The following was published by GeneralAviationNews.com on July 9, 2012, by Janice Wood

File photo

Aviators By Design is sponsoring efforts by the teens of  Aviation Explorer Post 9868, which resides at Central County Airport near Iola, Wisconsin, in building a Zenith CH 750 kit airplane in the Homebuilders Hangar on the AirVenture grounds.

“The goal of the AirVenture project is not to complete the kit aircraft during the week, but more importantly the goal is to get kids and adults involved in building an airplane,” explained Aviators By Designer founder Jerry Graf. “It will be a learning educational process that puts emphasis on developing S.T.E.M. (Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Math) skills and exposing flight to many with the aircraft home building process.”

The young people from Aviation Explorer Post 9868 will be joined by teens from Aviation Explorer Post 491. “Those kids built a KitFox and did an outstanding job,” Graf said. “Unfortunately, it was destroyed at SUN ’n FUN in the 2011 storm. The lessons learned with that project were incredible and Aviators By Design, along with great supervision especially with the help of experienced light aircraft builder Tracy Buttles, will be working on the STOL CH 750 kit.”

“The Zenith STOL CH 750 aircraft kit was chosen for this project due to the simplicity of the required kit assembly, needing only basic tools and skills and a few hundred kit assembly hours,” Graf said. “The all-metal kit is manufactured using advanced CNC pre-drilling, cutting and forming, with extensive match-hole technology, making it both quick and simple to build, while offering an excellent educational tool.”

Once assembled, the STOL CH 750 is a remarkable “short take-off and landing” (STOL) aircraft with excellent short field off-airport capability. The aircraft features side-by-side seating, standard tricycle gear configuration, and great visibility, making it well-suited for low-time pilots and Sport Pilot flight training, Graf noted.

After AirVenture, the partially completed airplane will be brought back to Central County Airport (68C) to be completed by Aviation Explorer Post 9868. Once the plane is completed, it will be used as a marketing tool to get more kids involved and excited about aviation. It will be flown to airshows, fly-ins and even taken to high schools to promote aviation and all the aspects of math, science and engineering that go with aviation.

For more information: AviatorsByDesign.com or 828-329-3694.

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