The original Zenith STOL CH 701, serial number 7-001, is back in the air after having been neglected in the back of a barn for two decades.
Built in 1986 by aeronautical engineer Chris Heintz, the STOL CH 701 became a hit with builders and pilots, combining the features and advantages of a “real” airplane with the short-field capabilities of an “ultralight” aircraft, according to Zenith officials.
The two-seat STOL (short take-off and landing) design features fixed leading-edge slats for high lift, full-span flaperons (both ailerons and flaps), an all-flying rudder, and all-metal construction.
Per Dahlstrom of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, is the new owner of the historic STOL CH 701 (on Zenair floats for the summer).
After several months of cleaning, fixing, and upgrading, the plane and matching floats are now “like new,” he reports.
The success of the STOL CH 701 prompted the ongoing evolution of the original design into the Zenith CH 750 high-wing line of aircraft, which delivers new engine choices with the STOL CH 750 and new STOL CH 750 Super Duty, according to company officials.
Oh lord, that brings back some found memories. I bought a Cri-Cri (Cricket) kit off of Chris in1984. I designed, modified my own engine assemblies (modified Rotax 277’s) and built the “Super” Cricket.
Chris took a liking to me and I started doing work for him on some special projects. It was I who designed the paint scheme then painted the original CH-701 #001 that is pictured in your article. I remember it being one of the most difficult jobs I had ever done. There were no 3M “wraps” or vinyl stripping, letters, numbers etc. in those days everything had to be taped and painted by hand; and I was NOT a painter! The 701 was painted in the back of the original cramped Zenair factory in Nobelton Ontario in a tiny area draped on four sides with light plastic sheet. The job was exhausting and seemed to take forever. Apparently I never learned my lesson, I went on to paint the prototype CH-601 and the company van, all in a similar paint scheme with the greens and yellow stripes on a white background.
Good times!!
FYI: The Super Cricket ended up being displayed at Expo ’86 in Vancouver. I was there with Chris and Zenair when we built a Ch-601 in a display area in about a week or so. I’m not quite sure of the details, I was a young man then too busy chasing all the pretty girls wondering about.
About a year later I got into a business deal that failed and I was forced to sell the Cricket to pay back the bank. Chris brokered a deal to sell the plane to someone in Finland and just like that my pride and joy was gone. It broke my heart. I’ve tried over the years to track it down but no success. I heard through the grapevine that it had wrecked years ago, no fatality, just a balled up little airplane.
Funny that I should see the 701 post today, earlier this year I decided to build another Super Cricket only this time scratch built from the original plans.
….more good times ahead I hope!
I have had the pleasure of flying two of the Zenith designs, the -701 and the extremely rare -801, which was the expanded 4-seat version. Where the -801 had problems WITH THE INDIVIDUAL PLANE that caused it to be unsafe, I can say that Zenith’s desire to produce the Ultimate Bushplane has been well-accomplished. Very few times has this ever been attempted in the world, the Fiescher Storch in WWII Germany, the Wilga, the Zenith birds, a very few others. They have uniformly been described as the World’s Best STOL Planes, and “many humorous comments” have been made about their appearances! :>)) I will try to get a picture published of the -801 I flew—-visualize a larger -701 with what appears to be a VERY SKINNY AND LONGNOSED TURBINE ENGINE. It wasn’t a turbine, it was a Czech inverted-6-cyl inline, huge turbine-like nose intake, with a reversible-pitch prop. It was solid bright-red, with a very unusual gold trim. It did attract attention!
Unfortunately, it did have a shipping-damaged right wing and flight control linkage problems that made the plane unsafe to fly. I would have loved to have flown it more so that I could have actually felt out its performance. Especially that reversible-pitched prop. I did use it to back into its final flying tiedown before it was sold. Interesting possibilities! —come in over a high ridge, pull the prop into reverse pitch and DIVE VERTICALLY for the extremely short field, with high trees at both ends of the “strip”. That would take a huge set of “abilities”, but the plane potentially had that capability. STOL abilites were that extreme.
Chris Heinz brought that airplane, ( l think), to an EAA Airshow at Lake St John Ontario in it’s early development stage.
l was participating in the show as the Airshow Announcer. Chris insisted l accompany him on a demonstration flight.
Wow … I’d never been in an aircraft with that initial angle of attack. I was much impressed with the airplane …maybe not so much about it’s appearance… but certainly it’s performance!
I’m glad to see the aircraft back in the air.
Airplanes don’t get OLD … like old Airshow Announcers … they just get keep on going!
Dave Timms