We were busy throughout the AirVenture week at the Zenith booth, meeting with both existing builders and owners, and showing the demo aircraft to potential new builders. We flew in our two new factory demonstrators: The STOL CH 750 and the low-wing CH 650 with the new ULPower 350iS powerplant installation.

Above: The CH 650 with the the ULPower 350iS engine under the new cowl, with Bob McDowell's STOL CH 701 on Zenair amphibious floats behind the CH 650.  Below: STOL CH 750:

The Oshkosh AirVenture fly-in is a great place to meet aviation enthusiasts from around the world.  Below, I meet with a Zenith customer from China:

Chris Heintz enjoyed meeting new builders and seeing old friends again throughout the week, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the Zeniths on the flightline in front of the Zenith booth (in the North Aircraft Display area):

View a video clip of many of the Zeniths that participated at AirVenture 2011.

New Zenith planes flown in by builders from around the country (and Canada) kept arriving during the week as some early arrivals left for home.  Below are two of the four CH 601s flown in from the West Coast:  Doug Dugger of Quality Sport Planes in Cloverdale, California, with his blue 601 XL-B and Steve Smith's CH 601 XL-B.

In addition to the showplane parking area for Zeniths (above) additional planes could be found in the homebuilt camping area and in the ultralight field (below).  I'm in the process of putting together a list of all the Zeniths that flew in to AirVenture 2011 so that I can mail the owners a certificate.

"Alternative" engine manufacturers also showed off their engines on several Zeniths on the AirVenture grounds:  Below, Jan Eggenfellner, shows his Viking Honda-based engine on both a STOL CH 701 and a CH 601.  To demonstrate how well they work, three Viking-powered planes (including the 701 and 601) were flown to Oshkosh (Wisconsin) from Florida.

Below is a Zodiac CH 601 XL-B powered by the six cylinder Jabiru 3300 engine equipped with liquid-cooled heads from Rotec of Australia:

Chris also had several book signings during the week in the EAA Wearhouse for his new book, titled Flying On Your Own Wings.  He also signed quite a few hats and programs, as well as the one-of-a-kind Zenith aircraft guitar, handcrafted by Landric Custom Guitars which was auctioned to benefit the EAA Young Eagles program (below):

This was a great year for Zeniths at Oshkosh AirVenture.  We have some great video footage of Chris Heintz at AirVenture 2011.  Zenair News will include full video coverage from the Zenith Builders Banquet and the Zeniths to Oshkosh events in the DVD distributed with each issue of the Zenair News.

I am also putting together a summary video showing all the Zeniths flown in.

As Chris' son, I was honored to take part in the events to honor my father, and am grateful that Chris has also been able to positively impact the lives of so many in his profession of choice: Designing, building and flying light aircraft.

I thank all who participated and helped to make this such a memorable Oshkosh year.  Builder Joe Scheibinger from Oshkosh is largely responsible for organizing and coordinating the events, including the banquet.  We thank Joe for all his work in making this such a memorable year!

• See my previous posts on Zeniths to Oshkosh and the Builder Banquet.
• View a video clip of the Zenith planes that participated at the "Zeniths to Oshkosh 2011"