Sebastien Heintz's Blog Posts Tagged '601' (13)

Search Blog Posts

Island hopping in the Caribbean

Flying the Zodiac in Guadeloupe

Following are a few more great video clips flying in Guadeloupe.  This time, the videos are from a Zodiac CH 601, landing at the unique island airports.  The first one is landing the CH601 on the Terre-de-Haut Island, which is the largest island that makes up the "…

Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on May 8, 2011 at 7:00am — 1 Comment

Call for entries: CH 650 Paint Scheme Design Competition

 

As we're completing our new CH 650 B demonstrator plane, we're…

Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on February 9, 2011 at 4:00pm — 5 Comments

A story, about a story, about a story.... worth reading.

I read the following story (about a story in the New York Times, no less) about a Zodiac builder and his love of flying. Isn't it great to read some good news about aviation and flying, especially in a non-aviation publication?…





Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on August 11, 2010 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

Zodiac CH601XL-B Flight Test Report

We recently had the chance to give Steve Flattum the opportunity to test fly our factory demonstrator Zodiac CH 601 XL B (upgraded model). Steve flies for one of the major US airlines and has logged more than 20,000 hours. More importantly though, he has a passion for light aircraft, and he has flown more than 100 types of aircraft (from ultralight to supersonic) and performed more than 20 first flights. He holds a professional pilot degree and is a… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on July 7, 2010 at 1:00pm — 5 Comments

"B" model designation for Zodiac CH601XL and CH650

With the advent of the upgrade package for the Zodiac CH 601 XL, owners

have asked for a way of easily identifying and marking an upgraded

aircraft, and a consensus quickly formed that a "B" model designation

was the preferred way of identifying an upgraded aircraft (applying to

upgraded Zodiac CH 601 XL and CH 650 aircraft models).



We've prepared quality cut-out decals for the aircraft: We encourage all affected builders who have… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on May 27, 2010 at 3:30pm — 6 Comments

Flying the Upgraded Zodiac

We've had lousy flying weather in Mexico, Missouri lately (which is really not that typical), so when the sky looked OK this morning Roger and I pulled out the upgraded Zodiac XL for a pleasure flight...

Here's the video:



I hope you enjoy it as much as we… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on January 27, 2010 at 4:30pm — 14 Comments

Part 24: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Putting it all back together...

As you all know, we've been busy making the producing the parts of the Upgrade Package kit, and now we're also busy shipping them out to builders and owners!

All the Upgrade Package kit parts and hardware shown above can be shipped in the two cardboard containers: One box (18"x12"x6", 25 lbs.) for the smaller parts and all hardware and one 6-foot long 4-inch cardboard tube (about 16 lbs.) for the longer parts. These package are… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 18, 2009 at 5:26pm — 7 Comments

Part 22: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Riveting and Re-Assembling the Center Spar

After having positioned, drilled, and clecoed the upgrades to the center wing spar assembly, we now rivet the parts back together and bolt the two halves of the center spar assembly back together to reinstall it into the fuselage.

Here we begin to rivet the center wing spar assemblies back together using the "conventional" bucked rivets:…

Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 5, 2009 at 5:00pm — 4 Comments

Part 21: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Installing the Upgrades to the Center Spar

We already disassembled the center spar section (a while back).



Now, we'll get to the task of installing the upgrades and reassembling the the center spar. We have posted the latest Upgrade Drawings as they have been updated (albeit still in draft):

We position and backdrill the… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 4, 2009 at 6:15pm — 7 Comments

Part 16: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Installing the L-angle stiffeners to the top of the rear skin

We've made excellent progress over the past holiday weekend finalizing the drawings and verifying the parts. The wings are done and the center spar section is being verified.



As mentioned earlier, Gus Warren of FlyWithGus.net has announced that he will be hosting a Zodiac CH 601 XL "Upgrade Workshop" at his facility in Edgewater, Florida the second weekend in… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 30, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Part 15: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Installing the Spar Wing Root Doubler (take two)

As shown previously (in Part 8), we had already installed a Wing Root Doubler (6-ZU-1-2) to the front side of the spar root, but as mentioned earlier (see my Part 13), a new Wing Root Doubler (6-ZU-1) replaces the previous doubler. This new doubler is cut… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 25, 2009 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

Part 11: Installing 3-position LED lights (and replacing the AeroFlash / Whelan strobes)

Since we have full access to the insides of our wings we decided that this was the perfect time to upgrade to new LED (light emiting diodes) lights. Note that this is not part of the Upgrade Package prescribed in AMD's Safety Alert and the FAA's SAIB - this is just an opportune time to install them (and also allows us to save a few pounds in the process).



This is the original Aeroflash-Signal anti-collision/position light assembly (nav/strobe light) on the left wingtip:…

Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 19, 2009 at 4:30pm — 4 Comments

Part 2: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Drilling our the top wing skin rivets

In part two of this installment, we drill out the Avex blind rivets in the top wing skins. (Click here for the first post in this series on updating our Zodiac XL demonstrator per AMD's Safety Alert / Directive).



See the video clip at the bottom of this post for a good view of how we drilled out the blind rivets.



Removal of the wings and drilling… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 11, 2009 at 9:30pm — 3 Comments

Latest Blog Posts

Most Popular Blog Posts

Monthly Archives

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

New from Zenith:

Custom Instrument Panels
for your Zenith:

Custom instrument panelsare now available directly from Zenith Aircraft Company exclusively for Zenith builders and owners. Pre-cut panel, power distribution panel, Approach Fast Stack harnesses, Dynon and Garmin avionics, and more.

Zenith T-shirts and Hats:

Zenair Floats

Flying On Your Own Wings:
A Complete Guide to Understanding Light Airplane Design, by Chris Heintz.

The official Zenith Aircraft DVD has been updated with new footage and features, and now includes the STOL CH 750 and the ZODIAC CH 650.

© 2013   Created by Zenith.Aero.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service