I'm reposting this for those of you that don't have a canopy safety lock. There are other options, don't choose, none of the above.
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We had this discussion a year or so ago, I installed a temporary solution until I was able to come up with a simple solution. The potential problem had been the canopy opening in flight, not a good thing. Like many of you, I wanted to add a Lock/latch/pin that was engaged after closing the canopy and engaging the…
I've wanted to change the seat bottom 6B18-6 from a curved piece to an angle so my two piece seat cushions would fit better. It would also allow for the use of a booster cushion under the seats if necessary.
Thought about using a hinge after cutting the seat bottom in two pieces, but the solution was much easier. On my XL the distance to the top of the rear gear channel is 147mm. After removing the seat bottom, I noticed the the midpoint on the curve was 140mm. The co-pilot seat…
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?…
Despite a very wet beginning, we had a great time once again at AirVenture and really enjoyed meeting both existing and new builders from around the world. Following is a summary of our week:
Heading to Oshkosh from our factory in Mexico, Missouri: The STOL CH 750 as seen from the STOL CH 801:…
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
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
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
First I want to start by saying some stuff was missing. One set of seats and wing root fairings. I made my seats and the wing root fairings will be Carbon Fiber, maybe 10 pounds total. From the beginning I concentrated on building light. No wheel pants. Jabiru 3300 with a custom FWF. Grove gear. Wood propeller.
Second, I had Arnie the A&P at U76 use his certified scales.
Empty weight: 686 pounds Left wheel: 231 pounds Right wheel: 219 pounds Nose wheel: 236… Continue
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:
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 —
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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
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