refuses [...]

I knew it would run eventually; I just didn’t know when. I thought that the leaking right fuel tank would slow our RV-10 build down, but so far it is turning out to be just a blip. With little fanfare the other evening, just before sunset, my husband pulled the project forward, shuffling our airplane [...]

Spring is upon us, and you’re itching to go fly to an airshow, but fuel prices and travel time are holding you back. There’s an option coming up for those of us out West: The Golden West Regional Fly-in and Airshow will be upon us June 6-8. This will be the ninth GW fly-in, and [...]

Two weeks before Sun ‘n Fun, Garmin has introduced a new model to its portable GPS lineup, the GPSMAP495. While rumors have been circulating for some time that a successor to the popular 496 was about to be released—with the most common belief that it would have a different form factor than the -96 series [...]

One thing I knew would happen this annual: The pesky, albeit very small, exhaust leak that I found at the last oil change would get fixed. My motto: Never ignore exhaust leaks, no matter how small. Some background first. My Glastar Sportsman has a very early prototype Aircraft Exhaust four-into-one system that was mocked up [...]

The Wright brothers were first with powered flight. But who supplied the power? Without Charlie Taylor, 1903 would have been just another year of glider flying. Taylor was hired by Orville and Wilbur as a machinist and almost immediately was put to work making their engine. He started by sketching the crankshaft onto a slab [...]

Lancair International sent us this video of the first flight of the turboprop Evolution, which took place on Friday, March 21. Well-known test pilot Len Fox was at the controls, who proclaimed it “a successful first flight.” The 40-minute flight originated from Roberts Field in Redmond, Oregon, where Lancair is based. http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fv15.nonxt8.googlevideo.com%2Fvideoplayback%3Fid%3D9fb79773e8502361%26itag%3D5%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26app%3Dblogger%26et%3Dplay%26el%3DEMBEDDED%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1269277385%26sparams%3Did%252Citag%252Cip%252Cipbits%252Cexpire%26signature%3D62E9DE78374B6AF528C187CCDA8B06897CB537D.6B67D4D9FDF1889EC2CF6CA9BABEE2B104A84CFD%26key%3Dck1&nogvlm=1&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D9fb79773e8502361%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DrpMxNe6P7RDDZOZ0Si873Oxuakc&messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den Return to KITPLANES

Was he just contemplating his work, I wondered, as I walked toward my husband, who was sitting catatonic in a green plastic chair in the hangar. He was staring at the nearly, but not quite complete, RV-10 in front of him, and the look on his face was anything but awe. Exhaustion? Maybe. Not quite [...]