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Impatience turned upside down.

As I have gone from building to assembling, and from home to the airport, I have found myself to be at a new place in this experience. The building part of this always seemed somewhat frantic and even sometimes scary when you realize you are building something that you will eventually strap your butt into and and defy gravity with. I have flown for years, however it has always been in a "certificated" airplane from pipers to cessnas, to mooneys. The little tiny bit of trepidation has been… Continue

Added by Thomas Richardson on April 27, 2009 at 6:44pm — 1 Comment

Slight Delay

Hello all, Well things have been going pretty well, slight delay however as our EAA chapter has been asked by the Wisconsin Aviation hall of Fame to build a 1/4 scale model of the 1909 Curtis Gold Bug, this airplane was the first private aircraft owned in the US and was purchased and flown in November of 1909 in Beloit, WI by Arthur P. Warner. Mr. Warner purchased… Continue

Added by Phillip Owens on April 27, 2009 at 4:31pm — 2 Comments

Zen on the Farm

It was easy to find the Farmville, Virginia Municipal Airport (right next door to the Farmville Municipal Golf Course) because it was the only thing down there in the very heart of Virginia. My trip was 109nm from my base at Potomac Airfield in Maryland but in contrast with my home in the DC suburbs, it is a million miles away.



I went down to visit my son, Colin, a graduating senior at Longwood University. I wanted to try the trip before graduation day May 9th. A car trip to… Continue

Added by JG Ginther on April 27, 2009 at 11:00am — 3 Comments

Tools, no aircraft hanger should be without

After reading the " Top Ten dissapointements in Aircraft building " I was motivated to post the following descriptions, of the assorted tools found in most of the homebuilders shops.

Enjoy,,,



Common Hanger Tools Defined





DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat aluminum bar stock out of your hands, so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had… Continue

Added by Robert Pelland on April 26, 2009 at 8:37pm — 5 Comments

Avweb podcast by Mathew Heintz

I just listened to podcast on the Avweb site of the interview Mathew Heintz gave concerning the flutter issue. Zenith seems to be doing a good job of developing information regarding the question surrounding flutter. They have an independent German consultant team doing a complete evaluation of the design as well as working with the FAA to supply them with all the information that they need for their own evaluation. The podcast is on Avweb's saturday post about Sun N Fun for anyone who might be… Continue

Added by Peter Shean on April 25, 2009 at 8:38am — 4 Comments

building a 701 wing in Ghana with Ghanaian girls learning about aviation

This has been a great week! Our trainee girls from Ghana are really geting into building planes BIG time.



Patricia has been with us nearly 2 years, Jennifer nearly 1 year and Sandra just a couple of months - but they really are a great team.



We have taught them about general engineering, tube and cloth construction and of course the wonderful world of Aluminium (British spelling to be correct)!!! All of them are learning to fly, and we really enjoy the workshop together.… Continue

Added by Jonathan Porter on April 23, 2009 at 4:00pm — 1 Comment

Marketplace Hysteria

I found this today on Trade-a-Plane:



2008 AMD ZODIAC CH601XL. Like new. 50-TTAE, Dyno dual glass panel. Garmin VHF, TXP, GPS-396, XM Weather, many other extras. Was $89,000, now $69,000.



Is this rational or is it fear? Without knowing anything about the owner's circumstances, I would have to say it is fear. Fear is not reality! There are rational fears that lead us to self preservation and irrational fears that cause us to limit ourselves in usually foolish ways. As… Continue

Added by JG Ginther on April 22, 2009 at 12:43pm — 7 Comments

A GOOD DEAL on HID lighting!!!

Hi Gang-------



For this week only, LoPresti Speed Merchants is offering a bunch of things at Sun N Fun show prices. You can get the deal in person at Sun N Fun or by calling them at (877) 565-1731 or (772) 562-4757 and mail order from the factory. I just ordered a pair of their SkyStruck HID lights (one for taxi, one for landing) for $375 for the pair. Normally, they are about $300 each. Single units are going for $199 this week, by the way.



This is the experimental only… Continue

Added by Bob Pustell on April 21, 2009 at 11:31am — 2 Comments

Corvair powered 601xl receives airworthiness certificate





My Fly-Corvair powered 601XL was deemed airworthy by the FAA today. After almost 4 and a half years of on and off building my airplane is ready to fly.



I own and built this plane w/ Vincent Olson. We are both ATP's and CFI's and fly for the airlines. Flight testing will commence asap. We're looking forward to quickly flying off the 40 hours and going on a midwest tour to include St.Louis, Chicago, Indianappolis and KY before the… Continue

Added by Louis Kantor on April 20, 2009 at 11:30pm — 3 Comments

Off to Sun-N-Fun

The 750 is on route to the paint shop and I am on route to Sun-N-Fun for the week, when I return we should have a painted plane.

Added by Mark Townsend on April 20, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

6th Annual Alternative Engine Round-Up and Experimental Aircraft Fly-In

Inspired by the adventures and writings of famous pilot Stephen R. Smith as reported here and on Quality Sport Planes’ site, I decided to wave the flag for Corvairs, William Wynne, and Zenith at the “6th Annual Alternative Engine Round-Up and Experimental Aircraft Fly-in” hosted by Pat Panzera of Contact! Magazine in… Continue

Added by Woody Harris on April 20, 2009 at 8:20pm — 3 Comments

Are you ready for Sun 'n Fun??

For those interested in the UL260i, look for our CH650 at Sun'n Fun. I can discuss the installations for the 601/650 as well as the 750. See you there.

Added by Gus Warren on April 20, 2009 at 7:28pm — 5 Comments

Golden Zen

I flew my Zodiac XL from Potomac Airfield across the Chesapeake Bay to Cambridge Maryland. It was my first long flight in the airplane since purchasing it and the first flight since learning that the plane was recommended for grounding. It seemed I was carrying a lot of extra weight on the flight. The weight of some buyer's remorse, the weight of anxiety of learning and flying my very own airplane (my first) and the weight of dread over whether or not the wings were going to fall off or that… Continue

Added by JG Ginther on April 20, 2009 at 10:05am — 10 Comments

Cowing installation part 2

With the extended cowl i can now install it to fit the new engine location.

Added by Mark Townsend on April 19, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Stabilizer and Fin



With the Stabilizer installed we can add the fin an install the elevator cables.

With the wings done and the struts set we can add the Jury struts.…

Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on April 18, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Wing attach

IT is nice to have help in the shop during the wing installation. Here we see Ryan using his head and after some whining we installed some foam cut offs from the seats on his head.

Wing installation is quite simple, install main spars to cabin frame so that they are centered and equal on both sides, then drill with a 1/8 th drill bit. Leave drill bit in place an repeat for other main spar, once again leave drill bit in place, this locks the spars… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on April 18, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

wing differences

I have a 601hds and I was wondering if there are major differences in wing structure between it and an xl model. I hope I will not have to deal with this type of issues also.I also noticed when I looked on avweb for their article, the feds seem to read these blogs and include opinions of posters in the information they post Thanks Dennis

Added by Dennis M Hettrick on April 17, 2009 at 8:17pm — 6 Comments

Got my cleco order from Aircraft Spruce today...


Ordered clecos from Aircraft Spruce on Monday & they arrived Friday but... Do you think I may have lost any along the way? (Shipped via Purolator)

Added by Travis Corbin on April 17, 2009 at 8:00pm — 5 Comments

Cowling and mounting the Rotax 912

As you can see below the cowling had to also be extended, in order to expedite the process Zenair installed a metal strip and added the fiberglass to that. They are working on extending the mold now so that future cowling's will not have the metal strip.

With the motor attached to the mount we can re-install it back onto the fuselage. Though you can actually lift the engine by hand the cherry picker… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on April 17, 2009 at 7:30pm — No Comments

New Motor Mount

Well we now have a new motor mount the final adjustment was to move the Rotax 912ULS a total of 6 inches forward. The will make this will make the STOL 750 look a little longer in the nose. As a bonus the attachment for the upper attachment point looks more robust.…



Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on April 17, 2009 at 7:30pm — No Comments

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