KITPLANES October/November 2025

THE QUESTION comes up regularly at fly-ins and EAA chapter meetings, usually voiced by someone shopping around the homebuilding community for an affordable project: “Wasn’t homebuilding a lot cheaper back in the good old days?” The questioner often follows with a wistful observation about how you could build a complete airplane for under $10,000 in the 1970s, while today’s kits routinely cost $85,000 to $200,000 or more. It seems like homebuilding has priced itself out of reach of the average enthusiast. Or has it? This perceived hyperinflation in homebuilding costs deserves closer examination, particularly when we consider homebuilding as both a viable path to aircraft ownership and an excellent way to learn to fly and hone flying skills. Understanding the numbers tells a better story than looking at historical…

How to Buy, Install, and Use Starlink in Your Aircraft The long cross-country got quiet some where over Nebraska when the last cell tower faded below the horizon. Email stopped updating, weather services went dark, and the kids in the back seats started asking if there was anything to do besides count corn fields. For builders who’ve spent years crafting aircraft capable of extended cross-country flying, that dead zone between departure and arrival has been the final frontier—until now. SpaceX’s Starlink 8,300+ satellite constellation has opened internet access to pilots in ways that seemed impossible just a few years ago. What started as rural broadband for remote farms has become a legitimate option for experimental aircraft, bringing streaming speeds, realtime weather, and full connectivity to altitudes where cell service never…

THERE’S SOMETHING almost ironic about how the most affordable sport aircraft on today’s market traces its lineage to the Czech Republic, a country that wasn’t even on most pilots’ radar screens twenty years ago. Yet the Aeromarine Merlin Light Sport Aircraft represents perhaps one of the best answers to the age-old aviation question: “How do I get in the air without breaking the bank?” The Merlin’s story begins in the workshops of Czech Aircraft Works, where the original design took shape, in the former Soviet era Let a.s. factory in Kunovice, Cech Republic. When Chip Erwin, a serial aviation entrepreneur with four decades of experience bringing affordable aircraft to market, encountered this Czech-designed single-seater, he recognized something special. After building over 750 aircraft through his previous company, Czech Aircraft Works,…

As an Experimental Amateur-Built aircraft, the Merlin avoids the certification costs and regulatory overhead that drive LSA prices skyward. Maintenance can be performed by the owner with appropriate supervision, annual condition inspections cost a fraction of LSA requirements, and modifications remain possible throughout the aircraft’s life. Yet the Merlin meets all LSA parameters, making it legal for Sport Pilot certificate holders to fly and has been certified in the EU to the UL-2 standards. For pilots considering the Merlin, the single-seat limitation represents both the aircraft’s primary compromise and its essential strength. This isn’t about family flying or commercial training operations. It’s about pure personal aviation—the kind of flying that brought most of us to aviation in the first place. Dawn patrols, evening pattern work, cross-country adventures where the destination…

MANY OF YOU are likely reading this wondering ‘who in the world is this new girl with a funny name and how could she possibly be qualified to lead KITPLANES?’ Allow me to bore you with my quick backstory before I explain where Kitplanes, and Firecrown’s aviation group as a whole, is headed for 2026. I am privileged to call myself a spoiled brat of aviation. As the last of three kids, my father, Bill McClure, was intent on having one of us carry on the aviation tradition in my family, and since my brother and sister didn’t show much interest as the older siblings, I believe I was his last ditch effort to see that vision through. On the way home from the hospital after my birth, we made a…

IT’S NEVER A GOOD SIGN when during your aircraft annual inspection the mechanic calls to report an issue. It’s sort of like getting a call from your doctor’s office following blood work and the person on the line says the doctor would like to see you within the next 24 hours! Depending on who is calling, either you or your plane has a problem! Recently I got such a call from my trusted mechanic regarding my Cirrus SR22T with 660 hours total time. During the annual inspection he was surprised to find on a hot engine compression test that two cylinders had very low compression (32/80 and 38/80). Potential options for addressing the problem included putting the plane back together and flying it for another 15-20 hours and retest the compressions,…