All Blog Posts (2,351)

Birthday gift



Today is my 65th birthday, and look what I just got.



A few months ago I purchased and delivered to a buddy of mine, a set of rough cut aluminum block's in a cylinder shape to make up a set of flanging dies. Well this morning I got a call to go over and pick up the finished pieces. However, when he learned that it was my birthday today, he would not accept any compensation for the labour, and offered them to me as a gift. Talk about a… Continue

Added by Robert Pelland on February 5, 2009 at 8:54pm — 5 Comments

New Builder Completions = Inspiration

Our customers (and fellow builders) are often a great source of inspiration. Today I picked up the latest issue of EAA's Sport Pilot magazine (February 2009) which features two new Zodiac completions on page 47.





The top photo is of Don Honabach's Zodiac project. Don states: "There is no way I can describe what if feels like to fly something that you've built. It is simply amazing! The plane…

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Added by Sebastien Heintz on February 4, 2009 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

AT KCPK

On 01/31/2009 the airplane arrived at the airport. Helping hands included Jordan, Al Goins, Nick Jones, my son Greg and wife Shelby taking photos to record the event. Nick was instrumental in the loading procecess as he loaded his Velocity on the same trailer. We rolled the nose gear on first, then lifted the mains and put a sheet of plywood on the rails and screwed and clamped and strapped it down for the 5 mile trip. Assembly will begin today as it is pretty well ready to just bolt together

Added by Glenn Johnson on February 1, 2009 at 7:01am — 1 Comment

Not building this weekend

As you can see I traded plane building for tree cutting like alot of folks in the Ice Storm area.

Added by Richard Rost on January 31, 2009 at 5:39pm — No Comments

ABOUT READY FOR THE AIRPORT

Looks like I have a hanger lined up within about two weeks. I have called to get an inspection lined up the end of March so things are really comming along fast. Also I have insurance lined up and plan to start that in mid to late Febuary..

Added by Glenn Johnson on January 29, 2009 at 8:15pm — 1 Comment

Sand in the Air and Fire on the ground...

Well, January has not been good for flying. The Harmattan (when dust from the Sahara desert blows down over sub-Saharan West Africa) has been unkind. The dust in the air is so thick that you can taste it in every mouthful. Visibility below 3km for most of the month so far and only a couple of flyable days some days visibility down to hundreds of meters. Not good for operations but when you cannot see the mountain at the end of the runway.... it is best to consider that as a day when it is… Continue

Added by Jonathan Porter on January 29, 2009 at 4:00am — No Comments

Subaru EA81

The EA81 will fit and will balance in the 701 but it will fit the 750 much better. Mine has Stratus carburetor, alternator and intake with dual Bing carburetors just like the Rotax 912. The carburetors are very expensive and if I where doing it over again I would use a downdraft manifold and an Aerocarb like a WW Corvair. That configuration would be lighter, cheaper and easier to tune. Note the dual carburetor linkage. It works perfect and is as simple as it gets. The carburetor linkage is… Continue

Added by Brett Hanley on January 28, 2009 at 5:52pm — 2 Comments

750 Rear Fuselage

Today all the sides of the rear fuselage were united along with the rear baggage closeout. All the predrilled holes lined up perfectly and fit with no waves or wrinkles. Time to drill out all the holes to final size before disassembly for deburring and priming. Jon is a clecoing madman, especially when all the holes line up.

Added by Gus Warren on January 28, 2009 at 4:18pm — 3 Comments

Touched 200 Hrs on the Tac Today

During a wonderful flight over the Florida Keys (OAT at 1500' was 69 degrees) with clear skies the Tac touched 200 hours today. All mine! (Oh okay, I guess Garry at AMD did do some test flights after the annuals)

Flying for fun and finding it!

Added by Frank Derfler on January 28, 2009 at 3:37pm — 5 Comments

Camping

One of the advantages of a STOL airplane is the ability to explore the countryside and to land at non-traditional airfields (a.k.a. farm fields and country roads). Weekend trips usually include overnight stays, usually in a pup-tent.

At the Sebring Sport Aircraft Expo, Bjorn Spelter of Germany demonstrated his new tent on the STOL CH 701:

This lightweight tent uses no tent poles at all...

And… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on January 27, 2009 at 5:30pm — 15 Comments

mod on 601xl looking for comments

this is a idea for a mod for a small different look just would like to hear your comments uses original bubble just shortend where crosstube is

Added by alex zo on January 24, 2009 at 10:41am — 5 Comments

Time to sell our beloved CH701 amphibian

We bought N701ST in the fall of 2001 and my son and I have had a great 8 years exploring the Eastern midwest with it. It's now time to start taking my wife on vacations again so we are putting it up for sale. There is a ad on Barnstormers.com and on the Seaplane association web site.

Added by Larry Zetterlind on January 22, 2009 at 10:34am — 3 Comments

Issue #170 (January/February) shipping now!

The January/February issue #170 is starting to ship this weekend -including an hour long DVD inside!



Inside this issue are several how-to write ups from builders, including installing landing lights in the slats of a 701, and upgrading the lights in a 601XL with the new LED technology. Also, how a builder adapted the strut fairings from the 801 kit to work nicely on his 701.



The video DVD included with the newsletter features one builder's progress with a 914… Continue

Added by Zenair News on January 21, 2009 at 8:20am — 2 Comments

750 progress

Today, after fnishing a few details on the rear fuselage bottom, Jon began the rear fuselage for the passengers side. The design of the corner extrusion's joggle makes an easy job of fitting the skin. Windows and control openings came cut from the factory. Every time a new box is opened, much time is spent salavating over the parts.

Added by Gus Warren on January 20, 2009 at 6:08pm — 1 Comment

"Zenair News" Complete Archive Available on DVD

The Zenair Newsletter is excited to announce the availability of a computer CD disk that contains a compilation of the last 166 issues of the newsletter, spanning over 30 years!

For the first time, this CD archive allows a Zenith builder or pilot to have access to the entire wealth of information and history available in the complete library of newsletters. It was quite an undertaking - each and every back issue was scanned onto an easy to use CD… Continue

Added by Zenair News on January 20, 2009 at 5:29pm — No Comments

UL260i in 601/650

We are also finishing up some details for the UL260i installation for the 601/650. Look for FWF kits for this soon from FwG.

Added by Gus Warren on January 19, 2009 at 5:01pm — No Comments

750 Start....

Today we started on the FlywithGus.com STOL 750. Jon Croke of HomebuiltHELP is filming for the 750 DVD series. He is starting with the rear fuselage.

Added by Gus Warren on January 19, 2009 at 4:41pm — 4 Comments

On the Firewall!!


And Then...


OK maybe this thing is gonna fly after all

Added by Larry Whitlow on January 17, 2009 at 2:52pm — 1 Comment

Welcome to my 801

Hello to all and welcome to my 801. This has been a long and interesting journey and is nearing the end of phase one Construction. I did not intend to take this long in the construction of this airplane but as builders know stuff happens. Also I did not take into account the fact that I would not be able to work on the airplane six months out of the year, winters here are just too cold and I did not have access to heated hangar in which to work, so winters were time away from building. I have… Continue

Added by Phillip Owens on January 13, 2009 at 2:18pm — 2 Comments

Nature - our biggest enemy!

Operating in the Tropics we seem to have many extra challenges compared to more temperate regions - a sort of war against natures natural desire to ensure entropy wins and gravity sucks! Getting around gravity is easy, thanks to Zenith aircraft and their desire to break free from the bonds of the earth - but there are other challenges that Zenith hasn't yet thought of... Here are just some of them - and how we get around them, where possible... (perhaps you have some advice or other challenges… Continue

Added by Jonathan Porter on January 13, 2009 at 3:28am — 5 Comments

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