Kitplanes articles from March 2000

Kitplanes archives from March 2000

A Zenith Zodiac wins the new Schneider Cup race.
March 1, 2000... Changes and Corrections The address for the Replica Fighter Association is 1528 S. Koeller, PMB 111, Oshkosh, WI 54902. The web address for Norman Aviation International is www3.smypatico. ca/norman.aviation The price of...

Let's check out the Chaos Theory of aerobatics.
March 1, 2000... Some people consider aerobatics the ultimate form of flying. But the cost of a ready-built plane is well beyond my means and, at the age of 70, the idea of building a Pitts or the like is not realistic. I found my answer in a RANS S-9 Chaos....

Another View.
March 1, 2000... Leza-Lockwood's AirCam opens a new eye on the world. When the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the Washington, D.C. Mall opened on July 2, 1976 (two days early and on budget [$41 million]), its IMAX theater premiered the movie "To Fly,"...

Tango for Two.
March 1, 2000... Here's a kit you can build in 30days... with some help At Sun'n Fun 1983, Ken Fickett unveiled a new side-by-side, two-place, all-composite Porsche-powered airplane with a retractable trigear, known as the Aero Mirage TC-2. It first flew...

Joining the CAYMAN CARAVAN.
March 1, 2000... Push another pin into the map of your airborne travels. A large VFR flight-planning chart on the stone wall above the fireplace in our living room. Dozens of straight pins punch through an equal number of airport symbols. This is our...

Sun 'n Fun 2000.
March 1, 2000... Let's get ready for the first big fly-in of the year. There's no better way to catch up on what's new in the world of homebuilt aircraft than to schedule your travel to the century's first big fly-in: Sun 'n Fun at Lakeland, Florida,...

A French sport airshow reveals unique aircraft.
March 1, 2000... As picturesque as they can possibly be, the southern France Hautes Alps (high Alps) are home to one of the world's unique airshows. Succeeding at its second year in 1999, Mondial De L'Air (Air World) is a show dedicated to the sport of...

A VOLKSPLANE REBORN.
March 1, 2000... For the last several years, during visits with my in-laws near Lyon, France, I have stopped in at the Aero Club de Villeurbanne, the flying club on Corbas airfield, to check on a sick friend: a dusty, neglected Evans Volksplane VP-1. ...

Building Enthusiasm.
March 1, 2000... EAA Chapter 486 gets hands-on and builds its own hangar. "We built everything in here including the griddles," says Ken Graves, treasurer and past president of EAA Chapter 486, as chapter members flip pancakes at one of the group's...

Homebuiding Then and Now.
March 1, 2000... Keith Fowler is finishing his second airplane--40 years Starting in 1960, Keith Fowler and John Green constructed the very first plansbuilt Pazmany PL-1, a new side-by-side, two-place, all-metal design. Today Fowler, of Hemet, California,...

A Big Slice of Danish.
March 1, 2000... We've all heard of Oshkosh and Sun 'n Fun, and in Europe the big fly-ins are at Cranfield, England, and Moulins, France. Less well known, but with a tremendous pedigree for homebuilt aircraft enthusiasts, is the annual KZ Rally in Denmark....

Van's Aircraft will relocate.
March 1, 2000... Last December, I received an invitation from Van's Aircraft company rep Ken Scott to visit during a whirlwind winter tour of kit aircraft companies in the Northwest. I obliged and made a Saturday trip to North Plains, Oregon, where I found...

Builders share their successes.
March 1, 2000... Bill Mattie's RV-4 First flight for N464WB was June 13, 1999. Building took five years. The plane is powered by a 180-hp Lycoming O-360, and it cruises at 186 mph on a 70-inch Sterba prop. I also received a best homebuilt award at an EAA...

Here's the promised solid-state landing light flasher.
March 1, 2000... In the January issue, I went into some detail on how to make a landing/taxi light flasher using a Radio Shack power relay. I also said that there was a better way to do it using power transistors, and that I'd come along in a later issue and...

Super Sport.
March 1, 2000... This news Cruiser takes the KIS TR-4 one step further. Super Sport Cruiser is what 58-year-old Bill Grote calls his TR-4 Cruiser. Grote is a retired Los Angeles fireman, and he's been a private pilot since 1980. He has 1000 hours of...

An Intercom for Homebuilders.
March 1, 2000... The DRE-244e offers many features for a budget price. About three years ago, advocates of the homebuilt revolution liked the intercoms they saw going into new Mooney airplanes. These were the Symphony 468, built by DRE Communications Inc....

Five Fabrics and Time.
March 1, 2000... A professional engineer tests five popular aircraft covering After months of work, you are finally at the point where you need to decide on the type of fabric and covering process to use on your airplane. You have worked hard and are...

Let's talk about being (in) trim.
March 1, 2000... To maintain steady, level flight, an airplane must be in trim. The moments produced by the wing, fuselage and engine must be counteracted so that the airplane remains level. This aerodynamic trimming moment is generated by the tail (or...

KITPLANES' NEW PRODUCTS.
March 1, 2000... Mini Thermo-Anemometer Extech's Mini Thermo-Anemometer displays air velocity and temperature or air velocity and wind chill on a large LCD with display updates every second. Air velocity values are displayed in four different units with...

Here's a two-for-one deal worth considering.
March 1, 2000... We are taking a break from the technical theme we have pursued in the past issues and are responding to one of our readers, Robert Wilson, who e-mailed us from his home in Alaska with this question: "Some people have found ways to couple...

Density Wise.
March 1, 2000... A thermometer does double duty as a density-altitude gauge. At a west Texas field near El Paso hangs a thermometer that looks as if it's been vandalized. Closer inspection reveals that some clever airport resident has marked the density...

A Day in the Life of a DAR.
March 1, 2000... You're about to meet an important person. If you're building an airplane, you're going to have to deal with one. If you've already built an airplane, you already have. What is it? It's actually a who, a Designated Airworthiness...