A New Home For My Writing and Batray Update

This issue goes out to 649 members of the Facet Faithful, currently subscribed.

Goodbye to KITPLANES:

After 38 years of writing my “Wind Tunnel” column, my association with KITPLANES has ended.

My last “Wind Tunnel” appeared in the Sept, 2025 issue.

A little over 2 years ago KITPLANES, along with Flying, Plane and Pilot, AVWEB, and several other aviation publications were acquired by a new owner. This “new owner” has their own (very different) business model, and starting early 2025 they made radical changes to how those publications operated.

Unfortunately, these changes involved drastic budget cuts, withholding payments to contributors, and firings. By the end of September 2025, all of the KITPLANES editorial and production staff, as well as long-time contributors like myself had either been fired or driven out.

By October 2025, not one member of the team that was producing the real KITPLANES and had continuity back to the origin of the magazine remained.

What is now being published as “KITPLANES” is being produced entirely by the new owners of the brand and has no relation to the original publication.

Any material with my byline that appears on any KITPLANES website or in the print edition is recycled content from before September 2025, and is being used without my consent.

Paul Dye is a former editor in chief and editor at large of KITPLANES. You can read his account of events here:

Paul Dye: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1578756740035420&set=a.728589008385535

Welcome to AvBrief:

One of the people who was shown the door by the “new owners” is Russ Niles, the long-time editor of AVWEB.com.

Russ founded a new online publication: AvBrief.com to carry on the tradition of true aviation journalism.

https://avbrief.com/

I have joined him, along with many other former AVWEB, KITPLANES, and Flying contributors. I will now be writing for AvBrief on a regular basis.

Announcements of the founding of AvBrief, and the new “Experimental Aviator” section are here:

Hello AvBrief: https://avbrief.org/so-long-avweb-hello-avbrief/

Experimental Aviator: https://avbrief.com/avbrief-media-expands-with-the-experimental-aviator/

In this Podcast, Russ describes the founding of AvBrief, and his goals and vision for it.

Russ on Airplane Geeks Podcast

My first articles for the “Experimental Aviator” section of AvBrief are here:

https://avbrief.com/3d-printing-for-the-experimental-airplane-developer/

https://avbrief.com/aerodynamics-fixes-and-devices-shock-control-bumps/

AvBrief is entirely advertiser-supported, so clicks and subscriptions will help keep it going. I invite you to check it out and subscribe if you like what you read.

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Batray Build Update:

The engine is here: I have taken delivery of the heart of the BatRay, the Jabiru 3300 engine that will power it.

I bought an engine mount from the same distributor that sells the engine. I’m using the purchased mount as a starting point for the mount for the BatRay. The hard points on the BatRay structure are spaced differently than on the donor kit plane, so I will be making changes to adapt it.

I have rigged the engine mount in place, and I am using PVC pipe to mock up the additional tubes I will be adding to mate with the upper hard points on the main structure.

Landing Gear Attach Structure:

Most of my recent effort has been building the hard points that will attach the main landing gear to the primary truss structure.

These fittings will accept the upper ends of the main landing gear legs.

The fittings attaching the main landing gear legs to the airplane will attach to these interstitial plates. The plates distribute the concentrated landing gear loads into the main truss structure.

Rigging the Main Landing Gear Legs.