Well... Yesterday I started into job on the CH601HD that is very much like force feeding a Porcupine to a Grizzly Bear ! I used an ATV jack to lift The Zen, there is no weight the wings... its a "Plan B" thing. Grantley Este & Bob "Mr. GoodWrench" Braden pitched in to get me started on the job I have been putting off for a year now. Changing the out of date main gear bungee (5 yr replacement cycle), so far it has taken 3 guys the better part of a day to jack up the aircraft and get the gear leg assemblies off the aircraft. I also wanted to install the upgraded gear legs from Zenair...1/8" plate bottom above the wheel fork has increased to 3/16" plate. Today's effort consisted of installing 2 new 1080HD bungee and reassembly / install of the co-pilot side. If all goes well, and it usually don't ! I should have the pilot side gear assembled and completed by tomorrow night. Most of the grief comes from the severely restricted access to the bolts that mount the gear leg assembly into the wing bracket. It was a miserable job getting the bolts out and double the misery trying to fish them into a hole you can barely see never mind get a wrench on... Grantley made the "remote socket" for me yesterday, without it the job cannot be done. The heat of the past 2 days also added to the "work" side of this project, even with the main hangar door open there did not seem to be enough oxygen available. While sitting down taking a sanity break (drinking water) I glanced over at The Zen hanging there in mid-air... my mind wandered to thoughts of Mooney's & Bonanza's... must have been the heat stroke playing with my mind.

I also had thoughts of siding my Puddle Jumper Amphibian floats under The Zen while it was just hanging there... hmmm??

Bob