My focus for the last few months has been to complete spar construction.Most of the holes were drilled and match drilled into the doublers using my mill to insure that the holes were perpendicular. However some holes near the root were left  deliberately left undone because of uncertainty in the plans. .Once the spar was clecoed together I had a better understanding of the hole locations and needed to drill those out.

Despite my best efforts it was not going to be practical to…

Patricia and I have been busy preparing the new workshop for our winter project... a CH750 STOL with Rotax 912iS at the pointy end. It will be our demo plane for the next year or so... but also something more..

Those who know us from the One Week Wonder and our previous work in West Africa, will know that we enjoy promoting aviation... and this build will be no different. 

Last year we relocated to the UK, and earlier this year set up our own business (…

October 28, 2016.

   Now it can be told. On August 4, 2016, the $23,000 plywood crate containing my CH-750 kit arrived looking like this:

   FedEx had “reweighed” the 877 pound crate as 415 pounds, and then loaded 450 pounds of freight on top of a box clearly marked FRAGILE in letters six inches high.  I didn’t take the end off this crate; this is…

Hello all, I am a UK builder having constructed and flown many aircraft. I recently purchased a almost finished 701 only requiring final assembly.The documentation package  and drawings  supplied don't  seem to show anything on either wing or tailplane incidences.  The only info I can find is dihedral to set and the airframe datum line/Level. If anyone  with this info could forward it to me that would be appreciated. Many thanks Eric. 

Tonight marked the emergence of the first part from my version of the "Dave Clay" bending brake! Read more on my website:

http://justplanechris.com/making-a-brake-for-it/…

COWLING INSTALL

INSTALLING AN AIR INLET IN THE COWLING…

Here's a follow-up of the 2016 Zenith Aircraft Open Hangar Days & Fly-In, the 25th annual event, held on September 23 & 24 at the Zenith Aircraft kit factory in Mexico, Missouri:…

Below are two test flights of N2701 (a Zenith CH 701). Each is about an hour long. One is a series of take offs and landings in the pattern and the other is a single flight testing performance of a shortened IVO prop. The Zenith is powered by a Rotax 582 with 20 gallon fuel capacity. Being so long, both vids are pretty boring, but clicking back and forth to interesting parts is worth the trouble.…

I am 6 hours into my flight test phase and am definitely struggling with the anxiety of everything that could go wrong.

For background - I have been flying for 25 years, have a little over 500 hours in Cessnas and have an instrument rating (though not current).

So far nothing really scary has happened with possible exception of finding a small engine compartment fuel leak AFTER a recent flight test. 

Yesterday I flew for about an hour - at…

I bought a $40 non-working mobility cart at a yard sale. I got lucky and, although the wiring was all screwed up , the 24 volt motor still worked. 

When I bought it I told my wife this was HER aircraft tug. It was a way of getting her partially involved in the plane. Of course now the pressure was on me to actually make it work.

I ripped all of the wiring out and put a toggle switch on/off control on the mini-panel. I quickly learned that I would need a motor…

CH701sp Flight testing - 100.6 hours since September 28th,2012

Hi Everybody,

Thru their website, I wrote to Matco tech support about the FAILURE I had with one of their product (Split Rim MH6BD.75 rated at 660lbs/rim). I had found an article in the LightAircraft 'SafetySpot' of November 2015 where A similar incident was reported. The Murphy Rebel that suffered the failure was overweight for the rims but my CH701 was NOT.

They offered no compensation…

It would have been nice if ZAC instructors told us at the rudder course that the other photo instructions would miraculously appear after being approved for the builder's and flyers page, Zenith Aero.

After trying out the Corvair, Richard spent 6 months and some money to redo his airplane with a Viking 130 engine.  He made aviation history yesterday by being the first to fly a low winged Zenith aircraft with the Viking 130 engine model.  I spoke with him today and he could not stop talking about what a huge difference the engine has made to his airplane.  We hope to have a takeoff video from him shortly in order to get a before / after comparison to the airplane being powered with the…

Was a little worried about running all my wiring through the center console, along with the fuel lines, and having the dual controls. Fabricated and a rack and, with a bunch of adel clamps, it looks to be doable.…

First flight of N756AC after the rebuild.
Zenith Phoenix
https://youtu.be/j03pXQ4cBVE
All went wonderfully

We're pleased to introduce all-new extruded aluminum streamline struts for the STOL CH 701 light sport utility kit airplane.

Here's a first-flight video with the new streamline struts installed on the Zenith demonstrator STOL CH 701:…