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Jims Web Site
Welcome to my web site. I hope to add construction details on a fairly regular basis. Since I am retired, I can probably devote more time to the project than if I were not. Hopefully, this will mean a fairly reasonable rate of progress. I noted somewhere that Zenith predicts a 450 hour airframe construction for an inexperieced builder. This will be my first kit, although I have some background with aircraft, holding an A&P and IA. It will be interesting to see how my time compares with their estimate. One thing is certain: when the airframe is done, there is still avionics to be installed, paint or trim, an engine overhaul (I have a runout O200) and installation, plus flight test. It's going to take at least 450 hours, and probably a lot more. Construction of this aircraft started in my head, perhaps as much as a year and a half ago (April, 2007). I finally talked myself into the project, and picked up the kit on November 14, 2008. Actual construction began four days later. While I will do a degree of personalization, I will likely stay reasonably close to the tried and proven. I do hope to do some weight reduction, perhaps by using trim rather than full paint, etc etc. ========================================================== December 5, 2009 It's a darned good thing I haven't been quoting a completion date. While I was out of town in early November, I learned that the FAA had mandated that Zenith make improvements to the design. Zenith had published some draft drawings showing the improvements. Since these impacted almost everything I had already done, it was clear there would be a lot of disassembly and rework. There was a very optimistic "we'll have the mods ready in about a week" statement. I looked at the draft drawings, and (based on past experience) figured we were looking at a month or more to check the mods on an existing small aircraft, and to finalize the drawings. It's been four weeks, and the drawings are still in draft stage. Zenith has been good about posting a photo/video log of the modifications as they make them to their aircraft, and they have published one update to the draft drawings. That has let me start a little disassembly. I'll be ready to start the mod kit whenever it arrives. Meanwhile, I've lost about a month (so far) while waiting for finalization of the design modification. Although Zenith is quoting 80 hours expected modification time, I observe they had several people working on it at the same time. Yet they've been on the task for about a month! In fairness, they were debugging and designing while modifying, which added to their time. My guess: about 320 hours for one person to do the modification, after the design is complete, or 2 months. Add that to the time already lost while waiting, and I figure about a three month impact - so far. There still is no firm delivery date for the mod kits, nor do I think it is reasonable to expect a date just yet. I suspect they'll be out sometime after the first of the year. What's my impression of Zenith? Good and bad. Although they are now apparently offering the upgrade kit at material cost (or very close to it), it started with a very inflated price being quoted. They also wanted agreement to a waiver of liability before selling the kit, which I understand has now disappeared. My impression is that they will make an intial attempt at trying to pass costs and liability to the builders, then back off when confronted. Their scheduling estimates are laughable, and do not, in my opinion, relect a very good understanding of the realities of aircraft modification. Since I was involved in aircraft modification (or large aircraft) for many years, and did a lot of the scheduling, I think that may be considered an informed opinion. Conversely, not many companies would publish, on a daily basis, a photo and video record of their progress. Nor would they publish draft drawings of what they planned to do in advance of the final drawings. In short, they appear to be willing to admit their short comings, and to correct them. Some of this likely reflects the fact that Zenith is a small company. Let's hope we all (including Zenith) learn something from this experience.
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