Zenith open house part 3

I don't know if I was tired from the drive, relaxed from the dinner and beer or the steady beat of rain on the fly of my tent just after tucking in for the night.  Perhaps and most likely it was a combination of all of the above, but boy did I ever sleep solid!

For airplane people, being woken up by a departing turbo-prop is the sweetest alarm clock there is!

Morning dawned overcast, but the rain had moved on and things stayed dry for the balance of the weekend.  The Zenith staff arrived early and I captured this great shot as the hangar opened it doors in preparation for the weekend:

I wasn't long before the staff started to bring their factory demonstrators out of the hangar and onto the ramp for the day:

Zenith 650 low wing

On the left the Zenith CH750 STOL model that I'm building and it's older and smaller sibling the CH701 STOL - my model owes a lot of it's heritage and development to older brother

Zenith CH750 Cruizer - the cross country version of what I'm building

The latest derivative of the STOL line - Zenith 750 Super Duty - incrementally larger with a 3rd seat behind the front 2 and substantially taller landing gear. Nice, but requires a much larger engine (read $$$)

As the morning started to brighten up, I dove right in at the Corvair tent and started taking notes and photos of the Corvair engines on display.  Lots of learning just by seeing.

Calling this engine a typical conversion example is both fair and unfair at the same time. It's a great example of what a complete conversion looks like, but it's also the personal engine of William Wynne.

It's mounted to a model Zenith firewall and shows how clean the installation is. I particularly like the amount of room between the engine and firewall.

One of the neatest products available in the conversion catalog is the rear mounted alternator which easily fits between the engine block and firewall - directly driven by the harmonic balancer, it eliminates a belt/pulley drive on the front and moves more of the installed weight towards the firewall

Nice custom stainless exhaust routed down and out at the rear of the cowling - Ron and I will have no problem making this and the mount in the shop. Someone questioned why no mufflers and the best answer is mufflers prevent the engine from developing maximum horsepower - I think they sound better without too!

Just a detail photo for later - cooling baffles are held in place with safety wire on the larger displacement cylinders. You can also see the 12 point case bolt nuts at the top right - a nice touch

The rocker covers are held down by the original clamps and in this example, William used Allen keyed screws to secure them - once again, nothing that is functional and well designed from the factory is replaced, these clamps do the trick - if it ain't broke, don't change it!

It didn't take long for the parking lot to start filling up with visitors and the Corviar tent got busy real quick.  What appealed to me was the open format of the engine building.  No formal schedule to stick to and lots of opportunity to chat with other builders and the join into chats with the experts.

William brought an engine he personally rebuilt for a gentleman and it was already mounted on the test stand coming off the trailer. A great opportunity to chat with Dan Weseman about some particular mods he recomends.

 As I continue to sort through more of the tons of photos I took, I realize it's getting late and I have to work in the morning.  Stay tuned for more.....