A tale of three Zenith builders.

Builders;

The last stop on the West Coast of our Corvair tour has been Portland Oregon, were I met three Zenith builders. We planned to rapidly finish the assembly on their engines on Saturday, and run them on Sunday at EAA chapter 105s facilities at the twin oaks airport. 

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Above, L to R, Vance Lucas, Alberta, 750 builder; Daryl Habit, Oregon, 601XL builder, Spencer Rice, Oregon, 601HD builder. Spencer just turned 18, but has been plans building for 3 years. He earned a private pilot license and flew to Oshkosh in 2015.

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Above, Vance and his 3,000 cc / 120 HP engine during the perfect break in run. His 750 is nearly done. Vance also attended the Corvair Colleges we held at the Zenith factory in Mexico MO.

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Above, Daryl stands with his 2,700 cc / 100 HP engine just after a great run. The only thing that eclipses this moment is the fist flight of your plane.
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Above, Spencer wrenching on his 2700 cc engine on Saturday. We did the assembly at Spencer’s home, and all enjoyed the hospitality of his family. All three builders now know their engines inside and out, they are the builders of these engines, not just the owners.

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Above,  Daryl at the last step, adjusting the valves. Corvair engines all have hydraulic lifters, and set once on assembly they run the full life of the engine without further adjustments.

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Above, Daryl strikes the traditional “Captian Morgan” pose we do for fun when your Corvair runs. He began the assembly last month at Corvair College #38 in Cloverdale CA, at Zenith’s west coast facilities

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Our excellent relations with the Zenith factory started 13 years ago when Grace and I bought, built and flew our 601xl, the first Corvair powered Zenith. Since then we have assisted more than 100 zenith builders to build the engine and take it flying. It isn’t for everyone, but for the people who choose to work with us, we offer excellent support, like driving across the continent to run your engine with you, which btw, we do for free. If you have ever wondered where my strong ‘fan club’ comes from, the answer is we built it one builder at a time, at events just like the one above.

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-ww.

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