Experimentals

Edge Performance of Notodden, Norway, has been around for little more than a decade, but their EFI and Rotax upgrades have quickly become popular, setting a high bar with race-quality components. I’ll be putting the EP912sti in the SR-1 race plane—not only does it have exceptional power to weight (important given the 661-pound weight limit for […]

When looking at homebuilding magazines from the ’60s and ’70s, one factor that stands out is the engine selection: Most were using the small Continental engines, from the A65 to the O-200. The main reason was availability. These engines were used by the thousands in the American lightplane industry after WW-II. As planes like Piper […]

I was happily plugging along at a good pace on my GlaStar project when life happened. What I had projected to be a two- or three-year build came to a crawl with a few spurts of activity and then finally stopped altogether. For seven years. My project was in the attached two-car garage, only a […]

Considerable insights can be gained by examining aircraft accident statistics. But sometimes—well, the results aren’t earth-shattering, but can be interesting nonetheless. Take the issue of pilot experience. We would certainly expect more-experienced pilots to make fewer mistakes. But what’s the actual difference? It’s not something that’s only relevant to homebuilts. But my Experimental/Amateur-Built aircraft accident database […]

Among the many effects of the supply chain problems in the summer of 2022, aviation discovered that it was having a difficult time functioning without a simple commodity—the oil filter. Lycoming and Continental engines everywhere needed spin-on, disposable oil filters to keep flying, and the supply was extremely limited. KITPLANES research found that Champion had […]

Airplanes are designed for particular missions. Some are simple ultralights designed to lift you off the ground for a few minutes in the golden hour of evening light. Some are fast performance cruisers intended to whisk you and your baggage across the country in short periods of time. Others are designed to ring out your […]

Walking the pits at Reno, you pass through a few rows of RV’s, Lancairs, and Glasairs, then a couple of aisles of T-6’s. Next, you come to the big guys—Sea Furies, big Grummans, a Corsair, and finally a couple of rows of Mustangs. This year, when you hit the east end of the Mustangs, you […]

We don’t normally think of hydropower as a path to Experimental aviation, but in Neil Wischer’s case, it was definitely the enabler. Starting with his grandparents’ and parents’ spinner-over-tail group for model airplanes, the youthful Neil found he was “the worst RC pilot ever” and ended up in the Navy where he got into the […]

I recall a chilly morning at the Reno-Stead airport when I realized I no longer felt like a total outsider. It was 2017, the first year I towed Jeff LaVelle’s trailer full of tools, hardware and a spare Hartzell propeller to the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada. He raced his Glasair III and I stood alongside him […]

CubCrafters has unveiled a new engine designed for experimental Carbon Cub aircraft outfitted with fixed-pitch propellers. Called the CC363i F/P, the engine is a version of the 186-HP four-cylinder, fuel-injected, constant-speed prop CC363i introduced by CubCrafters in 2017. The Carbon Cub entered the market powered by CubCrafters’ Lycoming O-320-based carbureted 180-HP CC340 engine. “It is […]