Tips

The shipping cost nowadays makes it more economical to splice the wood and the tubes for the Legal Eagles airplanes rather than pay the cost to ship the long pieces.  Splices can be safe and as strong if done correctly.  Wood sailing ships have many splices in their frame construction, and they don’t fail in the rough […]

After the Hall of Fame awards, my scruffy and misfit friends got together and awarded me this plaque announcing that I was elected the be the head scruff and misfit.  This proves that they knew me well.  I keep it hanging in my office and get a kick out every time I pass it.  To think that they

Leonard was inducted into the EAA Ultra Light Hall of Fame. He was given a trip to Oshkosh to accept this trophy. The award was given after a nice dinner, and He was asked to make an acceptance speech.  The awards were held in the hangar that is part of the museum. There were twenty round

You will need to do a weight and balance test on your plane before you fly.  This is necessary, so your plane will be in a controllable condition, not nose heavy nor tail heavy.  On the Cabin Eagle plans, I have 5 different weight and balance pages.  An FFA agent looked them over very closely and just said

I explained to my Daughter how a compression leak-off test was used to troubleshoot an engine’s cylinders. She asks me, why don’t you put that on the Builders page? So here you go. The old timers know this and have been using this test for decades. Some of you may not have heard of this

I was born in Kansas City in 1924. At the age of 3 years old, my mother said I was making airplane noises and waving a toy airplane around. Fast forward, to me being 11 years old, my uncle gave me a model airplane kit. That one little kit started me on a model-building hobby.

This is about hand propping your Legal Eagle or the Double Eagle. I started flying legally in 1970.  I have had the misfortune to have witnessed seven hand propping accidents. I believe that I stopped one just a couple of weeks back. I warned an airline captain that what he was doing was very dangerous. 

Here is how to start the Briggs and Stratton engine. I usually start my VW engines from the rear and have the right hand on the throttle. When starting a cold engine, it helps to crack the throttle a tiny bit as a cold engine will condense the mixture, and there won’t be a combustible

You have got the fuselage built, and it’s on the wheels. Boy, is there a temptation to taxi it!  Well, I am here to tell you don’t taxi the fuselage without the wings.  It is amazing how easy it is to turn over the fuselage.  Several builders have damaged their planes by giving into the idea of just