All Blog Posts (2,347)

Prepping for inspection

Been working on avionics for the past few months. Wiring isn't pretty as I'd like but functionally its solid. I'll be ready to rivet the dash once my new throttle cable arrives. The one I was going to use was a "cut to length" and I just wasn't comfortable with the set up on a push throttle. Got my prop from the Ukraine. Now waiting for extended hub, bolts, and lugs. I'll have to move the plane to a temporary store facility for final assembly and inspection. Will there be any issues with it…

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Added by James H Skaggs on July 16, 2023 at 12:16pm — 2 Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, stabilizer skin

July 03 2023

Added the skin on the bottom side of the stabilizer. No surprises. Just a lot of clecos and rivets.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 13, 2023 at 9:38pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, fixing and levelling the stabilizer

July 3 2023

Back to the stabilizer.

As the assembly instruction says before putting the stabilizer skin the stabilizer skeleton should be fixed on the workbench

and leveled. I used two pieces of scrap wood to fix the skeleton and a number of wedges to level it.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 12, 2023 at 9:10pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, EAA counselor inspection

July 03 2023

Dale an EAA counselor came to check the current work state.

I showed him the stabilizer skeleton and the vertical fin. Dale found the work quality acceptable.

We discussed the ways of corrosion protection, importance to build light.

Dale discouraged me to use iPad as the only integrated instrument. It is not robust enough and can overheat easily.

The non-portable devices are much better. Also he warned me against usging the ADSB-out…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 12, 2023 at 9:07pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, elevator, L angles

June 16 2023

Cut L angles using the new band saw.

Using a wrapping paper to open the elevator skin to get a hand free access to the L angles.

Using a clamp to fix the L angle position.

Using 12 inches drill bit to make the L angle holes.…



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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 12, 2023 at 9:03pm — 2 Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, started building elevator

June 15 2023

Postponed working on the stabilizer waiting for the EAA counselor inspection.
Started working on the elevator.

Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 9, 2023 at 4:09pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, finished the stabilizer skeleton

June 14 2023

Finished the stabilizer skeleton up to putting the skin.
Prepared parts for the elevator.

Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 9, 2023 at 4:07pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, making the stabilizer skeleton

June 13 2023

Continued working on the stabilizer skeleton. 

Partially riveted the back spar.

Removing scratches from the doubler.…



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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 8, 2023 at 5:38pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, started the stabilizer skeleton

June 12 2023

Clecoed front and back spars.

Made the doubler. Scratched the doubler. Will remove the scratches later.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 8, 2023 at 5:35pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, finished the fin

June 10 2023

Put the skin on the vertical fin.

Checked the rudder and fin have the correct gap.…



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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 7, 2023 at 11:47am — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, finished the fin skeleton

June 09 2023

Assembled the fin skeleton.

Covered the fin skeleton and the fin skin with cortec.

Started putting the skin on the vertical fin.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 6, 2023 at 2:34pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, making the fin skeleton

June 04 2023

Clecoed, deburred and covered with cortec the vertical fin skeleton.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 5, 2023 at 8:46pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, putting the rudder skin

June 03 2023

I put the rudder skin the the skeleton. Basically I just repeated the job done on the Zenith rudder workshop.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on July 4, 2023 at 3:03pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, deburring the rudder

June 02 2023

Deburred the rudder. Speed deburring tool is very convenient. Much better than a drill bit.

Covered the aluminum touching areas with Cortec diluted by distilled water 4:1.

Tested the Milwaukee electric riveter. The Zenith heads from the pneumatic rivet gun look to work fine. The heads from the hand riveter do not match.

I will post the pictures of the Milwaukee electric riveter later.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 30, 2023 at 5:33pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, started building rudder

May 31 2023

Started building the rudder. Initial assembly. Deburring.

Using a carb cleaning spray to unglue the labels. It works in two steps. First spray, wait 10 seconds, unglue the label. Second spray, wipe out the rest of the glue. Change the rags often They are getting dirty quickly.

Made a simple tool to drive stubborn rivets in. It is a wooden dowel. I drilled the hole for the rivet stem slightly off the center. Turned out it is more convenient than using…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 29, 2023 at 6:13pm — 3 Comments

hi all,       dont have my cruzer plans handy. doing the SB upgrade on my horiz stab.  need to order some hinge from spruce. can someone tell me the hinge size used to attach the elev to horiz stab  …

hi all,

      dont have my cruzer plans handy. doing the SB upgrade on my horiz stab.  need to order some hinge from spruce.

can someone tell me the hinge size used to attach the elev to horiz stab 

on the 750 Cruzer? when folded out flat what is the width and thickness?

thanks in advance!

michael.

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Added by Michael radtke on June 24, 2023 at 6:53pm — 1 Comment

Zenith 750 Cruzer, storage envelope

May 27 2023

I used the most of the kit package lumber to build the workbench. The rest of it I used to build an envelope for large flat parts like skins. I put the envelope along the garage wall.

Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 22, 2023 at 2:44pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, the kit inventory

May 16 2023

The kit inventory took 4 days. No parts are missed. The brakes are in the wait list. Two parts turned out to be damaged on the factory. Zenith replaced them for free. There were a couple of issues with the parts labelled incorrectly. An email to Zenith solved the problem.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 21, 2023 at 11:32am — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, the kit arrived

May 10 2023

The kit arrived. I orderer the full kit and a delivery. It was the right decision. The kit is so big I doubt I would be able to handle it myself. The track driver had a nice electrically driven forklift.…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 20, 2023 at 9:21pm — No Comments

Zenith 750 Cruzer, building the workbench

March 27 2023

It is my first plane build. I do not know what is good and what is bad.

I do not know in advance which workbench I will like the most.

I decided instead of making the ultimate workbench to build a workbench which is just good enough to start building.

When I have more experience I can rebuild my cheap workbench for something more suitable.

Or keep it. Or upgrade it. I am building a simple workbench similar to what I saw in the Zenith…

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Added by Alexander Samoylovich on June 19, 2023 at 6:57pm — No Comments

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