Installed the wheels at 1076 hours.

Approaching 600 hours.  I have made substantial progress on the rear fuselage and have installed the rudder hinges with the help of  a metal rod.  

I have completed the debur on the center wing and moved on to the seat panel.  Completed fabricating all the L angles, drilled and deburred including the rear bearing channel.  Now starting on the rear fuselage.

Top skins and nose skin is in place drilled to A5 with strips and plates in place as well as L angles rear of strips and connecting I/b gear box rib and adj. nose ribs. (I should shim these where they attach to the skins?) I cut out excess nose skin, will trim at some point in the future. Getting ready to tear down and debur. I am now struggling with the…

Flipped over the center wing and pulled the top skins from storage.  Drilled to A5  the internal rear ribs to the top skins, Using the strips for templates I finished drilling the top skins to A5 which fitted the strips to the ribs in turn to the skins.  Suggest that anyone working toward this particular part of the project to be sure to do the internal three rear ribs first, then the strip area of the top skins and o/b ribs next, and finally the rivet pitch to the  o/b ribs behind the strip…

I have been lax at keeping up with my blog entries but I haven't been idle. I have been dealing with a number of issues created by the factory and by me.

I backtracked a lot of rivet work when I discovered the factory installed L angle on the spar at the gear box stations blocked me from back riveting the flanges of the channels to the spar. This also required ordering AN3 bolts to replace the solid rivets I removed.

I was missing the two lower plates that are…

An issue with the center wing spar rib stations presented when fitting the rear ribs. The spar rivet holes are pre-drilled and the flange on the rear rib is not. I noticed that the top and bottom spar web rivet positions were very close to the ends of the rear rib flange, violating the 3 diameter minimum 2 diameter rule for rivets. I spoke with Roger at the factory. and the top and bottom rivets are useless. As a solution, another rivet hole is added at the top and bottom of the rib station…

Detail work on the rear ribs is done.  

No easy task.  After a lot of study of the drawings, I totally screwed up the first two gear channel parts and ordered new ones.  I believe I have the left one done; drilled, clecoed and ready to rivet.  I will to wait on the spar riveting, I see some challenges there with the second row of rivets in the rib channels.  …

Today closed up and riveted the top skin and horns.  Rechecked the electric trim with a 9v battery, Not happy with the provided cotter pin attachment to the clevis rod as it appears to me to be hazard should it catch on something so I spent extra time laying it down.  I notice a lot of openings in this design which is an invitation to insects, mud wasp and what have you.  Anyone have ideas in how to fill those openings?…

I have been stuck working on the elevator trim tab.  I needed to fabricate the horn and install it in order to adjust the servo push rod and ran into a problem with the drawing of the horn.  It does not fit the clevis of the RCS-7 Clevis kit supplied with the CH601 kit.  I worked to modify the horn to fit the clevis, positioned it and drilled ready for rivets…

Finished the stabilizer today by adding the plastic ribs.  Probably took longer then it should, however, I found an error with the rear spar attachment plate and needed to order a new part, rebuild it.  Beyond that getting the skeleton and top skin to cooperate took practically a whole day until I was satisfied.  Replacement parts for the elevator are in so I will return to that part of the project.…

The elevator is on hold waiting for replacement parts.  Tried to salvage it but it was beyond me.

I moved on to the stabilizer and finished the skeleton tonight.  Skills are getting better.  Had trouble with the hand rivet gun from Zenith.  It stopped working.  Took it apart and removed all the metal dust, oiled it up, and it is working again.  Otherwise, no issues so far with the stabilizer.…

Learned today that I should not trust anything, esp. myself.  Had to remove the nose skin on the rudder as I had incorrectly tucked it under the rear skin when it should have been installed on top.  I have a new skill, rivet removing! Getting real good at…

Hi guys,

Completed the Rudder on Saturday, June 22nd.  A good learning experience.  I had to remove my first bad rivet due to a gap at the head.  Sweated that out since it was one of the last rivets installed prior to completion.  However, it went well and no damage to the skin.  It was on the nose rib, forward skin so I didn't have to chase the rivet inside the rudder.  Viewed the online video of the rudder build at the factory and I understand now why this kit will be a bit…

The crate arrived today after a couple of adventures.  Zenith shipped on May 24th and shortly thereafter the weather turned horrible.  I got a notice of a 'weather delay' on my crate and waited to hear if it went flying without me.  However, it arrived in NH on 06/01, and my house on 6/04.  The second worry was the forklift puncture at the water line of the crate.  (See photo).  The fork did travel into the crate however, the only damage was a destroyed corner of the packing list envelope…