Got my Airworthiness Certificate!

You can see my blog post for more details, but N19JF, a Viking powered Zenith CH-750 Cruzer with about 18 months and 968 hours of my sweat, (literally) blood and tears, as well a few hundred hours from my son Halden and friends John and Diego, is now certified airworthy!

Only 28 hours of that was actually in airplane construction, the other 940 hours was removing the @#^$&#$!@ part number stickers!

Thanks Roger for taking all the technical support calls, Chris for the design, and Sebastian for the encouragement and running a well oiled machine. And of course Patty, Katlin, Joyce, Steve and everyone else at Zenith!

Thanks also to Jan and Alyssa for all the help and advice on getting the Viking 130 ready to fly. Every time I fire it up the plane just wants to jump into the sky. Finally I can let it!

And thanks to Buzz Air for the transition training and 152 landings in some of the worst crosswinds I have every seen all with the panel blacked out. If I have any hope of finishing my first flight alive it's due to him.

I could not have done it without the support of my local EAA chapter led by James McGauhey( a fellow Zenith builder), and James Nichols for letting me split the apple fritter when I could not beat him to the donuts first, looking forward to seeing you fly your 750 STOL, and our EAA Tech Counselor David Weber. Phil Rueker was a life-saver helping be button everything up the last weekend.

Thanks also to the community for all the answered questions and support during the build.

And last but certainly not least thanks to Mark Pensenstadler for teaching me that I sometimes just need to settle for "good enough" if I ever want to actually fly a airplane I built! :-)

https://my750cruzer.wordpress.com

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Sanders on June 27, 2019 at 11:38am

Congratulations!!! Enjoy that first flight, definitely a special moment.

Permalink Reply by Jan Eggenfellner on June 27, 2019 at 1:03pm

Amazing, and you really do have a beautiful plane, take a moment to enjoy all your hard work! -Jan/Alissa

Permalink Reply by Clint L Gosch on June 27, 2019 at 5:13pm

Congrats!  Plane looks great!  Fly safe!

Permalink Reply by John Austin on June 28, 2019 at 7:07am

Congratulations - and thanks for your active participation in the Forums!

John

N750A

Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on June 28, 2019 at 7:41am

Nicely Done!  Congratulations...wishing you smooth skies and light winds for Phase I

Permalink Reply by Ralph Powell on June 28, 2019 at 8:35am

Fantastic! Great dedication, hope you don’t have to land in any “Buzzy” type crosswinds during phase one. Enjoy the the fruits of your labors.

Ralph

Permalink Reply by Mark LaPierre on June 29, 2019 at 11:12pm

But wait!  Let's hope for just one day with a good stiff crosswind so you can make a nice fat "Demonstrated Crosswind" entry in the POH you will be building from the Phase 1 testing you will be doing. ;-)

Calling it Phase 1 testing makes one wonder what Phase 2 testing consists of.  Maybe that's the phase where the pilot gets tested?

Permalink Reply by Joe Hopwood on June 30, 2019 at 6:57am

As the plane is experimental its entire life, all flight after phase 1 is phase 2.  At least that is my understanding.

Permalink Reply by Kenneth Stapleton on June 28, 2019 at 8:45am

Congratulations!!! What an accomplishment...I understand your comment about blood, sweat and tears!!! I think I donated about a pint to my right wing this week!

Congratulations again!!!!

Ken and Sharlene

Permalink Reply by Phillip Owens on June 28, 2019 at 9:37am

Congratulations, having completed a Zenith CH-801 I can appreciate your hard work.  Good luck on your 1st flight!

Phil Owens 

Permalink Reply by R Michael Moore on June 28, 2019 at 1:13pm

Great work.   Wish you years and years of happy flying in your Zenith.

Permalink Reply by Robert Schmanski on June 28, 2019 at 1:43pm

Congratulations. Nice plane!

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