Nice to hear from you

I used own a Rv-7 kit that I built to the wings stage, I have a little experience in the building but not some much in the scratch building.

I`m at the very beginning stages..reading over the plans and looking at materials.

I blew up the drawings on the wing rib forms on page 640-V-7 760% and they are very close to being 1 on 1, only a millimeter off. suspect the plans used to be full sized drafting paper size when they used them to build the Alarus. But due to costs or whatever they decided to drop the size down to 11x17 and sell them with no scale on them. I lifted the airfoil shape off that after confirming the numbers as called out on the plans

On the Build CD I could not find a IPLs, a materials list or the pattern list for economical layout of parts on the sheets. do you have a copy of those?

Did you ever have a builder website?

thanks again for the shout out, I`m sure I`ll have lots of questions for you as time passes..

Michael in Toronto

I saw the video you're talking about. done by Jeff paden. I have see his website on archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20090106004250/www.madbbs.com/~jpaden/

On that video is does show a shot of a sheet cut list, but I`m not sure if its for the ch-640 or another plane

Is Jeff still around as in communicating with other builders, Ive thought of writing him.

do you have any links to those ch-640 sites in France your talking about. Like to look them over.

The video I saw was done by James Cameron. He is also a member of this site. He is listed as one of my friends.

When you say subaru....was it an eggenfellner engine , or our own design eg81 or eg25. What re-drive did you put on it? id like to hear what happened to it I was following the whole subaru craze at the time too.

On the plans does developed lenth =DL is that just the pre bent length of the part or is there more I should know when doing bends.

Just curious is there a reason why the rear rudder skin is in 2 parts..lower and upper. I was wondering why not just have one big skin there? does the double overlap ad to its rigidness..I was thinking that was extra weight so far back?

Small world, years ago I called Don Parnam from an ad in the back of kitplanes magazine. I was considering putting an auto conversion on my RV-7 kit I was building.

He talked to me at length and answered all my questions. I wondered why he had no web page and he said he was old and didn't have the know how.  I never ended up buying anything from him but he educated me for free....so

As a thanks I whipped up a Geo-cities web page for him with google photos of his installs. You might have seen his site.  but that site would have gone down with Geo-cities closing.

I never knew what happened to Don, is he still around?

I was watching some of the Ch640 videos online on Youtube.. CH-640 presentation (Part 1)

I think its a Video made by Jeff Paden. In that Video he relates that the Alarus originally had a large rudder, in 2003 the Alarus went to a smaller rudder but the CH640 retained the older Alarus large rudder.

Jeff also posted a materials list in the video and parts sheet cut out. Would be great to find those for current or future builders. Do you guys have any contact info for Jeff, does he post here anymore?. Iver tried to email him from the address listed in his old build website but it just bounces back

Hi. I was wondering if you would be open to loaning out your CH640 form blocks and any other jigs. for a month to 60 days, I cover all costs. Treat them well and return them not to badly beat up...lol

I was looking over this "Complete CH 640 Errata"

Did you find any problems in the plans worth noting?...like lightening holes in the wrong place..etc?

I was looking this list over and maybe its all been fixed over time, Just wanted to check with you before I start cutting and bending...lol

Maybe this list below is outdated

Wing Discrepancies

• Drawing 640V1, Revision 4 - Item 1, Wing Spar Extension. The plans dimension "~405" to the first lightening hole. Change this to 350 mm.

640V2 wing spar extension assembly shows the lightening hole half-way between the two (L) pieces.

Adding the dimensions: 25 mm for spar cap overlap + 225 mm from overlap bend to first (L) + 100 mm from first (L) to center of lightening hole = 350 mm.

• Drawing 640V1, Revision 4 - Item 4, Upper Rear Spar Cap. Minor typo on plans. Length should be 3390 mm, not 3391 mm. Lower spar caps should be 21 mm longer than upper spar caps. See 640V6 spar root detail.
• Drawing 640V4, Revision 10 - Item 4, Rear Spar Upright. The top "dl=87" dimension should be to the left phantom line, not to the left corner of the cut piece.
• Drawing 640V5, Revision 12 - Center Web and Spar Cap Assembly.
  • Upper assembly drawing has a callout for 640V3-1, yet points to the 640V3-5. Change this callout text to "640V3-5".
  • The lower assembly drawing shows an (L) callout for the short angles riveted to the 640V3-5. An (L) is defined using 0.025 material, yet these angles should be 0.032 thick 640F40-12 material. See 640F41 Rear Floor Support + Tunnel Installation detail.
  • The lower assembly drawing shows a callout for the "rear spar upright 640V4-3". The part number should be 640V4-4.
• Drawing 640V6, Revision 8 - Wing Spar Assembly.
  • The top-right corner of the drawing shows a dimension of 102 mm from corner of the web to the first rivet hole. This should be 118 mm. See the Spar Root Detail dimension stack-up: 40+30+30+18.
  • A similar error just below the last one. The 103 mm dimension from the bottom corner of the web to the AN5 bolt hole should be 120 mm. See the Spar Root Detail dimension stack-up: 35+30+30+22 to end of cap + 3 to corner of web.

Tail Discrepancies

• Drawing 640T7, Revision 3 - Items 1 and 2 Rear Skin and Nose Skin. The drawing shows a 2 mm dimension between the ~1277 horizontal dimension on Item 1 and the horizontal dimension of item 2. This implies that the item 2 dimension should be 1275 mm. The item 2 dimension should be 1315 mm, symetrical to the bottom of this piece. The 2 mm dimension should be to a phantom 1317 mm dimension on item 1 before the corner notch is cut.

Fuselage Discrepancies

• Drawing 640F2, Revision 7 - Item 0, H.T. Frame Assembly.
  • An overall reference vertical dimension of 500 mm should be shown on this assembly and the top (L) rivets should be called out to be installed on assembly. The back of the 640F3-1 Rear Side Skin is 500 mm tall. The H.T. Frame needs this same height when installed. The 495 mm height of 640F2-4 implies an assembly height of 495 mm.
• Drawing 640F4, Revision 17 - Vertical position of the 640F4-3 should be 143 mm from the top of the upper longeron to the center line of the 60F4-3. This is calculated from the positions of the 640-F27 H.T. Tail stops and the required deflections shown on 640M50. This dimension was confirmed by the factory on 21 Sep 2009.
• Drawing 640F14, Revision 12 - The assembly drawing in the upper-left shows a callout to part 640F24-2. This part does not exist and should not be shown on this drawing. The older hand-drawn drawings do not show this callout or part drawing.
• Drawing 640F18, Revision 7 - Engine Mounts.
  • Item 1, Lower Engine Mount - End plate overall length should be shown as dl=52, not 44 mm.
  • Item 3, Upper Engin Mount - To achieve the 17 degree angle, the dimension for the angle on the body should be changed from 7 x 35 mm to 11 x 35 mm. The end plate overall length should be shown as dl=56, not 44 mm.
• Drawing 640F19, Revision 8 - In the upper-left corner, the length of the crossbar is shown as "l=306 +1/-0". This should be "l=301 +1/-0" to end up with the dimension shown on the bottom as [300 +1/-0].
• Drawing 640F22, Revision 15 - The fuselage assembly dimensions show "(430)" from the firewall to the instrument panel. This should be "(480)" to match the other dimensions and the length of the 640F14-1.
• Drawing 640F24, Revision 11 - The upper-right corner shows a dimension of "[360]" between the firewall and the 640F24-6. This should be "[410]" from 640F14 assembly detail.
• Drawing 640F26, Revision 7 - Item 5, Lower Rear Side Skin Stiffener. Experience shows the top width dimension of 142 mm should be 150 mm. This leaves 11 mm, instead of 15 mm, for the width which is cut. The bottom 172 mm width should be 176 mm.

This post was long so I had to break it up.

I was looking over this "Complete CH 640 Errata"

Did you find any problems in the plans worth noting?...like lightening holes in the wrong place..etc?

I was looking this list over and maybe its all been fixed over time, Just wanted to check with you before I start cutting and bending...lol

Maybe this list below is outdated

Hi Kay,

I realize that the plan that I have (0059) contain no information about the canopy (Windows, top and windows) measurements for the Ch640, only assembly plans information. You said that was you big challenge. Have buy the canopy from Zenith or you build it from scratch. If so, How you did that ? Your aircraft is prestine.

Christian