It’s a long story, the short version of which is that my wife has prevailed upon me to build a Zenith 750 “Super Dooper”, as she calls the Super Duty.
A friend of mine had been trying to get me to build the Zenith long before I purchased the tail kit for the RV-10 but I really want an airplane I can fly places and I figured, having originally purchased the preview plans for the RV-7 and intending to build that aircraft, I opted for the 10 for it’s additional 2 seats and not much extra build time.
This year we went to Sun-N-Fun, much like every other year, where my wife wanted to sit in the Zenith, which we did. Her feeling was / is that with Vans in Chapter 11 it makes more sense to build something else (keep me out of trouble ?).
After sitting in a couple of the static display aircraft and talking to both Viking and Aero Momentum engines, we went for lunch.
As she describes, after we had eaten and had a couple of beers, she suggested we purchase the Zenith tail kit. I said “so long as you will fly in it”. She responded by saying “How about if I promise to get my license ?”, to which I replied, “That works”.
So off we went and paid for the tail kit which, as of this date, is sitting in the workshop, inventoried, and waiting for me to start. We then went over to the 99s booth and she joined the 99s. I don’t know if she will get her license, she’s pretty busy, but maybe…
As I already have the RV-10 tail kit waiting to be built it is my intention to complete the RV-10 tail and then build the Zenith to completion. My target date for completing the Zenith is July 31 2025. Let’s see if I can get it done. It’s supposed to be a much quicker build than the RV-10 and right now I am thinking I will go with a 200HP version of the Aero Momentum engine although that isn’t set in stone.
More to come later…I have to go and start building !