Jocks Swell 701 Zenith Construction Page

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The Empinage

The Rudder was built at the factory during a two day workshop that I attended in Feb of 2001. I ordered the firewall back kit on March 28th, picked it up at the factory on April 27th. It took about a half hour to carry all the parts into my camper and spread them around for travel. The parts were all well wrapped and protected. I got home and sorted all the pieces on shelves and when my wife got home and saw how little it appeared to be, she said "where's your plane"? A careful inventory showed that all the parts were there, and the only discrepancy was a wrong sized tube, which was quickly replaced. It's been fun unpacking stuff that appears to not take up much space and assembling it into an easyly recognizable airplane part.

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The upper shot is of the trim tab.
The lower shot is of the elevator prior to final riveting. I used paint purchased at the company on all metal to metal joints, but I'm still having problems keeping it from beading up.

They say it takes about 400 hours to build the plane, but I figure that I'll probably have to double that. Of course they don't count the time you take looking at parts and the plans prior to assembly.

A woman mountain biking; Actual size=180 pixels wide

The trim tab needed accurate alignment to preclude any stress in movement but was otherwise easily installed. I find that anything that has a moving part needs carefull work prior to final riviting.
As each part is done, I wrap it in clear plastic, and hang it out of the way on the shop wall. However, the rudder sits in the living room where I can see it.

Rudder

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The rudder was built at the Zenith Company at a workshop designed to give prospective builders a sampling of what the plane building project would entail. Lots of excellent tips are learned, so that when you go back home and get your shop made up, you can copy the shop set up that you are now familiar with. Of course the workshop is designed to sell kits, but it also is inexpensive enough to find out if building is for you, yet give you confidence and skills that you take with you whether you build the rest of the plane or not

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This shows the elevator control horns. I spent a lot of time and needed a few new parts trying to line up the three hinge points. Best bet might be to do the center hinge, then attatch the easyer to install outer ones. The hinge holes need to be perfectly aligned on all angles of attack or there is stress at a hinge joint.