313 AIRPLANES YOU CAN BUILD! ®® CELEBRATING 25 YEARS AS YOUR HOMEBUILT AIR C RAFT AUT H ORITY The Wicked Cool World of Experimental Aircraft—BE A Part OF IT! 2010 Kit Buyer’s Guide December 2009 From Russia With Love Grand Designs: A Preview of the E-7 Bush Hog 1984 25 2009 Installing & Flying Third Time’s the Charm? GRT’s Synthetic Ben Haas’ Ford V-8 Conversion Vision EFIS Go Fly.TM Electronic Flight Information Autopilot Engine Monitoring Systems Systems Systems The Avionics Leader for Experimental Aircraft. Quality - Usability - Affordability www.DynonAvionics.com 425-402-0433 [email protected] Seattle,Washington December 2009 | Volume 26, Number 12 On the cover: Art Director Suzanne Stackle designed the photo montage that amply demon- strates the wide range of Experimental possibilities. Photos by Paul Bertorelli, Kevin Wing, Richard VanderMeulen, Dick Starks and courtesy Belite and Sonex. 2010 Kit Aircraft Buyer’s Guide 36 Here’s your opportunity to peruse a current and comprehensive listing of the 313 kit aircraft available today; compiled by Cory Emberson. Flight Preview 36 8 BUSH HOG This improbably named Russian export could be a viable kit some day; by Ed Wischmeyer. Builder Spotlight 12 AVIONICS SPECIAL: SURFING THE RAPIDS Installing and flying with Grand Rapids Technologies’ Horizon HX synthetic vision EFIS in the Glastar Sportsman... easier done than said; by Marc Cook. 18 BUILD A BEAR: PUT THE FABRIC IN FABRICATION The Texas Sport Cub project proves that even the uninitiated can iron out covering problems; by Dave Prizio. 26 THE INDEPENDENCE PROJECT: THE FINISH KIT Little systems that are part of the finish kit on the RV-12 8 mean big projects; by Dave Martin. Shop Talk 89 AERO ’lECTRICS Radio too hot? Cool it! By Jim Weir. Designer’s Notebook 84 WIND TUNNEL An Oshkosh tour from an aerodynamicist’s point of view; by Barnaby Wainfan. Exploring 2 aROUND THE PATCH xx 25 years and counting; by Marc Cook. 78 4 WHAT’S NEW Safari helicopters has a new owner, plus try taking a new tach; edited by Mary Bernard. 34 DOWN TO EARTH Practice makes perfect (when it comes to learning a new EFIS box); by Amy Laboda. 78 EXPERIMOTIVE You’ll get nothin’ but Haas power from this new V-8 auto conversion; by Rick Lindstrom. 81 LIGHT STUFF SportStar reprise brings many changes; by Dave Martin. Kit Bits 6 LETTERS 64 LIST OF ADVERTISERS 86 BUILDERS’ MaRKETPLACE 91 THE CLASSIFIED BUILDER 96 KIT STUFF 81 Drawing on experience; by cartoonist Robrucha. KITPLANES December 2009 1 25 years and counting. This December issue brings us to the in metal continues. If you worked hard, European paradigm, mainly for reasons end of a yearlong celebration of the first you might be able to design a simple, of cost (fuel, insurance, training) and quarter century of KITPLANES®. Now that two-place homebuilt that goes faster, social pressures. If we move toward light we have examined where we’ve been, lands slower, looks sleeker and is easier to aviation being about the enjoyment of where are we going? Good question, if a build—but not all at once. New designs flight rather than an alternative to airline very difficult one to answer. will emerge, from all over the globe, but travel, electric aircraft make a lot more From the dusty pages of our back advances are likely to be focused on ease sense. Sure, the technology has a long issues are prognostications that widely of fabrication and assembly. way to go, but there are external drivers missed the mark. Flying cars built in your Gasoline engines, ever the techno- that can share the development costs. garage for very little time and money. logical driver in aviation, will continue That’s the best news for us. Auto-engine conversions taking over for to evolve slowly. How many times have So, what’s in store for KITPLANES®? To the traditional dinosaur engines. Fly by we heard that the air-cooled, push- be honest, I don’t have a 25-year plan for wire. The lightweight, fuel-efficient tur- rod, direct-drive aircraft engine is on its this magazine, but I do know this: We will bine engine. Still waiting? Me, too. death bed? Once I came to appreciate continue to be responsive to the commu- Which is why when someone asks the excellent engineering done by Con- nity and focused solely on Experimental/ me to predict the next 25 years, my first tinental and Lycoming in the 1950s and Amateur-Built aircraft. We’ll prevail as a response is: Dang if I know. Who could 60s, I realized that these powerplants are prime resource for honest aircraft evalu- have looked ahead from the 1970s to uniquely qualified for the role. But there ations, hands-on content, informed com- predict that a quiet man by the name of is, as well, a chicken-and-egg effect here. mentary and all that goes with it. We VanGrunsven would grow his conserva- The small-displacement, opposed-cylin- are deeply involved in the industry. This tive, honest-performing line of aircraft der engine was the first to be thoroughly magazine’s group of editors and contrib- into what has become the industry jug- developed for GA use, and the airframes utors (myself included) do more than talk gernaut? Who would have guessed that to use this kind of design followed. about homebuilts, we actually build and the fabled Glasair/Lancair rivalry would For homebuilts, the early days were fly them. Even as we branch out into mul- diminish to a few friendly soft-tipped about scrounging from factory-built cast- timedia and update our online presence, arrows launched across the Washington- offs, and so our existing kits have been we’ll work hard to remain valuable (and Oregon border? built around these engines. That hasn’t slightly waggish) but above all, real. Just You see the problem: We’re all too changed much, though we do have the like the last 25 years. J close to the ground to see the long-range benefit of improved engine controls in trends, and we can’t predict what exter- the form of electronic ignition and Exper- nal forces will do—including the overall imental-only fuel injection schemes; still, economy, fuel costs, user fees, airport we’re all waiting for FADEC or some form access, FAA regulations on aircraft and of full electronic control to emerge at the airman medicals, to name just a few. affordable end of the spectrum. (Lycom- Undaunted, I’ll cast my line into the ing’s IE2 system has tons of promise, but stream. I have difficulty seeing any single it’s not likely to be inexpensive.) company stand up and challenge Van’s. I’m becoming encouraged by electric There’s simply too much of a head start aircraft, but not for the reasons you might Electric aircraft, like this factory-built here, with too many contented custom- surmise. I believe that a large segment of Yuneec, could change the landscape in the ers—and still the enduring desire to work general aviation will move toward the next 25 years. has been in aviation journalism for 20 years and in magazine work for more than 25. He is a 4000-hour instrument-rated, multi-engine pilot with experience in nearly 150 types. He’s Marc Cook completed two kit aircraft, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glastar Sportsman 2+2. 2 KITPLANES December 2009 Photo: Dave Martin 05444 G500 Kitplanes.qxp:Layout 1 7/1/09 2:07 PM Page 1 Retrofit glass. For not much cash. Introducing Garmin G500. Designed and priced specifically for Class 1/Class 2 aircraft1 (under 6,000 lbs), this new dual-screen digital “glass cockpit” suite is clearly the TSO’d retrofit option you’ve been waiting for. It fits neatly into the space vacated by your old six-pack instruments. And like our newly upgraded G600 system, it too comes with Garmin SafeTaxi® and initial FliteCharts® preloaded2. It too uses proven AHRS sensor technology. And available upgrade options include a scaled version of our SVT™ Synthetic Vision Technology, as well as a remote adapter that lets the AHRS drive your autopilot in place of a costly-to-maintain gyro ADI. Other options let you add such features as XM™ weather, audio channels, traffic alerts, onboard weather radar, and more. Garmin G500: It’s affordable glass for the owner-flown class. Follow the leader. NASDAQ GRMN ©2009 Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries 1 Check with your Garmin dealer for G500 compatibility information. 2 Includes initial FliteCharts® approach plates for the U.S. and detailed SafeTaxi® diagrams for 900+ U.S. airports. www.garmin.com EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook [email protected] Managing Editor Mary Bernard Art Director Suzanne Stackle Senior Editor Bob Fritz Editor at Large Dave Martin Contributing Editors Chuck Berthe, Stein Bruch, Steve Ells, Cory Emberson, Ed Kolano, Amy Laboda, Rick Lindstrom, Dave Prizio, Dick Starks, Barnaby Wainfan, Jim Weir, Tom Wilson, New Owner for Safari Helicopters Ed Wischmeyer CHR International has acquired Safari helicopter, the Experimental kit formerly Webmaster Omar Filipovic known as the Baby Belle for its resemblance to the Bell 47. Cartoonist Robrucha Murray Sweet, who is one of the original developers of the Safari, will remain involved ADVERTISING with the company as a technical consultant, and other members of the Safari staff will Publisher/Ad Director Cindy Pedersen also continue to be involved. CHR’s Bobby and Delane Baker anticipate providing sup- [email protected] Sr. Advertising Manager Chuck Preston port for Safari owners through the development of a worldwide dealer network that will [email protected] include North America.