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Permalink Reply by Jan Eggenfellner on February 3, 2018 at 5:40pm

2017 STOL competition 

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Permalink Reply by Jan Eggenfellner on February 6, 2018 at 7:52pm

STOL Champion!

Congratulations to Deane Philip for taking first place in his Zenith STOL aircraft at the New Zealand Bush Pilot Championships in Omaka, New Zealand, on Saturday, February 3, 2018.  Watch the video of the incredible short take-off and precision short landing:

We also congratulate Chris Anderson for taking second place with his Zenith STOL in the national competition. Deane's STOL CH 701 "Sky Jeep" is powered by a 130-hp Viking engine (Honda auto conversion) and Chris Anderson's Zenith STOL is powered by a 120-hp Rotax 912ULS "big bore EFI" engine.

Deane Philip (above), of Christchurch, New Zealand, has been flying for five years and has logged 570 hours in his Zenith STOL over that time. Asked how he practiced for the STOL competition, Philip explains that "every take off and landing is a focused precision attempt. All of my flying is off-airport and the places we land and take-off from you need to be on point. Even when leaving and arriving at my home field I use the runway threshold line as a target point to continually hone my skills. An average outing will consist of 10 to 20 off field landings instead of just flying from A to B. This is the type of flying where the Zenith STOL truly excels."

First introduced in 1986, the STOL CH 701 aircraft was developed as an "off-airport" short take-off and landing kit aircraft to fulfill the demanding requirements of both sport pilots and first-time builders. Aeronautical engineer Chris Heintz combined the features and advantages of a "real" airplane with the short-field capabilities of an "ultralight" aircraft in the CH 701 design.

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