Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
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"Final" Stats
Updating all my documents for the inspection, it looks like I have
~ 6 years 10 months elapsed time (thanks to location and climate I can only work weekends, and not at all between August and October)
~650 hours of build time (60 of which was the vinyl wrapping)
~$63,000 of spend on parts (small to big)
~10 occasions where I gave up
~2 occurrences where I had to be restrained from torching the whole damn thing (well, I was close to it!!!)
What a project.
Comment
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Comment by Gary Welch on June 19, 2017 at 5:47pm
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I had a hard time getting the cable tensions dialed in, even with proper safetying and a proper tension gauge. I'd measure them and swear they were perfect. Then a few days later I would remeasure and they would be out of spec. This happened more than once. I never got a good explanation of why this was happening. Metal cable isn't supposed to stretch.
As you know adjusting all of the control cables is a PITA. I have a bad back and bad neck so this was also a very painful process for me. A lot of screaming and swear words went into adjusting my cables!
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Comment by Paul Sanders on June 19, 2017 at 3:56pm
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Hey Gary, no need to respectfully suggest, I appreciate you noticing and letting me know. I don't know why I didn't think to look at the EAA video site, I've used that for lots of other how tos. I agree that is a much better way to tie the turnbuckle, I will redo them this weekend.
Thanks, Paul
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Congratulations! It's a helluva accomplishment.
I was viewing your build log and noticed the pic of your rudder turnbuckle safety wire. In the interest of safety can I respectfully suggest you check out this EAA video which shows the proper way to do this in detail:
http://eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1590219800
In the video Brian Carpenter notes that safetying as you have done can allow the the turnbuckle to unwind as much as one and a half turns. That would greatly affect the cable tension.
I'm no expert but I recently finished my 601 and got an education on this.
Plane looks awesome!
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Comment by Tim Smart on June 9, 2017 at 8:05pm
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Congrats on your completion Paul and good luck with the inspection and test phase. I enjoyed your summery and I'm sure many can identify what you so eloquently describe...
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Comment by Joe Harrington on June 3, 2017 at 3:35pm
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Only 2 times when you almost put a match to it?... That’s pretty good. My project was mostly done in my friend’s heated attached garage because my garage has no insulation. I often thought and occasionally told others that “I hope Trav’s house burns down tonight!”... Congrats on persevering!
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Comment by John Burns on June 2, 2017 at 12:49pm
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Great post ! Congratulations on the completion. It looks great !
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