Finally finished the long projest on Friday June 28th 2010! Put the prop on and wired it for the last time before flight testing, Not able to do any testing as the Airshow started on Friday also but we will be on display all weekend. Granted I am not as fast as the US Air Force Thunderbirds or the Canadian Snowbirds, I can't flop around the sky like Skip Stewart or make the graceful moves of the Big Red…

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With the advent of the upgrade package for the Zodiac CH 601 XL, owners

have asked for a way of easily identifying and marking an upgraded

aircraft, and a consensus quickly formed that a "B" model designation

was the preferred way of identifying an upgraded aircraft (applying to

upgraded Zodiac CH 601 XL and CH 650 aircraft models).



We've prepared quality cut-out decals for the aircraft: We encourage all affected builders who have… Continue

I built Zena Mae as an HDS speed wing. We now have over 350 hours as an HDS. Very nice, but as a taildragger with a a shallow angle of attack on the ground it requires that you land at a very fast rate of speed. So long as you are going asphalt to asphalt it is no problem. But coming on to rough dirt at 60mph is another matter.

I have wanted to convert to the HD for some time. Got all the parts last July, and spent November to March making the new wings. Added a couple…

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I made the tab out of .063 aluminum 3" X 14". I placed it a little in from the tip so that if it doesn't have enough effect in flight, I can put a larger one in it's place. To get enough room, I drilled out 3 rivets from the nose skin and put nut-plates in their place. Putting a nut-plate in the center bottom was a mistake. It interfered with the rod.I see now that the Servo could have been mounted a few mm over so that the rod and nut-plate would… Continue

Well, the day has finally come, finished the cowling over the past two days, final fitting and a primer coat on monday and sanded and put on a coat of white as a base on tuesday. Photos are included. Now to put the prop back on, re-do the weight and balance and start testing. Testing will start with ground runs to check cooling on the ground and other items. First flight just around the corner after almost 11 years of part time work!

The tach for my 912 is giving me fits. when it reaches about 3500rpm it starts spiking toward max rpm. as I increase throttle it will finally peg out. I have checked all the connections several times and I am not winning! Has anyone else had this problem? If so how did you fix it?
thx

Well, here it is Monday and we are finally putting on the finishing touches to the last item in the project, the cowl. Kent took two days while I was away and worked on the air intakes, today we put the finishing fiberglass on the openings. Now all we need is to let the resin harden and we can do the final install.]

Installed the bottom section today and ran the wires to the oil pan heater and the battery maintainer, put the holding…

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I just got back from a week at First Light Aviation Group in Livermore, California with Rick Lindstrom & Rich Vetterli. I went down to help them with the Upgrades on their Corvair powered CH601's. We had a great time and made excellent progress on both airplanes.

Rick Lindstrom will bring his airplane up to our booth at the Arlington Fly-in this year July 7th- 11th, so feel free to stop by and see his bird and talk to us about the… Continue

Earlier this week we were treated by a two day visit by the FAA's newly created National Kit Evaluation Team (NKET) to evaluate and determine that the STOL CH 750 kit, as produced by Zenith, meets the intent of the "51% rule" and to allow an amateur-builder to register the plane as an "amateur-built - Experimental" aircraft (meeting the "major portion" requirement of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations part 21, Certification Procedures for… Continue

AeroSport is one of the major annual fly-ins in Spain for recreational sport aircraft and ultralights. The event took place last weekend in spite of precarious weather and volcanic ash that kept airline traffic grounded over most of the country. Many light planes still flew in to AeroSport in Iguadala/Barcelona, including a dozen Zodiac models (CH 601 HD, HDS, XL and a CH 640). Both Zenair representatives for Spain had a display… Continue

It's Official, the STOL CH750 can now be registered as an AULA in Canada. CAN-ZAC has worked with Transport Canada to have the newest Zenith Kit added to the list. http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/general/ccarcs/advancedullist.htm

This means that you now have the choice in Canada of either an Amateur built or Advanced Ultralight registration for your STOL CH750.

At present…

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After aprox. 70 hours and $600.00, we "Got-r-Done". Thanks to my friends and Brother Bo we are back in the air. We were short A5 rivets, too. Another Zodiac builder came up with rivets over the weekend to keep us popping w/o a break in the action. I bought the angle drill attachemnt this blog recommended and we installed new Sonex rubber bushings on the Jabiru engine mount. Got a local tow truck operator to haul for us this time.

As for the upgrade, our a/c had no signs of wear or…

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Problem: as left/right flaperon is applied, path length of the cable changes dramatically, because the top of the elevator control horn is located about 12” off the axis of rotation of the flaperon torque tube.



With cable tension set to 20lbs at neutral stick, I was seeing 10-15lbs at full left (very slack) and >35lbs at full right stick. This was tight enough to cause the elevator horn to bend!



Solution: I have added a pulley right behind the lower access hatch, on the… Continue

This was the ramp in front of the Zenith factory earlier today: two burgundy and gray light aircraft visited today:

The high wing is Mike Schlichtman's STOL CH 750 and the other is Randy Schlitter's Rans S-19 LSA.

Mike's nice STOL CH 750 is nearly identical to our factory demo version - both are powered by the six cylinder Jabiru 3300… Continue