Tabla de contenidos para May/June 2024 en KITPLANES

It’s been almost 20 years since the FAA implemented the Light Sport Aircraft category. While the planes might appear similar to traditional Experimental/Amateur-Built (E/A-B) aircraft, there are significant differences in how they are designed, constructed, maintained and operated. Light Sports have had a major impact on flying in the U.S., even if their numbers are still relatively few. Without Light Sport (and the accompanying Sport Pilot program), the FAA would have lacked data to justify the simplification of pilot medicals known as BasicMed. Light Sport’s proven safety led to the MOSAIC program, featuring a major relaxation of the limits of what can be flown without an FAA medical. In our last installment, we looked at the safety record of Special Light Sport Airplanes, which are the versions sold ready to…

After designing the panel, picking up the new flaps and prepping N2165U for paint, we were ready for the next big projects: installing the panel and painting the plane! However, we needed to wait for the panel to arrive and the paint shop to be ready for us. In the meantime, we worked on some smaller projects including the landing light installations, cutting the panel support, mounting the oil cooler to the baffling and building handles for the wings. The Landing Light Installations As purchased, my Van’s RV-6 lacked one key piece of equipment: a landing light. This was important because I wanted to fly my plane everywhere, all day and every day, so I could totally see myself getting caught in the dark. Therefore, landing lights were going to…

The spinner on the front of your airplane is there to do more than just look pointy—it’s also important for drag reduction and cooling airflow. A spinner is also typically made of fairly lightweight material, so it has to be mounted carefully to avoid crack-inducing stress and vibration. Therefore, it’s important to mount the spinner to the propeller as accurately as possible. Ideally the spinner should run perfectly true with absolutely no wobble, or as machinists say, “zero runout.” In practice, you just want to minimize the amount of runout by being as careful as possible when you are measuring and drilling. For the spinner on my RV project, I decided to shoot for ±0.030 inch or better, which is an ambitious goal. My RV, like many airplanes, has an…

An RV-10 owner recently brought his airplane to the shop due to high CHTs. He also mentioned that the problems started after the panel upgrade. When I asked what he meant by “high,” he responded that they were reaching 460° F on climb-out after just a few thousand feet, and he had to reduce power to stop any further rise in the temps. Yikes! That is really a high temp, especially for an RV-10 that previously had not had any temperature issues. My initial thoughts were one of two things: Either something had gotten changed/broken with the cooling systems, such as baffles or the plenum, or perhaps it was a configuration system with the new panel. Examination of the engine compartment revealed nothing was amiss. The new Garmin panel requires…

In June of 2023, I took my little jet—the SubSonex we call Loki—over to an airport open house in Carson City, Nevada. That’s just about 8 miles from my home base as the crow flies and for reasons I’ll mention later, I don’t like to do flights of less than half an hour, so I fired up and launched to altitude to enjoy a little light aerobatics and some cool smooth air before recovering to KCXP and parking on the show line. It was a nice morning, with a small but steady flow of spectators wandering the ramp. I was pleased at just how many had to stop and look at the tiny airplane with the jet engine on the back. Four years after we first flew, it’s still a…

Back in January 2020, Juliette and Roger Cosh of Athens, Tennessee, were just starting to build an RV-14A in their garage, never once dreaming of how many places it would take them or how it would influence their worldview. Remarkably, they had already logged 372 hours in it and landed in all but three states of the Lower 48—just 21 months after N8181J received its airworthiness certificate. Prior to flying N8181J, Juliette went through transition training in another RV-14A. She carried her enthusiasm from that training right into flying the requisite 40 hours in her own airplane. She well remembers the date of her first flight, 12-3-21, because as a former math teacher, she recognizes its symmetry as a palindrome. As soon as she’d flown off the 40 hours, it…

With 200 hours in type, I am probably among the higher-time pilots in the SubSonex, so let me comment a little bit about what it is like to fly. First, the stall speed is relatively low, so it doesn’t require the skill of an F-104 pilot to get it off and on the ground. The speed range is very similar to a Rocket, to pick a good comparison—a bit faster than an RV at the top end, but we’re not talking about flying a Citation. As mentioned, the low stall speed is a nice cushion should the worst happen and you end up setting it down off-airport. The airplane is a little less enjoyable in handling than types with a center stick. The sidestick means that you have very little…

Last month, I walked through the block diagram of the Dynon SkyView HDX system—what you need to order to get certain functions and features—and now it’s time to put those pieces together in the airplane. A note or two before we start. This is a retrofit to an existing, flying airplane with an eye toward balancing a few key objectives. On one hand, you could say if you’re spending the money on a full panel redo, you might as well just rip out all the old stuff and start anew. On the other hand, there are systems in place that have functioned well for more than 1000 hours, so the benefits of rewiring the bulk of the airplane would be more for aesthetics and ergonomics than for any functional reason.…

Builder’s block. We’ve all experienced it at one time or another. It can come from small roadblocks with specific tasks the builder is uncomfortable with or hasn’t experienced before. But it can also come from tasks such as electrical wiring, engine installation and fuel system plumbing. (Especially if the factory guidance is slight or nonexistent.) It can also be a whole range of other things like finances, health or even waiting on kit components and parts. Builder’s block also appears with weather extremes, which can have a pretty significant effect on the desire to build. Overcoming builder’s block can be a challenge, too. It is always best to develop a routine and stick to it. Making some kind of progress every day really helps; even when it seems like it…

In last month’s column I introduced our video project for building the Affordaplane. To review, this is the plans-only project I demonstrated on YouTube for building an ultralight from raw materials. (You’ll find this free 50-part series at https://tinyurl.com/affordaplane-project.) My objective was to build an “FAAlegal” ultralight using approved aircraft materials and techniques. This month, I will review some of the challenges encountered while building. My approach on making these videos was to show and explain to first-time builders how to take a set of plans and translate them into a series of steps for completing the project. From a construction standpoint this ultralight design is quite unusual in some ways and very traditional in others. The designer, Dave Edwards, had a goal of making sure the aircraft could be…