Sebastien Heintz's Blog – December 2009 Archive (10)

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Part 26: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: It flies!

It was a cold and windy day... but clear and sunny, so we flew our beloved Zodiac XL demonstrator airplane this morning.

Today's flight comes after the downtime of installing the Zodiac XL upgrades which we've been chronicling here over the past five or six weeks. All of you that have been following this series will agree that the upgrade package kit that we… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 28, 2009 at 4:00pm — 8 Comments

Part 25: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: It's now all back together!

We've been finishing up the aircraft these past few days, continuing on where we last left the project.

We've re-installed the flaps and all the controls in the aircraft, as well as reconnected all the wiring and fuel lines.

Above, Steve and Roger finished riveting the last rivets back in...…

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Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 24, 2009 at 2:30pm — 6 Comments

Part 24: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Putting it all back together...

As you all know, we've been busy making the producing the parts of the Upgrade Package kit, and now we're also busy shipping them out to builders and owners!

All the Upgrade Package kit parts and hardware shown above can be shipped in the two cardboard containers: One box (18"x12"x6", 25 lbs.) for the smaller parts and all hardware and one 6-foot long 4-inch cardboard tube (about 16 lbs.) for the longer parts. These package are… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 18, 2009 at 5:26pm — 7 Comments

Part 23: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Re-Installing the Center Spar in the Fuselage

Continuing on where we last finished, now we re-install the "upgraded" wing center spar section into the fuselage and position additional fuselage doublers:



First we installed the beefed-up Front Wing Uprights (6-ZU-2-6). This replaces the original Wing Uprights (6B13-1) with the heavy duty .125-inch Front Wing Uprights. We are forced to drill a new row of holes parallel to the original row for the new… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 14, 2009 at 4:00pm — 8 Comments

Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Riveting and Re-Assembling the Center Spar

I've now added the photos for the last post on riveting and re-assembling the center wing spar section. Below is the upgraded center spar section, ready to return to the fuselage:



As previously mentioned, Roger Dubbert from the Zenith factory will be attending Gus Warren's Zodiac CH 601 XL… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 9, 2009 at 3:49pm — 3 Comments

Part 22: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Riveting and Re-Assembling the Center Spar

After having positioned, drilled, and clecoed the upgrades to the center wing spar assembly, we now rivet the parts back together and bolt the two halves of the center spar assembly back together to reinstall it into the fuselage.

Here we begin to rivet the center wing spar assemblies back together using the "conventional" bucked rivets:…

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Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 5, 2009 at 5:00pm — 4 Comments

Part 21: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Installing the Upgrades to the Center Spar

We already disassembled the center spar section (a while back).



Now, we'll get to the task of installing the upgrades and reassembling the the center spar. We have posted the latest Upgrade Drawings as they have been updated (albeit still in draft):

We position and backdrill the… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 4, 2009 at 6:15pm — 7 Comments

Part 20: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Aileron Mass Balance

Continuing where we left off yesterday, now we install the mass balance to the ailerons. Since this was mandated by the UK LAA earlier this year for Zodiac XL owners there, we used their drawings (which was engineered and tested by the LAA), as specified in the AMD Safety Alert.



The aileron mass balance consists of an 18-inch arm… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 3, 2009 at 5:30pm — 7 Comments

Part 19: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Working on the Ailerons

With the main wings done, we now focus on the aileron upgrades.

The aileron upgrades consist of three separate items: Aileron gussets (65W2-5 and 65W2-6) on the aileron ribs, L-angle stiffeners for the aileron trim servo, and finally, aileron mass balance. Above, the right aileron is shown. Below is the left aileron.

Our demonstrator Zodiac CH 601 XL airplane has the original "hingeless" aileron system - many customers have the hinged… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 2, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Part 18: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Working on the Second Wing

Now we're working on finishing the second (left) wing.

We debur and rivet the aileron bellcrank support channel and stiffeners, and the rear channel doubler...

And we bolt in the wing root doubler 6-ZU-1-2 and rivet the nose rib angles (6-ZU-1-3 and 6-ZU-1-5) in place...

...and we cleco and rivet the nose ribs in place. Note that in the photo we are… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 1, 2009 at 11:30am — 4 Comments

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