All Blog Posts Tagged 'upgrade' (26)

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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

CH601XL Upgrades with Magnificent Machine LLC (tricks of the trade)



I just got back from a week at First Light Aviation Group in Livermore, California with Rick Lindstrom & Rich Vetterli. I went down to help them with the Upgrades on their Corvair powered CH601's. We had a great time and made excellent progress on both airplanes.

Rick Lindstrom will bring his airplane up to our booth at the Arlington Fly-in this year July 7th- 11th, so feel free to stop by and see his bird and talk to us about the… Continue

Added by Brady McCormick on May 17, 2010 at 2:12pm — 3 Comments

Wing Upgrade - doubler and nose rib template

Now that I'm past the solid rivets it's onto the wing doubler. This seemed fairly easy, except that back drilling the doubler was going to be a challenge, so I removed the 2 rear ribs. I've seen pictures of others doing this.

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backside wing doubler

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finished doubler

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Next step was to reinstall the nose ribs. First I replaced the top… Continue

Added by Jake Reyna on January 31, 2010 at 4:10pm — 2 Comments

Adventures In Riveting

I had a few people ask me why I thought solid rivet bucking was easy. I have to admit that I was fortunate to be taught how to drive rivets in A&P school a fair number of years ago, but the skill could be easily picked up by anyone mechanically inclined. I had the opportunity to make many mistakes before getting it right. I have not riveted much since then so there was a little bit of refresher needed. If you have access to the EAA web site, there is a Tony Bingelis article about rivet… Continue

Added by David Gallagher on January 7, 2010 at 11:30am — 2 Comments

Part 26: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: It flies!

It was a cold and windy day... but clear and sunny, so we flew our beloved Zodiac XL demonstrator airplane this morning.

Today's flight comes after the downtime of installing the Zodiac XL upgrades which we've been chronicling here over the past five or six weeks. All of you that have been following this series will agree that the upgrade package kit that we… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 28, 2009 at 4:00pm — 8 Comments

Part 25: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: It's now all back together!

We've been finishing up the aircraft these past few days, continuing on where we last left the project.

We've re-installed the flaps and all the controls in the aircraft, as well as reconnected all the wiring and fuel lines.

Above, Steve and Roger finished riveting the last rivets back in...…

Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 24, 2009 at 2:30pm — 6 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 — 6 Comments

Part 23: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Re-Installing the Center Spar in the Fuselage

Continuing on where we last finished, now we re-install the "upgraded" wing center spar section into the fuselage and position additional fuselage doublers:



First we installed the beefed-up Front Wing Uprights (6-ZU-2-6). This replaces the original Wing Uprights (6B13-1) with the heavy duty .125-inch Front Wing Uprights. We are forced to drill a new row of holes parallel to the original row for the new… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 14, 2009 at 4:00pm — 7 Comments

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

I've now added the photos for the last post on riveting and re-assembling the center wing spar section. Below is the upgraded center spar section, ready to return to the fuselage:



As previously mentioned, Roger Dubbert from the Zenith factory will be attending Gus Warren's Zodiac CH 601 XL… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 9, 2009 at 3:49pm — 3 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

Inspect removed rivets

The procedure I use to remove the AD-6 rivets from the spar for the upgrade is to first drill through the head with a 5/32 drill, shear the head off with a chisel, and then drill about 1/4" into the rivet with a 1/8" drill. I then use a 1/8" punch with an air hammer and push the rivet out.



The last thing I do is inspect the rivet to make sure that the drilling operation didn't go beyond the circumference of the rivet resulting in an enlarged hole in the spar. I'm happy to report that… Continue

Added by Dale Medendorp on December 4, 2009 at 1:59pm — 5 Comments

Part 20: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Aileron Mass Balance

Continuing where we left off yesterday, now we install the mass balance to the ailerons. Since this was mandated by the UK LAA earlier this year for Zodiac XL owners there, we used their drawings (which was engineered and tested by the LAA), as specified in the AMD Safety Alert.



The aileron mass balance consists of an 18-inch arm… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 3, 2009 at 5:30pm — 7 Comments

Jeff Garrett's Blog

From left to right is Ben, Fred, and Pat.......

Pat's Plane in the background and is painted Grabber orange and it looks sharp.



Ben's Plane is white and Sports some nice looking simple decals.



Both Planes have Corvairs in them that I built and both planes have well over 400 combined hours on… Continue

Added by Jeff Garrett on December 3, 2009 at 3:00am — 11 Comments

Part 19: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Working on the Ailerons

With the main wings done, we now focus on the aileron upgrades.

The aileron upgrades consist of three separate items: Aileron gussets (65W2-5 and 65W2-6) on the aileron ribs, L-angle stiffeners for the aileron trim servo, and finally, aileron mass balance. Above, the right aileron is shown. Below is the left aileron.

Our demonstrator Zodiac CH 601 XL airplane has the original "hingeless" aileron system - many customers have the hinged… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 2, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Part 18: Installing the "Upgrade Package" to our Zodiac CH 601 XL: Working on the Second Wing

Now we're working on finishing the second (left) wing.

We debur and rivet the aileron bellcrank support channel and stiffeners, and the rear channel doubler...

And we bolt in the wing root doubler 6-ZU-1-2 and rivet the nose rib angles (6-ZU-1-3 and 6-ZU-1-5) in place...

...and we cleco and rivet the nose ribs in place. Note that in the photo we are… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on December 1, 2009 at 11:30am — 4 Comments

Zodiac CH 601 XL "Upgrade Workshop" in Edgewater, Florida

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 December. This is an excellent opportunity for East Coast Zodiac XL builders, owners, and pilots to learn about the new upgrades, and how to… Continue

Added by Zenith.Aero on November 25, 2009 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

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 13: Removing the Wing Center Spar Section

Again, I want to thank Doug and Lori from Quality Sport Planes for organizing and hosting the free "Upgrade Workshop" this past weekend at their facility in Cloverdale, California (shown above). This was an excellent opportunity for Zodiac XL builders, owners, and pilots to learn about new upgrades, and how to install them. For more information, contact Quality Sport Planes at… Continue

Added by Sebastien Heintz on November 23, 2009 at 5:36pm — 3 Comments

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