Flew a CH 701 yesterday

[C5Engineer 1170]

My Dad is building a Zenith 701 right now. They had their annual Western gathering of them about 75NM from here yesterday and my Dad drove down from Idaho to attend. I rented a 172 and flew us up there. While I was not that impressed with the construction they sure fly pretty well. We lined up and he pulled the stick all the way back. We had about a 12kt headwind. As soon as he touched the throttle the nose came off the ground. We rolled about 50 feet and were airborn. The center Y stick took a minute to get used to after he gave it to me. It had really light controls. We did some slow flight and were cruising at 35 IAS easily. The only downside is that to get any true STOL performance out of it the 912 is the only powerplant for the best power to weight ratio. Here are some random pics I took. The inverted airfoil stabilizer is interesting.

The mighty rental 172....boring  :

The 801. This thing is a beast. The top of the tail is 15 ft in the air and when I stood under the wing the bottom of the wing was about 3 feet above my head. I have no clue how they fuel it.

We were cruising at this speed easily with two 200lb guys in there.

Cloverdale O60... pretty good turn out

[Torch 18]

Thanks for the post.  I have ridden in a 701. It was the first time I had been around a 912 engine. I was impressed with the little powerplant. They are pricey but everything we do in aviation is.  I can't get past the pulled rivets,I like to keep airplanes a long time and eventually the pulled rivets will have issues. I applaud Zenith for offering the option to either scratch build or build from a kit. Now the new 750 with a stout C 90-14 is interesting.

[akflyer 1427]

I have watched alot of the vids of this bird, and there is one at a local airport.  I just have a hard time getting past the looks... this is one butt ugly bird   I would love to fly one though as it may just change my outlook on the plane, super STOL is what I am all about, and so far, I have not been super impressed with my "C".  Dont get me wrong, I can get in and out pretty short, but not close to what the book says.  Bobs KF I kicks my ass on the short work, but I can out cruise him if I punch it up.  May have something to do with the big heavy tires I have on mine too as I think we were pretty close on ski's.