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FAA's NKET visits the Zenith factory

Earlier this week we were treated by a two day visit by the FAA's newly created National Kit Evaluation Team (NKET) to evaluate and determine that the STOL CH 750 kit, as produced by Zenith, meets the intent of the "51% rule" and to allow an amateur-builder to register the plane as an "amateur-built - Experimental" aircraft (meeting the "major portion" requirement of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations part 21, Certification Procedures for… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on May 13, 2010 at 8:00pm — 3 Comments

Newsletter #177 (March-April) & DVD being mailed now!

The new issue of the Zenair Newsletter is now being mailed to subscribers around the world. This issue has something for every Zenith owner - including new CH750 completion reports. In addition to the hard copy newsletter, a DVD is included providing an hour of video depicting builders just like you with their Zenith aircraft. (If you don't receive the newsletter & DVD, click…

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Added by Zenair News on April 4, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Young Eagles flights in Zodie Rocket N601LE



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Added by Chuck Long on March 15, 2010 at 1:46pm — 5 Comments

"Don't Give Up Your Dreams"

I was pleasantly surprised to read about Tim Garrett in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last night:





Read the full story: St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Many of you have probably met Tim at one of Zenith's… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on March 11, 2010 at 12:30pm — 2 Comments

CH750 Quick Build Kit

Shipped another QBK, today!

Bon Voyage!

Added by Russell Lepre' on March 9, 2010 at 10:54am — 2 Comments

Two upgrades in 13 days at QSP

Would you pay this man to help you upgrade your airplane? We did and it worked out much better then the picture would suggest.



This blog is not a how-to. There have been plenty of well done how-to blogs. It’s just some pictures with a few words attached.



Three years ago my brother Alan and I (with lots of help) built a pair of 601s…

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Added by Stephen R. Smith on March 2, 2010 at 12:30am — 16 Comments

Clem Kramer’s Zenith CH 750: From first part to first flight in just a year

The following was first published on the GeneralAviationNews.com website on February 21, 2010:

Posted by Janice Wood · February 21, 2010…



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Added by Zenith.Aero on February 23, 2010 at 11:56am — 10 Comments

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

Part 17: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Finishing the First Wing

Now that we've installed all the upgrades to the first wing, we still need to finish a couple of items to the wing. With the wing skins clecoed back in place, we measure and mark off the 20 mm. hole placement for additional rivets into the inboard main wing spar (top & bottom):

We drill a hole between the existing holes...

Basically, we're doubling the number of rivets from the front and rear… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 30, 2009 at 8:30pm — 2 Comments

Part 16: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Installing the L-angle stiffeners to the top of the rear skin

We've made excellent progress over the past holiday weekend finalizing the drawings and verifying the parts. The wings are done and the center spar section is being verified.



As mentioned earlier, Gus Warren of FlyWithGus.net has announced that he will be hosting a Zodiac CH 601 XL "Upgrade Workshop" at his facility in Edgewater, Florida the second weekend in… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 30, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Using an Angle Drill Attachment

As we've installed the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL we've been using the same sheet-metal hand tools that are used in building and assembling an aircraft from a standard kit. One needed new tool is a right angle drill or drill attachment. We have used this extensively with the upgrade package to drill out rivets and to drill in the new parts.

While a… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 27, 2009 at 3:58pm — 8 Comments

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