All Blog Posts (2,410)

Family Project Continues at the Factory - Day 4

This is a continuation (See the previous post for Day Three)

 

Day #4: Picking up from the previous day’s work, Barry continued with the fuel tank installation. First he cut strips of cork and then he stuck them wherever needed all around the tank. The purpose of the cork is to secure the tank snugly in its place, ensuring it cannot come into contact…

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Added by Michael Heintz on March 8, 2012 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Family Project Continues at the Factory - Day 3

This is a continuation (See the first post for Day One and Two)



Day #3: First job on Wednesday morning was drilling through all the pilot holes on the main wing. Generous use of clecos ensured…

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Added by Michael Heintz on March 7, 2012 at 3:00pm — No Comments

A Family Project Starts Right at the Factory - Day 1 & 2

Yesterday morning (Monday), Lon Boehme, his brother Val and his son Barry pulled in at the Zenair factory in Midland with their 12 ft. trailer in tow. They had just spent the weekend driving in from Alberta (34 hours!) for a promising week: a Wing-building program, a rudder workshop, and a trip home six days later with a partially assembled STOL CH 750 airframe kit in the back! Here is a short running summary of the experience...…

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Added by Michael Heintz on March 6, 2012 at 3:00pm — 2 Comments

progress on CH-750 at Cloverdale

I am two weeks into working on a quick build kit at Quality Sport Planes in Cloverdale CA.  I continue to be very pleased with the help I receive and with availabilty of special tools and knowledge of Doug.  Every day I get more done and am getting closer to the point where I can move  the project to Alaska to install the engine.  I recommend this company to anyone who may want to keep things moving along on their project.

Added by Jack Schnurr on March 6, 2012 at 9:22am — 3 Comments

Rudder Skin

Drilled and ceco'd the rear rudder skin today. Also slipped on the nose skin but ran out of time before I could do anything but tape it down.

Added by David A. Judkins on March 4, 2012 at 5:53pm — No Comments

Great visit with Charles Leonard

Very informative visit with Charles about his Corvair powered 601XL.

Added by Richard Jones on March 4, 2012 at 9:50am — No Comments

Emerg Fuel Shutoff

Added by Steven Winn on March 3, 2012 at 10:52pm — No Comments

Fuel Pump Installation

Fuel Pumps mounted on divorced elev bellcrank bracket. Decided to use Zenith supplied low point drain between header tank and pumps. Fittings on order to make final connections.

Added by Steven Winn on March 3, 2012 at 10:44pm — No Comments

Article Reprint: Safety Is No Accident: Zenith’s aircraft are high-utility contenders. So how’s their record?

The following article was published a few years ago in Kitplanes magazine.  While all of us may not agree with all of the author's observations, it's shared here to help Zenith builders, owners and pilots increase their awareness of safety issues in operating their homebuilt kit plane.  We invite you to share your comments below.

Kitplanes magazine, November 2010 Issue…



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Added by Zenith.Aero on March 1, 2012 at 4:30pm — 1 Comment

Pages 6 and 7 from Zenair newsletter #188

We received some reports that pages 6 and 7 in the current issue of the newsletter (#188) were left blank by the printer!  These two pages are reproduced below:…

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Added by Zenair News on February 29, 2012 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

Finally... spars completed!

PLEASE tell me the spars are the hardest (physical) component of this plane to create.  After 286 solid AN5-6 rivets my left shoulder, neck and lower back are aching.  I know there's a few more to go... some longer ones on the spar root fittings, a few in the cockpit, not to mention those pesky little 3-3 suckers on the trailing edge... but I'm over it.  After this plane I never want to see a solid rivet again, let alone set one.  I'd have a ceremonial "chucking the bucking bar" in the dam,…

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Added by Marty de la Motte on February 29, 2012 at 5:17am — 2 Comments

Cut Down Header Tank

Decided to cut down the header tank. It just didn't fit well, and seemed too large/heavy for it's mounting location. New total length is just shy of 19 inches with 8 inches in diameter.

Volume of a cylinder = 2 x pi x R x length, so 2 x4 x pi x 18= 452.38 cubic inches/ 231 (cu in per gallon)= 1.96 gallons.

When my warning light comes on, I will have one…

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Added by Steven Winn on February 28, 2012 at 9:10pm — 3 Comments

My Favorite Passenger

My Favorite Passenger

Added by Steven Winn on February 27, 2012 at 7:00pm — No Comments

More Rudder Work

After several weeks of cold weather and business trips, I resumed work on the rudder this weekend. Sprayed Zinc Oxide primer where needed on ribs and spar. Cleco'd everything back together and then got to use my pneumatic riveter and air compressor compressor for the first time. One bad rivet had to be drilled out and re-done, Next weekend, the skins.

Added by David A. Judkins on February 26, 2012 at 6:06pm — No Comments

Header Tank Spacers

1 3/4" spacers for the header tank. Made from all the bits and scraps of 6061 from building the aircraft. Poured round ingots in greensand and machined. Probably 6061-T0 , but acceptable as spacers.

Added by Steven Winn on February 26, 2012 at 4:56pm — No Comments

Header Tank Mod- Low Fuel Warning

Installation of low fuel warning indicator in header tank. I incorporated a baffle "box" around the sensor in the hopes of eliminating the low fuel light flicker seen here:…

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Added by Steven Winn on February 26, 2012 at 5:25am — 3 Comments

Header Tank Bracket Mods

1/8" steel brackets were supplied with my header tank. They weighed almost a pound each( 15.4 oz). Both brackets modified with stainless band clamps weigh in under a pound(13.6…

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Added by Steven Winn on February 26, 2012 at 5:12am — No Comments

getting started on my quick build 750

I have spent the last week at Quality Sport Planes in Cloverdale CA working on my 750.  It has been a great week with Doug giving me just the right amount of advice.  I will be here for another month working on the project before trailering it north to Fairbanks Alaska to put the engine on.  I am very happy working on the project here in Cloverdale.

Added by Jack Schnurr on February 25, 2012 at 7:03pm — No Comments

Mated rear ribs to spars

Located rib locations and drilled spars. Had to remake one rib out of this set (#2) all in all I'm happy with that. Time now to clean, sand, prime & finish spars.

Added by Tim Smart on February 25, 2012 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Zenair Newsletter Issue #188 now shipping

Added by Zenair News on February 24, 2012 at 9:42pm — No Comments

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