Zenith Cruzer Build

Our project had its start when EAA Chapter One inherited a partly assembled kit for a Zenith CH 750 Cruzer aircraft from its original owner, a gentleman named Christian Houser, who -- sadly -- died before he could complete the project.  Our project began with a kickoff meeting in August of 2019, when the first team members signed up.  Shortly afterward, the Chapter One executive team arranged for a workspace for the project in Building 29 at Flabob Airport, into which we moved the kit, our tools, and a long work table.  This was accomplished with the considerable aid of Brian Duffield, who hauled everything to Flabob in his trailer.  Other support came from Mark Durell, who rents space in Building 29 and who brought in a pallet rack to give us some storage.  After we arranged the change of ownership of the kit with Zenith Aircraft, and after we secured our own copies of the drawings, we were ready to begin.

 

Our first build session came in March of 2020, with a gathering of six team members and our advisor, Jan Buttermore.  We assessed the state of completion of the rudder-and-fin assembly that had been begun by Chris Houser, and then we started the task of finishing it.  Shortly after this meeting, the state of California curtailed gatherings of people to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, so the project went on hiatus.  We cautiously resumed our meetings in June, with all team members advised to wear face masks during the build session.  We first resumed at a frequency of every other week, and then adopted a schedule of meeting weekly.  Since June, the Cruzer build team has completed the fin-and-rudder assembly and the horizontal stabilizer.  Along the way, team members built up their skills for drilling rivet holes, setting rivets, and reading plans.  Currently, we are building the flaperons, after which we will proceed to assemble the wings.