Hi Joseph, you are right about how much harder helis were to fly years ago,todays technology definately makes it much easier.I usually fly with the gyro turned down a bit so it will twitch a bit but nothing to much to handle.some of the contest flying they do now almost defies the laws of flight,wild to watch.

anyway thats all kids stuff,we're building big boy toys!!

Happy building

Dwayne

Hi Joseph, I use this more as an backup diary than a detailed blog. Never really thought anyone was all that interested in what I was doing. I do have some pictures of the jig I welded up and the bending process. I do have quite a few pictures, I was stronly advised to take a lot of them as it would ease the documentation process. I find it very easy to take pictures, not so easy to get the damn cord and upload the pictures onto the computer and than post them. I will spend some time and get some online if you are really interested in how I bent the gear. You may not be too impressed. I am a devout follower of Robert Hoover's mentoring, I scrounge! I am a firm believer in the old Kitplanes article they titled "Making the Buffalo Scream". After picking up a 5' x 10 x 3/4"  plate of aluminum from the recycle yard, I used a plywood carbide tipped skilsaw blade (turned backwards) and cut the outline of the gear. Routed the edges with a $15 bit from Home Depot.  I welded up a stand using some tubing and some round stock I found at a readymix conrete plant, used a 20 ton floor jack borrowed from a friend, and bent a piece of 3/4" to the radiuses called out on the plans. Really wasn't much original thinking on my part. Thanks for the interest and I'll try to get some pictures up soon. Just picked up a Lycoming 0-320 to put in this thing when the time comes. Now that I am excited about.

     The 750 definitely does not need 150 horse to fly but it can handle it. If you look at the guys flying short takeoff and landing for a living, one thing they have is plenty of horsepower. I want to use this plane for hunting and fishing out of and I travel alot to central america. So it'll see mostly unimproved area landings.

     Your comment about the plans leaving alot to be desired and notes being helpful made me think. I read design plans everyday in heavy civil construction and would comment the quality of the plans are top notch. The scratch build videos are very helpful for newbies. If this is your first project I strongly suggest you get them. Well worth the price. If you are pinching pennies I could probably send you mine. Watched them a few times and they kind of repeat what a couple of friends I have looking over my shoulder have told and shown me. They have been beating out parts from metal and form blocks for over thirty years. I fell much more comfortable with them critiquing my work and probably wound not have chose to scratch build if they were close by. Digging around thru all of the pictures but haven't found the landing gear pics yet, when I do I'll send you a few.

Joseph

We're getting close to joining the forward and rear sections of the fuselage.  I haven't update the page for several months. My brother Bernie May is also building a 750 in Ohio.  He's located in Medina. I'm a new to building and have been ordering the kit section by section. The cold has slowed us down a bit.  Stanely Couvillon has several great pictures on his kitlog webpage -   www.mykitlog.com/couvillon.  Hope this helps.

Joe, The O-290 is not an option because it is no longer produced or supported by Lycoming.  The dimensions are very close to an O-235 so the O235 cowling works fine. The engine mount is the same as the O-235 also.  The cowling and mount was purchased from Zenith.  Take-off HP is 140. Max is 135.  It was 46# over the wt of the O-235 but, with wt saving from the prop, carb, alt, and starter replacements, it came out 1.5 pounds over.

good luck with your project, Terry

Hi Josepk         I just noticed your Message.------ .     Yes i can help you    My  E mail is ben-knox@hotmail.com

hey Joe.  Im just starting also. wondering whether youd share your cad files with a fellow 750 builder.

jboglilaw@cox.net

Joe: to learn more about blog posts see http://www.zenith.aero/profiles/blogs/blog-what-is-it-and-how-do-i

Blog posts can be as long as you want with many photos.  You can also edit them anytime after posting...

Joe,

I thought it was a great experience.  I learned a lot about the history of the engine, the company, the people and had fun meeting other builders.  

Ed

Dear Joseph

Cheers up from the very south american Sao Paulo city! You are an Architect I am an engineer so we are talking almost same language! Pls feel free to contact anytime how is amazing flying down here! Be good!

Hi Joe,

The 750 fold pivots at the rear spar, the 701 is at the front. I didn't want to leave all that steel tube at the top of my windscreen, so I've made it detachable.

Wing folding isn't something one does frequently with a Zenith, but it does offer a relatively secure way of transporting the plane on a small trailer.

And you need to empty the fuel tanks and disconnect fuel lines and everything else.

I watched the video on zenith of the 750 fold and it does seem neater.

Best,

Joe

Joseph Begany

Now I work over new project CH750!

I want to stylize under the Giraffe.

Let's look that will turn out.

For thanks wishes!

I apologize for the English language, my national languages Russian and an Ukrainian.

Joe,

I will try to find it and contact him.  Thanks for the heads-up.

Ed

Joe, 

I have left him messages, but have not heard back.

Ed

Joe,

Thanks for the interest, Steve and I have talked about his issue.  It seems that the plans built stuff is the problem.  My kit parts could only fit one way.

Ed

Joe,

Thanks for the kind words.  The best thing about this project has been the willingness of people to jump in and help with problems.  It's a good group.

Ed

Joe

You were wundering about the orange thing in my picture, it is a modified control to eliminate the tight elevater cable at full left stick by adding asecond bell crank to the other side and conect one cable to each , now the tension is equal and the cntrol feels a lot better

Luzius

Hi Joe,

 I will get some pictures to you this week of my modified control stick.

Luzius

Jo,

Tryed to send some pictures Your adress rejected them.

Luzius

Hi Joe,

We bought the cages from Zenith. They have all worked out quite well once we figured out what we doing. We had an issue much like Steven but once we got everything together, things added up pretty good. The big issue is having the wing cord distance correct. We simply measure our wing and made our cage dimension the same.

Cheers, Joe

Personally I think it is an easier plane to fly than my 150. That said, it is a very different plane to fly than anything else. You need to work the rudders. Turns need to be lead with the rudder.

The sink rate can be amazing, but I found a good simulation is to practice power idle landings with full flaps in a 150. You get a very similar sight picture and sink rate, and you learn to control the glide slope with power.

Getting on the back side of the curb in the 701 is a mixed bag. My plane is very stall resistant, but the sink rate will smash the plane. You need to feel the drop and watch the VSI. Control speed with pitch and descent with power. I get my flare pitch well established before crossing the threshold. It is a tricycle geared airplane you land like a taildragger.

Handling in low speeds is fine. At 50MPH you still have plenty of flaperon authority, less so at 35MPH, but more than you will need. I would be cautious about overly steep turns at slow speeds just like any other plane.

I fly very tight patterns so I can land in the event of a engine outage and practice power idle landings in the 701.

You can absolutely land a 701 (can't say anything about the 750) on idle power. The trick is you need to be close in and high on final then drop the nose a bit get a little bit of momentum at the end so you can flare easily, otherwise you will land flat.

My fuel filter clogged with some debris still left in the tank ( at about 20 flight hours ) causing partial power loss. I was able to make the runway from a 1/4 mile out downwind and perform a soft, flared landing without additional power.

I have never flown a CTLS or any of the other planes in that family so I can not compare. My points of reference are Cessnas, Super Cubs and to a lesser extent RVs.

(RVs by the way have a similar glideslope problem)

We get one or two snows a year, every few years we one of the storms is 4+ inches. Combine a particularly wet snow with hills that rival San Francisco and you get a driving mess.

Are you talking about the "Power Off Takeoff" guy? I thought he was over in Idaho.

Hi Joe, Yes, I fly out of KJXN. My hanger is next to the JCC flight school on the west side.

Come up whenever you get a chance.

Dan