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02-14-2009 Today's Adventure

Today I flew 310 miles under cloudy skies, and occasionally in Marginal VFR conditions. It rained lightly off an on with winds gusting up to 18 knots. I was able to dodge the bad stuff. It was a lovely experience with lots of low altitude flying. For the most part I had the skies to myself.



Before I fly in wet conditions I clean the canopy and treat it with Plexus. It helps the water bead up and stream off which improves… Continue

Added by Stephen R. Smith on February 15, 2009 at 12:00am — 1 Comment

750 Rivet-O-Rama

Well it is Sat Feb 14th and what better way to say I love you dear then to hand her a Vixen file. Yep it is time to de-burr the forward fuselage and my sweetie wanted to spend the day with me. Isn't that romantic, I married my best friend and even after 22 years she is still happy to help in the shop.



We start by removing the forward fuselage again and completely disassembling the whole thing. be-burr every part and chromate mating… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 14, 2009 at 6:30am — 1 Comment

No- Dissasemble Stephanie ( Short Circuit Movie)

Well that was it I ran out of cleco’s, so it is time to return to the rear fuselage and spend the day in disassembly and de-burring and Zinc Chromate. But I always look forward to the riveting, Stepahnie was not around to stop the dissasembly so off I go...( if you don't get it don't worry it was a 1986 movie filmed in Toronto)

I always look forward to riveting but seldom seem to do very much of it. Today was… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 13, 2009 at 11:16pm — 3 Comments

Taildragger 801

I am just wondering if anyone has though of building a tailwheel version of the 801

Added by Carlos Rangel on February 13, 2009 at 8:31pm — 2 Comments

Cleco's sacrifice there young!

"Actually, there is a reason for the apparent death of clecos------- Just as it has been noted that coat hangers left undisturbed in a dark closet will mate and multiply, and their progeny will mate and multiply, etc., clecos are known to be intensely hostile to each other, no matter what their size (breed). What happens is that, when left undisturbed in a dark shop overnight, they attack each other, killing each other off at sometimes hideous rates. Also, being intelligent creatures, they hide… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 13, 2009 at 6:00am — 1 Comment

Perfect day to calibrate airspeed

Today was a perfect day to perform flight tests for airspeed calibration of the STOL CH 750 (for ASTM F-2245-05 compliance):

With Roger flying the STOL CH 750, I tracked his speeds with a handheld radar (just like the police use in speed traps). The unit is actually a "stationary Dopplar radar" with a "conical microwave antenna."

With no… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on February 12, 2009 at 5:39pm — 1 Comment

Lemonade for Sale

Lemonade Anyone!

Today was a bit of a surprise that Jarod has a P.D. Day and Mom is unable to be present? So off to work with Dad, Jarod has one simple rule to contend with, either Keep Jarod Busy or Jarod will keep you busy!! Jarod started the day making a few stabilizer ribs for his own plane but quickly petered out and opted for building a Lemonade stand. He has not learned the fine qualities of Coffee and I will not introduce him to them, he… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 12, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

The Morning is a loss!!

Today is Wed and as such I have an open hanger morning for the local RAA chapter which entails that I host the morning coffee and doughnuts. With word getting out that I have a new kit in the shop, I have more visitors then usual. SO I do not get to work until noon again today. As you will notice, the table has gone bye bye, I use a table when I am working on flat stock but as soon as assembly starts I use two saw horses adn two 12 ft 2X2metal peices with several 4ft metal peices. This works… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 11, 2009 at 11:00pm — 3 Comments

750 Fuselage, making a place to sit

It's official, as you can clearly see, Jon is agog at how everything is cleocing together. The assembly of the seat area necessatated the joining on the forward cabin floor and gear channel to the rear fuselage to firm up a couple of areas where angles are fabricated beneath the seats. While it was together we drilled the holes in the side extrusion to the rear fuselage side. Once the forward side skin and the gear channel was clecoed to the rear… Continue

Added by Gus Warren on February 11, 2009 at 5:30pm — 2 Comments

Time for the rear Fuselage

This went a lot faster then I expected, So I am going to do another section.



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OK maybe another, THE end of Tuesday and I have 3 sections of the rear fuselage complete. Tomorrow I will see if I can get them put… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 10, 2009 at 10:30pm — No Comments

First Day on the 750

Got into the shop a bit late today, but I am ready to go. Inventory only showed one part missing and a couple backordered. None of which will delay my building at this time. Zenith has been very busy getting the STOL 750's out as fast as possible and included in the box was a set of Fuselage drawings, I looked for the usual CD for the builders photo assembly manual and could not find one, so I called Joyce at Zenith. The photo manuals are not finished… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 9, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

Monoleaf main spring corrosion

After 4 years of operation in salt water the major problem that I encountered was corrosion of the Monoleaf main spring.I attribute this to the electrolysis phenomenon and due to the fact that the monoleaf main spring is of different aluminum alloy than the rest of the aiplane.Other than that the airplane is corrosion free. I welcome any suggestions for avoiding this in the future.



Before treatment for corrosion…



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Added by Kostas Rossidis on February 8, 2009 at 1:54pm — No Comments

Inventory for Wifie, Fuel tanks and wings for me



Lisa is busy doing inventory today, so I decided to finish up on the fuel system for the 701. I just picked up the sender installation kit on Friday. With the 750 wanting to be built I need to finish up this wing completely as I will not get back to them in awhile. This 701 was rescued out of a barn and is 15 years old, it was used for a chicken coop. I now have over 900 hrs into it I have had to dissasemble the fuselage to re-build it into a… Continue

Added by Mark Townsend on February 7, 2009 at 10:00pm — 4 Comments

Building a STOL 750



Friday Feb 6th my STOL 750 Fuselage has arrived. First job on the list is to do an inventory, better yet, wife can do inventory while I install a muffler on the 701.

Added by Mark Townsend on February 6, 2009 at 10:00pm — 2 Comments

sorry pics fussy

Alot of our workshop photos are pretty bad. We had just picked up the new camera. As you can see we didn't have the hang of it yet. The lady in the "Rosie the Riviter" pose is the CFO around here, and main support for crazy guy building his own plane. My better half Dee.

I'm done cutting wood. Plan to get back to the hanger to drill and cleco up stab ribs this weekend. Clecoes, yah ordered the recomended number the the tail kit. Started working and ordered 100 more 1/8" and 100 more 5/32".… Continue

Added by Richard Rost on February 6, 2009 at 7:14pm — No Comments

750 Baggage Area

With the rear fuselage sides, top, and bottom all riveted together we have moved on to the baggage area. First the flaperon torque tube, bellcranks, and motor assembly were fitted in place. Next was the rear baggage panel followed by the baggage floor and tunnel pieces. Here they are all clocoed in place for drilling to final size. The floor and tunnel pieces will be reinstalled after the forward fuselage is joined to the rear to facilitate the… Continue

Added by Gus Warren on February 6, 2009 at 4:00pm — 6 Comments

Hi-Res CH 750 Pictures

For those who may not be aware of it yet, Zenith has posted a link on their web site to many hi-res pictures of the CH 750. These look to be the pictures from the KITPLANES magazine photo shoot. At least the pictures in the magazine article come from here. The link is below, and it's also on the CH 750 photo page on Zenith's web site.



CH 750 Pics



There are some really great pictures in… Continue

Added by Bob Simmons on February 6, 2009 at 3:07pm — 2 Comments

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

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