Building a Zenith CH 701

[patrol guy]

Rod, that looks fantastic! I thought when you said wrap it up, you were done with the plane. Never seen this done, but like Bill said if weight isn't a penalty, we will be seeing a lot more in the future. John

PS: at our fly-in there should be at least two more 701's, so you will have company.

[EZFlap]

Never seen this done, .

I saw something recently in the EAA weekly e-mail that someone even wrapped one of the round swoopy composite airplanes, and it turned out really nice.

I have a friend with 25+ years in the graphics, signage and commercial logo business. He wraps cars and buildings and boats and all sorts of stuff. Routinely applying large graphics on high end Boeing factory aircraft, etc. etc. Says he'd love to have someone use him to do an entire small airplane. He's a licensed pilot so he knows not to cover a static port or knock a pitot tube off. Anyone in the Seattle area who wants to try vinyl graphics instead of paint, I'll be happy to hook you up.

[Hafast]

If the wrap can be made to look good and doesn't weigh too much, there may be significant benefits. Seems to me that an un-broken plastic film would keep water outside the structure... especially keep water from getting in to the alum/steel rivet mandrel holes or under any unsealed rivet heads, etc. quote]


That's the part that scares me, if the water can't get out from under the rivets and the nooks and crannies (and you know it will get in, rain, humidity, etc.) it's going to corrode.

[Skystrider]

I don't have an answer for that Hafast. It seems to me the wrap acts just like paint which seals rivet heads and nooks and cranies. I had a fellow hear about the project and flew in this last weekend from another airport to take a look. He thought the plane was painted and we just had a few decals! It took me a couple minutes to convince him the whole plane was a decal! (so to speak)

You have to look really close to see it isn't paint because of the way it to adheres to the surface. It is amazing how it covers the rivets! I guess we will just have to wait to see if this method causes more rust than paint would.

[Skystrider]

Rod, that looks fantastic! I thought when you said wrap it up, you were done with the plane. Never seen this done, but like Bill said if weight isn't a penalty, we will be seeing a lot more in the future. John

PS: at our fly-in there should be at least two more 701's, so you will have company.

John, We are going to do another weight and balance just to make sure we are okay. We estimate that the wrap may add about 20 pounds. But that is just a guess. The empty weight was 644 lbs. I guess we will find out. But we have a 120 hp so it shouldn't notice as long as W&B is good.

I sure hope I can get the hours flown off so I can bring it out to your fly-in!

[Skystrider]

Rod, that looks fantastic! I thought when you said wrap it up, you were done with the plane. Never seen this done, but like Bill said if weight isn't a penalty, we will be seeing a lot more in the future. John

PS: at our fly-in there should be at least two more 701's, so you will have company.

John, We are going to do another weight and balance just to make sure we are okay. We estimate that the wrap may add about 20 pounds. But that is just a guess. The empty weight was 644 lbs. I guess we will find out. But we have a 120 hp so it shouldn't notice as long as W&B is good.

I sure hope I can get the hours flown off so I can bring it out to your fly-in!

[courierguy]

That's cheating! It's too easy...Wow, what a concept, doing the entire plane, good thinking outside the box. The film may even add some structural strength, no, seriously! As in helping perhaps to alleviate some minor oil canning, it may also reduce interior noise. Weight if 20 lbs (20 lbs more then paint, or total?) ain't bad either. Mostly it would be so easy to drop the plane off and tell them "call me when it's done".

[EZFlap]

Can you imagine how easy it would be to do exotic logos, intricate color schemes, etc, when the logo or color scheme is printed on the plastic film before it's put on the airplane? Wow...

Let's see if there is a downside to this, the upside seems pretty neat!

[patrol guy]

I am thinking easy peal fake N numbers over the real ones for when you want to be a little on the "wild side"??

[Skystrider]

I am thinking easy peal fake N numbers over the real ones for when you want to be a little on the "wild side"??

Good thinking John!

Say, when you have a moment, could you tell me what your N number is again?

[EZFlap]

Can you make me up one that says "One Big Ass Mistake, America" that I can stick on the 172 my way to fly around the Capitol Mall?

[Skystrider]

The wrap has been completed and all the parts are back together again. I am very pleased with the outcome and would recommend this process. You can't believe how "shiny" the 701 came out. The pictures don't do it justice. But I'll try!

[Skystrider]

After weeks and weeks of bad weather and two flat tires and a bent front axle from taxi tests, the 701 had its first flight!



We finally got a beautiful Saturday and no wind.



I had the honor of taking her up first.



She flew almost hands off right from the start!



Almost no rudder is required to make a turn and the ball easily stays in the center. She climbs like bat out of hell!



I was up for about 20 minutes in the pattern. If I stuck my left arm out the window my hand would be over the runway.



The 701 was light on the controls and very smooth and stable. The Jabiru 3300 just purred!
No flaps are necessary to fly her. Just pull back on the power and you get an elevator-like descent to a smooth flare. Very easy to land.



I got in four flights for almost two hours on Saturday. Only thing I didn't test was right-hand turns.
Post flight inspections turned up no problems. We've got a keeper here!

[Skystrider]

Got two posts. Sorry!

[EZFlap]

Congratulations Rod! Glad the first flight went well.

Now that you have proven the airplane is safe and sound to this level, IMHO shift your suspicions and apprehensions over (switch gears) to worrying about a thousand little things, fasteners loosening, bolt holes getting oval, vibrations, chafing/rubbing/sliding/poking, all manner of leaks, engine break-in making metal or a hot cylinder, etc. etc. etc.

On the pull rivet Zenairs, maybe start focusing on looking for rivets that are working. It will require a little more cleverness considering your "vehicle wrap", but this is an opportunity for learning something that could save a life. Make up a specially designed test piece with several rivets, and apply a section of that vinyl wrap over it. Work the piece back and forth to get the rivets loose and figure out what the tell-tale signs of working rivets are (through the wrap), so you can identify unsafe areas later after the plane has some hours on it. This information could be very important for other airplane owners who used the wrap technique.

[L-19]

Updates? How's she flyn' & how much time is on it now?

[Emory Bored]

May one wrap a certified airplane? Like a Luscombe? My Nephew, like Flap's friend, is a professional graphics wizard. He's wrapped a complete cover on a Ford Windstar and many race cars with sponsor stuff. Not to mention virtually every freeway sign you'll likely see in Northern Nevada.

My wonderment has been, how long will that stuff stay on there and what happens when it starts to peel off the wings? How about control surfaces? We're going to do some of the raw interior panels, like doors and the bulkhead behind the seats. I'm after doing the instrument panel too because it's way easier than taking it out of the airplane to paint it. He's eager to get at it.

EB

[aftCG]

Does this film have any known flammability properties? I mean, I know this is an experimental plane but before I used it on the interior panels I'd want to know that it doesn't like to burn like gasoline and/or release tons of toxic smoke.

That aside, great thread. I was just able to catch up on your entire project in 20 minutes of browsing and it looks to have come out great.