Three years ago I began to fulfill a lifelong goal: to build and fly my own airplane. When I was a kid, my dad, though not a pilot, subscribed to kitplanes magazine. I must have read each issue a hundred times. In 2013, the opportunity presented itself to purchase a barely started Zenith 601XL kit which I finished in a year and a half working almost every day between 5 and 8AM.
The N601DR flew on May 15th, 2015, and by December she had almost 100 hours on the tach. It was a great plane, and we had some fun adventures together, but I needed to be building again and started looking for my next project last winter. This spring, I sold the Zenith and a week later purchased N94CR. Here's a picture of her back in the glory days:
She's a 1999 6A with about 500 hours on the airframe and factory new 0-360 that went "Splat" on the nose while taxiing on an unpaved strip. Here's what she looked like when I found her:
The first item of business was to assess the damage and determine what would need to be done. Of course a complete re-wire with new instruments was a necessity so I went to ebay and bid on the entire panel out of a Velocity with 40 hours on it. Won the bid at $4500: Included was a GRT Sport SX with 3d vision, 2 axis autopilot servo’s, GRT EIS, KX155 navcom, Icom 200, a Collins transponder and an ancient audio panel not worth reusing along with a Bendix vor/glideslope indicator and a handful of backup gauges, switches, and breakers. Sweet deal, eh???
Next item on the list was to check out the engine. It was shipped from the factory for this build back in 1996, and accumulated just 500 hours in the ten years it flew. There was, however, a prop strike during the nose gear incident and, although the crank dialed within a thousandth of true, I still wanted to do a complete teardown inspection of the engine. The good news from Rick Romans in Tulsa was that the crank was in good shape. The bad news was that my connecting rods were incredibly rare one-off’s from the factory which use something called “H5” bolts. These bolts are slightly larger in diameter than the standard rod bolts due to some error in the manufacturing process and replacements cost $250 EACH! Recommendation was just to find some replacement rods for less $$. I had the case cleaned at G&N in northwest Indiana while at Oshkosh, and picked it up on the way back home. It has now been painted and is just awaiting re-assembly.
The airframe was in decent shape considering. The lower half of the firewall was damaged, as was the first 8 inches of the cabin floor aft of the firewall. I have since cut out the bad section of stainless and patched it with new, then re-riveted the stiffeners to the firewall. I have also cut out the wrinkled floor section and patched in addition to installing new floor stiffener angles.
While waiting for engine components to come back from the inspection shop, I started on the new panel and wiring. The old wire was a little frightening: the non-tefzel coating on much of it had begun to harden and crack; non PIDG/AMP butt splices and connectors were used throughout, and the labelling was difficult to follow so I just pulled it and opted to start over. Using the Velocity avionics package, I chose pieces that would allow for a clean, basic IFR layout so I can work toward that rating and in case of the occaisional “on top” situation. These components were laid out on a new panel cut from .090 aluminum. I used the old panel as a frame which is riveted in place, and which contains nutplates that will allow the new panel to be removable and possibly even made sectional in the future if needed. Center control column still needs to be re-built with new throttle and mixture cables.
Well, now you're all up to speed. I'm thankful to have a forum such as this to share with and learn from. Would love to hear from anyone who has some history with this bird! Thanks for reading.
The N601DR flew on May 15th, 2015, and by December she had almost 100 hours on the tach. It was a great plane, and we had some fun adventures together, but I needed to be building again and started looking for my next project last winter. This spring, I sold the Zenith and a week later purchased N94CR. Here's a picture of her back in the glory days:
She's a 1999 6A with about 500 hours on the airframe and factory new 0-360 that went "Splat" on the nose while taxiing on an unpaved strip. Here's what she looked like when I found her:
The first item of business was to assess the damage and determine what would need to be done. Of course a complete re-wire with new instruments was a necessity so I went to ebay and bid on the entire panel out of a Velocity with 40 hours on it. Won the bid at $4500: Included was a GRT Sport SX with 3d vision, 2 axis autopilot servo’s, GRT EIS, KX155 navcom, Icom 200, a Collins transponder and an ancient audio panel not worth reusing along with a Bendix vor/glideslope indicator and a handful of backup gauges, switches, and breakers. Sweet deal, eh???
Next item on the list was to check out the engine. It was shipped from the factory for this build back in 1996, and accumulated just 500 hours in the ten years it flew. There was, however, a prop strike during the nose gear incident and, although the crank dialed within a thousandth of true, I still wanted to do a complete teardown inspection of the engine. The good news from Rick Romans in Tulsa was that the crank was in good shape. The bad news was that my connecting rods were incredibly rare one-off’s from the factory which use something called “H5” bolts. These bolts are slightly larger in diameter than the standard rod bolts due to some error in the manufacturing process and replacements cost $250 EACH! Recommendation was just to find some replacement rods for less $$. I had the case cleaned at G&N in northwest Indiana while at Oshkosh, and picked it up on the way back home. It has now been painted and is just awaiting re-assembly.
The airframe was in decent shape considering. The lower half of the firewall was damaged, as was the first 8 inches of the cabin floor aft of the firewall. I have since cut out the bad section of stainless and patched it with new, then re-riveted the stiffeners to the firewall. I have also cut out the wrinkled floor section and patched in addition to installing new floor stiffener angles.
While waiting for engine components to come back from the inspection shop, I started on the new panel and wiring. The old wire was a little frightening: the non-tefzel coating on much of it had begun to harden and crack; non PIDG/AMP butt splices and connectors were used throughout, and the labelling was difficult to follow so I just pulled it and opted to start over. Using the Velocity avionics package, I chose pieces that would allow for a clean, basic IFR layout so I can work toward that rating and in case of the occaisional “on top” situation. These components were laid out on a new panel cut from .090 aluminum. I used the old panel as a frame which is riveted in place, and which contains nutplates that will allow the new panel to be removable and possibly even made sectional in the future if needed. Center control column still needs to be re-built with new throttle and mixture cables.
Well, now you're all up to speed. I'm thankful to have a forum such as this to share with and learn from. Would love to hear from anyone who has some history with this bird! Thanks for reading.
Last edited: