KITPLANES

IT’S A FAMILIAR scene, replayed in garages and workshops across the country for the better part of a half-century: the arrival of an airplane kit. For some, it’s a stack of boxes and a long tube or two containing the raw material of their dream. For others, it’s a near-complete fuselage and wings, carefully packed and shipped, already looking very much like an airplane. The difference between those two scenarios encapsulates a massive shift in the world of experimental amateur-built aircraft, a revolution that has changed not just how we build, but who builds. If we rewind to the late 1970s and early 1980s, the homebuilding scene was a very different landscape. Thinking back to the earliest days of what would become the kit plane boom, I recall a series…

LIKE A LOT of us, Dan Wild really wanted a STOL back-country airplane, but one that didn’t come with a half-milliondollar price tag. So, he decided to build one, from parts and ideas he came up with on his own. After a couple of years of continuous, conscientious construction, he was finished and flying his very own Wild Traveler. That momentous first flight was in 2024, and when we visited in late 2025, he had already accumulated 400 hours on the plane. Wild is a truly innovative homebuilder, the kind of guy who started the Experimental Amateur Built movement over 70 years ago. Long before there were ready-to-assemble kits and fully stocked supply houses, homebuilt airplanes were constructed from a dream, a few leftover parts, and perhaps some plans. Builders…

WHEN I ORDERED my airplane kit, I had never worked with sheet metal. My only real experience constructing things was in middle school shop class. Clearly, “build an airplane in your early 30s” was not on my life’s bingo card. Yet here I am, flying perhaps the most iconic Zenith Super Duty ever made. All because millions of people decided to join me for the ride. My name is Carson Stilson. I am a 34-year-old private pilot with a deep appreciation for backcountry aviation. I grew up around airplanes. My father owned a Cessna 172, and I logged my first ten hours of flight training in that airplane. I also worked at my local airport in St. George, Utah, cleaning airplanes and breathing in the fumes of aviation. In 2020,…

ZENITH AIRCRAFT Company, the Mexico, Missouri kit manufacturer known for its accessible designs and supportive builder community, is riding a wave of activity as it enters 2026. Between expanding its hands-on workshop program to new regions, introducing time-saving kit improvements, and capitalizing on the FAA’s newly enacted MOSAIC rule, the company is demonstrating the kind of adaptive energy that keeps kit manufacturers relevant in a changing regulatory landscape. The factory’s traveling workshop initiative represents a particularly interesting shift in how kit companies engage prospective builders. Rather than expecting builders and prospective customers to make pilgrimages to central Missouri, Zenith is bringing the experience to them, targeting regions with established builder communities and favorable winter weather. It’s a strategy that acknowledges both the geographical spread of the homebuilt movement and the…

I’M NOT JUST talking about epic with the 750SDXtreme either. I have definitely been working on the SDX as much as time and custom parts/components availability allow. However, with the unfortunate fact that I am yet still in the holding pattern and waiting on progress to happen with the custom front suspension strut so that I can move forward with getting the SDX permanently on its feet, my focus has at least partially and temporarily shifted to a couple of other big things. First is an epic adventure with ferrying another Zenith 701 from Colorado, across part of the majestic and unforgiving Rocky Mountains, to its new home in Tennessee. I had been watching this Zenith 701 going on adventures in CO through social media for quite some time and…

THE LIGHT sport aircraft market has seen its share of price inflation since the LSA rule took effect in 2004. Where early projections suggested factory-built aircraft in the $60,000 to $80,000 range, today’s market often pushes well past $130,000, with some models approaching $180,000. Against this backdrop, Aerotrek Aircraft has maintained a reputation for delivering well-equipped, competent performers at prices that still respect the original LSA promise of affordable flying. The Indiana-based company, led by Rob Rollison from Bloomfield, represents the Aeropro CZ line of aircraft manufactured in Nitra, Slovakia. The relationship dates to 2009, when Aerotrek began marketing two models in North America: the A220 taildragger and the A240 tricycle-gear version. Both aircraft share the European designation Eurofox, a design that traces its lineage back to Dean Wilson’s Avid…