Today I started building my CH650B! My daughter, Delaney, and I brought the tail kit home with us from the Zenith Open Hangar Day and Gathering. We had a great time, and she got to fly the One Week Wonder!

I worked about 4 hours today on the rudder skeleton. I drilled holes, deburred, and clecoed the ribs to the spar and doublers. I made my first mistake too. My clamps did not hold the doublers well enough, resulting in one hole that is actually 2 holes very close together.…

To all those lucky people attending the Zenith open day this weekend have a great time and enjoy the experience. I hope to attend one of the open days soon and to all those keen aviators who will be entering Zeniths first friendly STOL comp at the weekend good luck most importantly fly safe and in the words of Deano and those of you who have met me will know and understand what I mean.

GRIP IT & RIP IT

Fly it like you STOL it!

Deano!!!…

These are the last picturtes of the cooling baffle that were taken today, Sept 16th, 2014.  There is just one more item to add to the system to be finished.  I will take that tomorrow and add it to my photos

Zenith Aircraft now supplies its proprietary rivets and riveting system through Aircraft Spruce and Specialty:

The 1/8-inch (A4) and 5/32-inch (A5) blind rivets are available through Aircraft Spruce in batches of 100 each.  The riveter tools, supplied…

Following is a brief preview of our planned activities for the upcoming Open Hangar Day and Builder Fly-In Gathering on September 19 & 20, 2014 at the Zenith Aircraft factory in Mexico, Missouri.  View the Event Page for "official" details and to…

I am just completing a cooling baffle for my 601.  This design is by Bob Gutteridge.  He is an EAA Tech Advisor who built a Jabiru aircraft with the 3300 engine.  He had continuing problems with cylinder head heating problems and designed this baffling system.  I copied his desing and adapted for the Zodiac.  I should have this finished this week and will report on my temps.  On my first flight I had cylinder head temps right near 400 degrees with the older Jabiru fiberglass system.  

I am after some advice if anyone has found a suitable iPad mount for a full size iPad when you have a 'busy panel'? I have tried a couple of different suction mounts on the canopy but they all fall off in the end (the iPad is so heavy!!).

Thanks,

Huw

Picture of panel attached.…

Finally finished with second wing except the wing tip that I hope to get to this week.  Wanted to get done before July 4th but screwed up top rear skin.  Ordered new sheet of aluminum (still thinking could get done in my time line) and the sheet was damaged in shipping.  Re-ordered and got it a few days later.  Now shock and horror I start to think about match drilling all of the holes, weird myself out, so I put it off until after the forth so I don't have to rush.  Now (as we know how this…

Viking is inviting anyone with a Viking powered Zenith to join at the 23rd Zenith fly-in in September.

• Flying aircraft - fly it in
• Fuselage with engine mounted - trailer it in
• Have an engine - bring it for show and tell

This was 3 years ago - come see what Viking is doing now…

With the FAA paper finally in hand, the shout came out from Charlie 'Move that plane NOW!'. 

The Thunderbirds (you know the F16s that display really well), were ready to do their display to close the whole weeks events... but they couldn't.    The crowds were on the line, and the planes had their jet engines running, but they were not being given the 'GO!' until after the One Week Wonder did its first ever 'under its own power' taxi.   

There…

I am waiting for the wings to be shipped Aug. 28.

 For those of you who couldn't attend the one week wonder build I took 178 pictures mostly relating to a successful 750 cruzer build. If you request them I'll be glad to send them. I also have 55 of my own 750 build as far as rudder, stabilizer and fuselage build you may also have if requested. The reason I don't upload these is because I can send to you with one click, This is much easier and faster for me. Thanks.

These…

Arriving on the Sunday morning, nobody felt 'not tired', but everybody felt 'totally exhilarated'.  The One Week Wonder sat out front, like a toddler about to go out in it's push chair for the first time, full of anticipation, ready for an adventure - but looking so innocent and unprepared.

It was 99% ready, and with just 50% left to go!  But that 50% was going to be a challenge... Then, they came with a black plastic bag and a remote control unit for the countdown clock.  It…

Saturday morning was a blur.  Nobody could remember their own names any more - let alone whether they were coming or going...  It was as if those 'patience pills' were affecting memory too!  Thankfully, between everybody, everything was being accounted for, but the team were visibly slowing down.  Caution was being applied, because everybody knew that it was better to miss the deadline than make a mistake that could jeopardise the long term benefits from…

Friday... less than two days to go... 

everybody finally realized that somebody had been lying to the team - that clock was not right.  This was not anything like a seven day challenge.  Seven days would have given the team until 08:00 on Monday morning... BUT the organizers had this hidden agenda... the plane would be INSPECTED on the SUNDAY by the FAA... and needed full FAA certification before 15:00 on that very Sunday... so that a public taxi test could take…

With all the 'smaller surfaces' completed, day four was a day of looking for jobs for the core team not involved in the fuselage or left wing - there was no shortage of tasks - event the clearing up and sorting out the tools that had managed to have a party and get muddled up! 

For those who had built Zenith Aircraft before, this seemed like an easy build - until they all realized that this was a CH750 Cruzer - so it was different.  With less than a handful of Cruzers flying…

Day three was always going to be the day when we got an idea of where it was all going.  Everybody was tired, already.  The sprint had been done, and the plane looked like a plane... well almost - but this was not the time to give up - we had to hit the wall and keep on building! 

Work started on the flaperons, but it did not go…

When the team arrived on day two they looked over the work from the day before... and noticed some mistakes.  That happens on EVERY build.  Every builder makes mistakes, so having some mistakes in One Week Wonder was to be expected... The mistakes were minor.  Not all the rivets had pulled well - it happens - and some had been pulled that shouldn't have been yet - that happens too!  So, as the volunteers for day two were lining up, the core team set about some minor fixes.  It should be…