Flying with hand controls this summer

For anyone just starting out or almost finished, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the EAA's Amateur Built Certification Kit. It has all the forms, all the steps and all the right language to make getting your paperwork done correctly very easy. It also has good recommendations on the timing to send the various forms in. SUPER helpful!

I am looking for a larger rubber seal for the front of my canopy.  Trim Lock DD1201 has been suggested, but a 25 foot piece sells for $80.   I was wondering if someone had a leftover 8 foot piece that they would be willing to sell.

I am currently finishing up with the wing mod on a friends 601XL and have a 601 partial build waiting in storage.  I have  

built a RV-8 which I sold and had a Cassutt for a few years.  I worked for the Oklahoma Air National Guard for forty years and retired from Air Force with 43 years, 8 months and 23 days service.  I was always in aircraft maintenance and flew for 

13 years as flight engineer on C-97 =C-124 aircraft.  All my other time was on fighters F-51, F=80, F=86D,…

My nose bowl finally arrived and I spent the weekend fitting the cowling panels - very nice fitting setup from the Weseman's. After that, I finished up my paperwork and sent it off to the FAA. Got a call last week and set the date for the Airworthiness Inspection! - March 19th!…

From what I have seen, moving a wing skin tends to be a two person operation. The video

below is a demonstration of a vacuum lifting frame I constructed to allow one person to

easily moving a wing skin between a worktable and the wing skeleton.

Several months back I had posted that I was experimenting with using a project management software package called Jira to help manage tasks in my scratch build. After about 6 months of use I think I can say it has been very helpful for tracking what I have done, what I am currently doing and what still remains.

While I am building my aircraft from plans, I think Jira would also be helpful for kit builders as well.

The video below is a demonstration of how Jira…

First and foremost, as many of you know it is not a small undertaking to start building your own aircraft and we are always excited to watch our customers, after all the work and time they dedicated to their aircraft get its wings in the air. It makes us happy to know that they chose a Viking engine to help them get there.

One of our…

AOPA Live recently ran a story of staffer Paul Harrop building a Zenith rudder at the Zenith Aircraft factory:…

Here's a brief follow-up report of the 2019 Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, where we hosted, once again, the hands-on workshops during the four-day Expo. Watch the video:

As you can see in the above…

A few weeks ago in a prior blog post I had posted a picture of using a modified camera friction arm as a flexible workholder. I have added a youtube video showing some examples of its use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmRu5991VGU

The weather in Michigan finally cooperated and I was able to make my first flight on 1/6/19.

Steve Aupperle

FirstFlightPicture.jpg

Check out the latest episode of The Traffic Pattern blog as I discuss Zenith Aircraft and kit airplane building and flying. The new episode premieres tonight and is hosted by air traffic controller …

The Zenith Builders Resources page seems to show the MA-5 cylinders on the right side of the fuselage which would infer that the MA-4 cylinders go on the left. Is this correct? Are there one way valves that will still allow one side to work if there is a master or line failure?

It was back in June that I finally finished the wing spar. However there were numerous little details I found myself having to work through before I was able to finally start laying out the wing skins. While I wanted to  have both wings setup together, even with the size of shop I have there just was not quite enough space to have both wings plus an additional table to work on the skins. The first wing I will work on is the left side.

One issue I had to figure out was how was I going…

To begin with I haven't been working on my plane lately due to a medical problem which I hope to clear up soon, hopefully in Jan 2019. It's nothing serious. I can get around, 

but it's too cold in the garage to work right now. 

Anyway when I started this project in July 2005. I now realize that scratch building was not the best…

UPDATE: Read the follow-up report from the 2019 Sport Aviation Expo

Following up on the success the past couple of years with Zenith hands-on workshops at the …

For the past several years we've had EAA (the Experimental Aircraft Association) supply Zenith Aircraft branded shirts, hats, and other accessories through their retail outlets at AirVenture Oshkosh and on their website. This arrangement was to make Zenith branded apparel more readily available to Zenith builders and pilots, while also providing a regular…