The odyssey begins - our day at the Rudder Workshop

Completed:  Rudder!
Time Spent: 5 hours (6 with lunch)

Yesterday, my youngest son Shawn and I attended a 1:1 Rudder Workshop at Zenair (the Canadian company owned by Chris's older son Michael) in Midland (about 40 miles from here).  We started at 7:30 am and were met by Michael who gave us a tour of their impressive facilities.  They were also busy building a new building to run further factory workshops and help builders complete their airplanes.  We may well take advantage of that when it comes time to mount the engine, etc.

In addition to making the 4 seat versions of the Zenith aircraft (the 640 and 801 types), they do all the wing spars, the aluminum and inflatable floats and the quick build kits for the other models.  In fact they had two quick build 650's being built for their US customers so we got to see some of the more complicated bits well in progress.  Other than the tricky looking canopy work, it looks like more of the same.

The firewall of the 650B...  it is the same part as the 701/750 series.  That front bracket will hold the nose gear.

They spend the morning cutting and fitting the canopy.  It was good to watch that.  Nice big cockpit with LOTS of visibility.

A shot of how the canopy attaches to (one of the) roll bar(s).

The seat pans and centre console.  Note how they seats are reclined like an F-16! :-)

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Centre spar and firewall.

Looking at the rear of the seat pan and then the centre wing spar.  Those panels with writing on them slid into the wing spar are for alignment purposes.  That's how the wings slide into the centre spar.  They are held in with 6 bolts a side.

650 Seat Pan and floor panels.  The front section is the centre spar.  Those square black tubes are jigs for the wing spars to slide into (blanks are slid in now for alignment).

Building the 650 floor pan.  That access hole is in the rear of the fuselage and allows access to the rear fuselage components for maintenance/inspection.

Horizontal Stab mounting point.  Those brackets at the very end of the fuselage is where our rudder would go.

Almost completed 650 Quick build fuselage kit.

Nice big cockpit and note the roll bars.

Looking forward from the right into the seat pan and rudder pedal area.

This is actually a 750 (high wing) but the rudder pedals are the same.  Note the brakes are only on the left side.  You can add them to both.  

Landing gear and wing attach points.  The spar slides into that slot and then there are 6 bolt that hold it on (accessible from inside)

Rear attach point for the right wing.

They had a couple of flat panel CNC routers they were using to cut out spars, bell cranks and bulkhead ribs for both 650's and 701's.  They make a truckload full of ribs at a time and then send them down to the US to be installed in their airplanes (or supplied as part of the kits the US sends around the world).  They do all their own metal and fiberglass/ABS work.  They had a neat machine that takes big ABS panels and heats them up and presses them into all sorts of different moulds - basically anything that doesn't require a lot of strength but has compound curves - like our rudder tip!

We started construction about 8:30, took lunch for an hour at noon and by 2:30 were done!  Michael said we were very quick... and worked very efficiently together.  Shawn did everything I did at least as well - his metal working classes from Grade 9 have paid off!

Michael was very patient with us and showed us all sorts of little tricks that are hard to describe on the forums (or that you might gloss over) such as why it is OK to use a flat file (on the inside of components) to brush off burrs on the 6061-T6 Aluminum they use but why you'd also hear people say never to use a flat file on "regular" aircraft aluminum (2024-T4 has a very fine coating of pure aluminum to prevent corrosion that can easily be scraped off while 6061-T6 is completely corrosion protected through and through).

Michael had prepared a nice booklet of the rudder instructions, photo steps, blueprints, etc for us to follow. Rather than go through all the steps we did, here's a sample  GIF movie

that shows the main construction components and the detailed assembly steps on another link.

http://www.zenithair.com/zodiac/tail-as2.htm

Here are a few shots Michael had taken of Shawn and I building the rudder.  I had no idea Shawn had gotten that tall!

Shawn is installing the Cleco fasteners to hold the sheet in place against the ribs and I'm drilling out the pilot holes in the sheet into the ribs so we can blind rivet them together.  You put a cleco in every second hole so you have room to put in the rivets (after deburring all sides and putting corrosion protection (Zinc Chromate primer on the mating surfaces)).

Making sure that the drill doesn't go down too far and mar the finished side of the aluminum.  They install a chunk of rubber hose on the drill against the chuck but it gets gummed up with filings pretty quickly so better not to let it contact at all.  I fell in love with that tiny little Sioux air drill.  It was so light compared to my Princess Auto $21 special.

I'm pulling out the cleco fasteners and Shawn is putting in the blind rivets in the empty holes.  That whole step took about 5 minutes!  

We are holding our completed rudder next to their nearly completed 650 quickbuild fuselage to show where it goes.  I had no idea Shawn had gotten that tall!  Good thing he still listens to me!

As we finished up thanking Michael for the day, we ordered the tail kit (less the rudder of course) and the complete set of plans and blueprints.  We got our serial number.  It's 65-10178.  I suspect that means they've sold 178 CH-650 kits so far (it hasn't been out long enough to do 10000).    It shows up in two weeks!

Our shiny new rudder at home on the new workbench.  Now I just need to find a spot to hang it and go get the tail kit!

The Workshop and fancy new workbench

Completed:  Workbench
Time Spent::  8 hours not including organizing my tools!

I've had dreams of building my own plane for over 40 years.  Last summer, I took my youngest son to Oshkosh and we attended some workshops that gave us the bug.  This summer, we went back with my youngest daughter and my nephew and a plan started to germinate.

The biggest obstacle holding me back has always been the lack of a spot to build it.  After spending some time with the various manufacturers and first off deciding what materials I wanted to build it from, I came to the conclusion that I could do it in half of my two car garage but I'd need a good workbench and a MAJOR cleanup.

It so happened that my wife got her big project done this summer (new kitchen) which left me with a bunch of old (but still very serviceable) cupboards.  This helped get rid of a lot of the clutter but I still had more I needed to figure out how to store.   Enter the workbench.

After pouring over several dozen blogs, it appeared to me that the ideal workbench would be 4' wide by 12' long and PERFECTLY flat.  Not easy to do with wood you buy at Home Depot.  I also wanted it to have at least three electrical outlets and a spot to mount my clamps, screwdrivers, and air tools that I know I'll be using on a regular basis. I tripped over a site (sadly, I lost it but not before printing out the materials list) that allowed you to build a perfectly flat surface by constructing laminated beams.  I modified it a bit to suit my needs and I believe that I could drive my car on this workbench it is so rock solid.  It cost me about $200 all up.

Already well in use!

Materials List:
  (3)       3/4" thick Tongue and Groove 4' by 8' Spruce Plywood
  (1)       3/8" thick 4' by 8' plywood (lower grade is ok but NOT chipboard)
  (11)     2x2's (8' long)
  (4)       1x2's (8' long)
  (7)       2x4's (8' long)
  (4)       2x4's Pressure Treated (8' long)
  (24)     5" Stove Bolts (7/16" or larger)
  (1)       Box of 500 Dry Wall Screws (Coarse Thread)
  (1)       Box of 100 3" Construction Screws      
  (1)       Box of 50 5" Construction Screws
  (2)       Drywall Corner Bead (8' long)
  (1)       Large bottle of Weld Bond Glue

You start out with two of the 3/4" sheets of good tongue and groove spruce plywood.  You rip them both lengthwise down the centre line.  You then take two of those halves and cut them in half horizontally.  Take two of the small sheets and rip them lengthwise into 6 inch by 4 foot strips.  You should now have:
  - (2)  2' by 8' sheets  (this will be used for the top)
  - (2)  2' by 4' sheets  (this will be used for the top)
  - (8)  6" by 4' strips (these will be used to make laminated beams)

Now cut the 3/8" Plywood into a 4' by 6" and a 4' by 2' sheets.  Now rip each of those lengthwise so you have 6" wide strips.  You should now have:
  - (4)  6" by 4' strips
  - (8)  6" by 6' strips

Now cut seven of the 2x2's and all of the 1x2's in half.   Now it's time to get gluing!  First we're going to make the two 12' long side beams.  Lay one of the eight foot long 2x2's on the floor and apply glue to the top edge.  Take a six foot strip of 3/8" plywood  drywall screw it together with the 2x2 every 4-6 inches right so the 2x2 is flush with the top edge of the plywood (make sure it is perfectly flush to the edge of the plywood all the way along).  The plywood is straight... you won't be able to say the same thing for the 2x2. You can bend the 2x2 as necessary to follow the plywood edge as you screw it together.  Now take another 6' strip of 3/8" plywood and continue along the 2x2.  Now take a 4" section of 2x2 and go all the way out to the end of the plywood in the same manner.  You should have a 12' long strip of 6" wide plywood with a 2x2 glued and screwed all the way along the edge.

Take another 4" chunk and start at the beginning of the bottom edge of the plywood this time and glue/screw as well.  Finish it off with another 8' long 2x2.  Now take a three foot, a six foot and another three foot strip of the 3/8" plywood and glue and screw them to the top edge of the back side of the long 2x2's.  You should have staggered joints with a 12' long box beam with a roughly 2" by 2" hollow centre channel.  You might have problems with one side.  Don't sweat that.  You only need one good side (label that top).   Repeat the whole procedure and build another 12' beam.

The end view of the right side beam at the far right.  You can see the two 6" sheets of 3/8" plywood and the 2x2's that run down the centre.  You can also see the end I-beams made of 3/4" plywood sandwiched between four 1x2's.

A better shot of the 12" long side beams.  Note the seam in the plywood between the electrical box and the table clamps ($14 at Princess Auto!).  That's a three foot panel joined to a six foot panel joined to another three foot panel (just out of the top of the picture).  The other side would have two six foot panels laminated.  The inside 2x2's are 8' plus 4' on the top and then 4' plus 8' on the bottom so ALL of the joints are staggered.  Note how there is lots of room between the 2x2's to put an electrical box and run the electrical wires.  Probably would make sense to put them in conduit  but I didn't bother.  Someday perhaps I'll go back and retrofit them.

Now we need to build the seven 4' cross beams.  They are done in similar manner except for the end beams. You will make three beams using 3/4" Plywood (don't worry about the tongue or groove... you only need one good side).  Those three beams go in the middle (at the 4', 6' and 8' locations).  You will make two more 4' cross beams with 3/8" plywood which go at the 2' and 10' locations leaving the two end beams. The end beams are each made with one of the remaining two 3/8" plywood strips with 1x2's laminated on either side of the top and bottom so you end up with two I-beams.    Don't mount any of the beams just yet... let's take inventory again... you should now have:
   (2) 12' long Box Beams
   (3) 4' long Box Beams with 3/4" Plywood
   (2) 4' long Box Beams with 3/8" Plywood
   (2) 4' long I-Beams with 3/8 Plywood

Now, if you are thinking... you have the makings for a table that is much wider than four feet.  We want it to be the same width as two of the 2' wide sheets tongue and grooved together (I suspect you'll find that's 47.5").  Subtract the width of the two 12' long beams and cut all the 4' long beams to that length.

On the 12' long beams, lay them flat on the ground on their sides.  Make marks lines along the top edges at the 2', 4', 6', 8' and 10' points.  Draw a line down the centre of the top edge of all the 4' box beams.  This line will correspond with the marks you made on the 12' beam so the beams on are on 2' centres.  Now cut up the drywall corner bead into 5.5" strips.  You need 24 of them.  You will screw those into the corners made from the intersection of the beams.  I found it easiest to fasten them all to the Box beams (and the insides of the two end I-Beams first.  Then I just stood them up on the flat 12 Box-Beam making sure that the TOP edges were all perfectly flush.  Now mount the remaining 12' side beam to the others (I just put it on top of the vertical 4' beams and screwed up from underneath).  You should now have the makings of a table!

The end I-Beam and cross beams between the two pressure treated legs.  Lots of space to hang stuff and you'll notice that I'm using  roughly 4' of one end of the table to store floor mounted stuff like the fertilizer spreader, gas cans and lawn mower.  The other 8', I have built a low shelf so I can store stuff in bins. (e.g. one bin for all my electrical supplies, one for my painting supplies, one for my drywall supplies, etc.)

Now you need to make the legs.  Decide how high you want the table and take 3/4" off (for the plywood top).  Cut 8 legs from the Pressure Treated 2x4's.  The legs get bolted to the sides just inside of the ends with two carriage bolts each (stagger the holes vertically).  Make sure that the tops of the legs is perfectly flush with the the top of the beams.  You can set it on its feet now (you'll need a helper likely).  Now you want to make perfectly sure the table is level and square.  First, you'll notice your floor likely isn't perfectly flat.  Get out your level and start at the high point and shim up the legs until all eight legs are on the ground and the table is perfectly level.  Now we'll need to make it square.  The most accurate way is to measure across the two diagonals and shift the table until both measurements are equal.  Now take one of the 2' x 8' long sheets, put it so the tongue/groove is in the middle of the table and SCREW IT (don't glue it or the only way you'll take the table apart is with a chain saw) down to the beams every 12" .  Take a 2' x 4' sheet and add it to the end.  Now join the tongue/groove at the beginning with a 2' x 4' sheet and then finish off the top with the 2' by 8' sheet.  The joints should all be staggered.

That's a pretty great table just as is but it's a lot more useful with a bottom shelf over 8' of the length of it so let's take that remaining wood and get busy.  (You could make it all 12' but I wanted to be able to roll some tall bins or lawnmowers under there - if you do that you'll need some more 2x4's and another 4x4 sheet of 3/4" plywood).  First measure the distance between the legs (crosswise).  I think it should be something close to 40".  Cut two of those and screw them between the end legs on each end so the 4" dimension is vertical at what ever height off the floor (less 3/4" of an inch) you want the bottom shelf.  It should be at least 6" off the floor.  Screw it into place with the long construction screws.  Now on the back side of the table, run another 2x4 along the back legs at the same height.  You'll need a 4' chunk to finish it off.  On the front side of the table run an 8' length of 2x4 at the same height along the front legs (deciding which end you want the shelf on).  Now cut a beam to go from the end of the 8' front beam to the corresponding back end. Now you need some more cross beams.  These should get mounted UNDER the perimeter beam you just laid out so you can run another 8' 2x4 up the centre of the table at the same height as the perimeter beams.  Now cut your final sheet of plywood to fit between the legs and screw it down.

My low shelf for my "supplies"

The other end of my workbenc... I've mounted some trays to hold safety equipment (glasses and ear protection) and sharpies and drill bits along with tape measures.  It also gave me a spot to store that pesky big roll of aluminum flashing I've had rolling around in the garage for years.  

Your table should be rock solid and very useful but we're going to make it even more so.  I mounted three electrical plugs (you can get shallow electrical boxes from home depot) along the front edge of the 12' beam.  Since the beam is hollow the trick is to cut the 2"x3" hole dead centre of the beam and the top and bottom 2x2's will snuggle it  - they also make a great channel for running the electrical cable!  I put one box in the back and then wired up them up in parallel and then feed the back box from one half of an old heavy duty extension cord which I could plug into the nearest outlet.  I ran the cable from the back box to one end, drilled a hole between the leg and the end beam (on the inside) ran the cable along the inside of the end beam and then did the same thing on the other side down the three outlets.

You can see the holes I drilled for the air tools and screw drivers as well as the supply extension cord I use to power each of the electrical plugs on the work bench.  I've also mounted my squares and things like cut off disks and files next to the tools so it's all there as I need them.  

Along the back side I also drilled a line of holes through the top of my workbench (you should probably stay 4" from the edge so you miss the electrical cable) for my screw drivers and air tools.  I also took a 4" by 4' scrap of  3/8" plywood and mounted it along the back side of the table so that 2" of the plywood was sticking above the table.  This allowed me to attach all of my hand clamps (my C-clamps, I attached against one of the table legs).   I'm going to find some adjustable (height) locking rollers and put it on wheels so I can roll it out of the way when I need to use more of the garage.  I think I might even put in a few compressed air stations so I can just hook up my air tools with a short bit of hose but that's a project for another day.

My shelves are ready for the parts and my workbench is ready to begin.  On to the Rudder Workshop to start this project.  I plan to come home with the blueprints and some new tools.  I have most everything I could ever need but there are a few specific tools you need to build a Zenith, namely:

1. Compressed Air Driven Pop Rivet Gun (bought at Princess Auto for $79.95)
2. Compressed Air Driven Drill (much faster and lighter than electrical ones) ($21.95 on sale at P.A.)
3. An "Accordian Hole Spacer" that you use to get all the holes lined up perfectly ($30 at Aircraft Spruce)
4. Hundreds of "Cleco's" (tiny fasteners that temporarily hold two bits of metal together for riveting).  Here's a picture of the Cleco and the Cleco Pliers you use to attach/remove them. ($0.50-.60 each at Aircraft Spruce)

I have just about everything else I need (tin snips, files, drill bits, hand riveter, metric tape measure and "Sharpie" markers.  I'm anxious to get going!d

The Airplane

Completed:  Aircraft Decision
Time Spent:  40+ years

I spent a lot of time, years of reading and sitting in various models before landing on this one.

First off, I needed to decide on the "mission".  I am interested in the build experience but I don't want to spend the next 5-10 years doing it... I'd much rather be flying.  As far as the aircraft goes, I want to be able to go cross country with it and would use it to commute the 400 kms (200 miles as the crow flies) to Ottawa where I have been spending the last few years most weekdays.  While I love the drive through the north country, I would rather fly over it.  So I want a machine that is fast enough that it makes sense to fly rather than drive.  This means it has to be capable of 125 mph or more.  I have an instrument rating (and commerical rating and mult-engine and float endorsements as well) so want something that can do IFR safely when necessary.  I won't be doing known ice or anything but want to be able to go most weeks if I can.

While there are literally dozens of "homebuilt" aircraft I could see myself in, I narrowed it down pretty quickly to metal aircraft as I don't want to spend 10 years building a wooden one (although the Sequoia Falco

Sequoia Falco - Can you tell it's Italian?

is still one of my favorites and was the one that gave me the bug way back when) and after doing a workshop on composite ones, I learned very quickly YUCK!!!!  There are some beautiful composite airplanes and you can't beat the performance but I just can't see myself sanding and breathing filler for the next two to five years (they also take a lot longer to build).

The CH650B isn't my dream airplane but then my budget doesn't allow for $2M P-51 Mustangs either.    I did take a strong look at the Titan T-51 3/4 scale Mustang

Titan T-51

and was very tempted but it was about double the money, at least four times the effort and would take me longer time wise than I want (although I must admit to still having dreams about it!).  It has retractable gear which I'm very familiar with but don't need the complexity as it doesn't add that much speed at the speeds I'm contemplating. I don't think it would be a very stable IFR platform either!

The other finalist ended up being a Van's RV-8.

Vans RV-8

 It can be built relatively quickly, there are thousands of them flying and they look a lot like a Mustang (and are aerobatic to boot) but they need a bigger engine, I'd have to get it from Oregon and it's more money than I want to spend (if I'm going that far, I'd go with the T-51).  The clincher was that it's a bit too responsive for a stable IFR platform.   Maybe my next one.

Although I never would have guessed that I'd end up with this, it does fit my parameters exactly so I decided to go with the Zenith 650B.  It was designed by Chris Heintz a transplanted Frenchman who moved to Canada to work at DeHaviland but fell into home building and has built some of the most successful designs to date.  His two sons now carry on the business.  One in Midland and one in Missouri.  They work well together so I can get completely serviced from Midland even though my kit originally comes from Missouri.

The plane is pretty:

This one is the prototype and started as a 601 (hence the tail number).

The Factory 650B with a UL350Is Engine

It has great visibility, is very stable.  Not too fast (top speed is about 160mph but regular cruise would be closer to 130-140), it climbs at 1200 feet per minute and burns only about 5 US GPH (19 L/hr).  That means I could get to Ottawa and back on about 55L of gas.  My car is pretty good on gas (when I'm not driving it like a maniac) but I burn almost double that.  Best of all, it is nice and roomy and will carry two REAL people with bags.  I can load it up with an IFR panel and it will be a great little cross country cruiser (for short flights...  I won't be taking it to Hawaii).   The thing about airplanes is that for short flights (under a few hundred miles), speed is almost irrelevant.  I can get to Ottawa in just over an hour.  The scheduled flying time for Air Canada is 55 minutes.  You can spend a lot of money going fast but unless you are spending all your time flying multi hour legs, it just isn't worth it - besides, isn't the whole point to BE flying? 

The Ch650B can also be built as a tail dragger and I could paint it to look like a Mustang...  but that's a decision for another day.