® MAY 2015 www.kitplanes.com ALIA OR SPEED!OR F T RAIL Easier I Rotorcraft ’ for Made Essentials T Gear d Plug Wiring Panel Spark Inthe Shop: • Landing • • HOMEBUILT HOMEBUILT RSO O APHICS R ROPPO ACTIONS R FORMULA 1: G Colorful Options the Air and Hangar Staying FocusedStaying in Affordable and Fun Affordable VINYL G DIST KR REUNION KITPLANES MAY 2015 Groppo Trail • KR Fly-In • Formula 1 • Vinyl Graphics • First Flight Insurance • Landing Gear • Split Cowl • DIY Camera Mounts • Dawn Patrol • Spark Plugs BELVOIR PUBLICATIONS May 2015 | Volume 32, Number 5 Flight Review 6 ORSO D’ITALIA: While it’s not exactly a Cub clone, Groppo’s new Trail kit shares some of the same DNA as Piper’s classic. By Paul Bertorelli. Builder Spotlight 14 KR AIRPLANES—AFFORDABLE, FUN FLYING: Chino KR Fly-In showcased this sporty, economical airplane. By Dave Prizio. 18 FoRMULA 1: Getting 260 mph out of an O-200 Continental just for fun. By Tom Wilson. 26 SPLIT DECISioN: Building a vertical-split cowl for an RV-7A. 18 By Roger Kellogg. 32 VINYL GRAPHICS: Colorful alternatives to the plain plane. By Eric Stewart. 38 NEAR THE FiNISH LiNE: When your plane is almost completed, it’s time to shop for insurance. By Shanna Linton and Jennifer Cummins. 40 WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE RUNWAY: Understanding gyroplane nosewheels. By Roy Beisswenger. 68 ASK THE DAR: Data plate questions, airworthiness certificate errors, complying with service bulletins. By Mel Asberry. Shop Talk 46 MAINTENANCE MATTERS: Spark plugs: A window into how your engine is running. By Dave Prizio. 66 THE NEW GUY: Getting advice from the Internet. By David Boeshaar. 75 HOME SHOP MACHINIST: To launch a Light Sport–redux. By Bob Hadley. Shop Tips 56 EASIER PANEL WIRING: By David Boeshaar. 65 CAMERA MoUNTS: Jim Fleischman. Designer’s Notebook 62 STRESSING STRUCTURE: Algebra and the elevator control system. By David Paule. 78 WIND TUNNEL: Spring systems. By Barnaby Wainfan. Exploring 6 2 EDITOR’S LoG: Where in the world? By Paul Dye. 5 WHAT’S NEW: Loyd’s Rivet Drill Guide makes rivet removal easy. By KITPLANES® staff. 52 THE DAWN PATROL: “Was he packin’ heat?” By Dick Starks. 57 RiSKY BUSINESS: Distractions—stay focused in the air and the hangar. By Sid Mayeux. 60 CHECKPoiNTS: Limitations. By Vic Syracuse. Kit Bits 4 LETTERS 69 LiST OF ADVERTISERS 70 BUILDERS’ MARKETPLACE 80 KIT STUFF: Drawing on experience. By cartoonist Robrucha. 32 On the cover: Groppo Trail over Florida. Photographed by Paul Bertorelli. For subscription information, contact KITPLANES® at 800/622-1065 or visit www.kitplanes.com/cs. KITPLANES May 2015 1 EDITOR’S LOG Where in the world? I guess I learned basic navigation back the head. Today’s GPS would appear no if they believed you at all. To be able to in my Boy Scout days. As a young lad, I less than magic to a navigator from the pinpoint your position anywhere on the learned to get from point A to Point B days of sailing vessels—and probably planet with an accuracy of a few feet using a map and my eyes (we’d call to our much-more-recent ancestors is, in fact, magic to anyone born much that pilotage) as well as a compass and steering aircraft across the vast oceans before 1950. counted paces (the equivalent of ded in WW-II. To tell them as they struggled As we build our own airplanes, we reckoning). I moved on to navigating with maps, charts, circular slide rule are faced with numerous choices. If we via roadmap, nautical chart, and aero- and sextant that all you need to do is winnow away the choice of airframe nautical chart soon after that, always press a button and follow the magenta and engine, the third major expense for remembering that if you knew where line—they’d consider you to be Merlin many is the instrument panel and avi- you started and how you had moved, onics. When it comes to navigational then you must know where you are. information, we have numerous options Aeronautical navigation has pro- ranging from that old-fashioned pilotage gressed in much the same fashion since (looking out the window) to VORs, NDBs, the days of the Wright brothers. From and—yes—the magical box known as looking out the windshield (if there was GPS. For a historically brief time, we could one) to see familiar landmarks, to trust- choose a LORAN receiver, but alas, that ing compass-watch-airspeed, to using has gone the way of the low-frequency fancy electronic aids—aviation naviga- range, airway lights, and the rapidly tion has always trended toward more dwindling number of non-directional precision, quicker navigational solu- beacons. But given that GPS receivers tions, and more reliability. are practically being given away in cereal Homebuilt aircraft have the same nav- boxes (take a look at your cellular tele- igation needs as their certified brethren. phone—it probably can tell you exactly Depending on the mission, the needs where you are right now!), we have to might be more or less complex, but reli- ask the question, “Why would you install ably knowing one’s position relative to a anything else?” departure point or destination is always It’s a good question—and one being the goal. Even when we leave the atmo- answered by many pilots today with a sphere and navigate in outer space, our shrug and a hearty “I wouldn’t!” A lot navigational needs boil down to that depends on how you are going to use same thing—figuring out where in the your airplane, of course. A day-VFR flight world (or the universe) you really are. requires little more than looking out Follow the magenta line—Imagine We are living in a magical time. Arthur telling pilots from long ago that instead that window. But for the modest price of C. Clarke once said that “Any sufficiently of struggling with maps, charts, circular a handheld GPS, you can reliably tell the advanced technology is indistinguish- slide rule or sextant, navigation in the world that you are “7.7 miles southeast able from magic,” and relative to navi- 21st century is as easy as pressing a but- of the field” on your inbound radio call. gational technology, he hit the nail on ton and following a line on a GPS display. If you are flying IFR, you will probably Paul Dye retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 40 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the space shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen, and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 that he built in 2005, and an RV-3 that Paul Dye he built with his pilot wife. Currently, they are building a Xenos motorglider. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 4800 hours in many different types of aircraft. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country. 2 KITPLANES May 2015 www.kitplanes.com & www.facebook.com/kitplanes be looking at a certified GPS navigation that “you need to be able to use that So what about backup navigation? box installed in your panel—at least if VOR (or NDB, or low-frequency range!),” For VFR flight, there is always that won- you want to fully utilize the system as it it is hard to beat an actual picture of derful window, a map in your hands (or, works today. ADF approaches are rap- your situation—and modern magic has if you choose, on your iPad). For IFR navi- idly being decommissioned, as are ILS given us that option. gation, it is probably prudent to keep a approaches at many smaller airports. ADS-B and Next Gen are totally reli- VOR receiver for at least a little while GPS overlays with vertical navigation ant on the GPS system—and that is true longer—although I know of pilots who exist for most airports, and the intent whether you are flying a homebuilt or a state that their GPS backup under IFR of the FAA appears to be to change big Boeing. We can argue about if that conditions is radar vectors and a GCA “most” to “all” in very short order. GPS is reckless or not, but the truth is that (ground-controlled approach) at their approaches allow the government to do GPS receivers are extremely reliable, and destination—and believe it or not, an away with expensive and finicky ground the constellation of GPS satellites and argument can be made that this is legal stations and the people who build and their associated ground stations—well, (imagine your com radio being a backup maintain them. they aren’t bomb-proof, but then again, navigational tool!). Let’s not forget that GPS enables neither are VORs or ILS stations. Yes, So, as you lay out that wonderful all sorts of benefits when it comes to the government likes to fiddle around instrument panel, take a look at what cockpit situational awareness, such as with GPS spoofing in the great western is available today and what is coming moving maps and synthetic terrain. For expanses of the United States, but will in the near future before you make those operating in the mountainous they be allowed to do that when Ameri- your choices. Make those choices west, the advantages to modern naviga- can, Southwest, United, and Jet Blue are based on your realistic needs—not tion methods include marvelous safety forced to fully rely on the system for the on old wives’ tales or what used to be enhancements.