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I am now the proud owner of N963MJ

16K views 164 replies 61 participants last post by  2edgesword 
#1 ·
Plane was delivered yesterday to Brookhaven. It's a 2004 Zenith Zodiac CH601 XLB experimental(i.e. homebuilt) light sport aircraft. At the age of 55 I finally decided to fill a life long dream and learn to fly. I'm going for sport pilot and there seems to be both a shortage of schools offering it as well as aircraft locally. So I decided to just get my own plane and will probably start my lessons in a couple of weeks. My instructor has to fly 5 hours in my plane by himself to make the insurance people happy. Looking forward to getting in the air!
 

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#5 ·
Cowl plugs, pitot plugs...if it has an opening...plug it or cap it when parked. Birds and bees (yep) even spiders get into them and can ruin your day.
Congratulations on your acquisition...EXP is a bold (sometimes) brave world...
I'm a little envious over your buy...good luck to you.
 
#6 ·
Best of luck with your purchase and lessons..fly on!
 
#10 ·
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort." - Jesse Owens

Applause to you Sir for "keeping your head in the clouds" and reaching for the stars!...it's beautiful....congratulations and best of luck!



 
#59 ·
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort." - Jesse Owens

Applause to you Sir for "keeping your head in the clouds" and reaching for the stars!...it's beautiful....congratulations and best of luck!

It came with a stewardess?! How cool is that? Congrats - one of those dreams stacked in my closet of dreams.
 
#19 ·
Congratulations.
Please tell me you got a reputable A&P to do a pre buy.
Also, that's a strange panel layout, no attitude indicator?
Good luck and have fun with it.
The previous owner used a Dynon D2 as an artificial horizon. When I knocked him down on the price he decided to keep it. Not a big deal. Maybe down the road I'll put in a Dynon D100 or something similar. The A&P doing the pre-buy walked me through the entire aircraft, including very specific instructions on the maintenance and operation of the Rotax engine.
 
#14 ·
Congratulations .... Nice bird !

So you can't go with him on his 5 flights ? Weird rules .
 
#24 ·
Is 500 hours considered well broken in and how often is maintenance performed?
 
#26 ·
Well, if you use 100LL avgas you have to change the oil and plugs every 25 hours. It uses motorcycle oil and plugs so parts are not expensive. It's supposed to be safe to use 10% ethanol auto gas but I have my doubts. The TBO on the engine is 2000 hours. Right mow the compression on the cylinders is excellent at 80/80 for 3 and 76/80 for one of them. The carbs were rebuilt a couple years ago so they should be good for a while. Rotax engines are fairly easy and relatively inexpensive to maintain.
 
#27 ·
Congrats. That is so cool. I finally gave into the bug and have been checking out schools at FRG. I've done intro flights with 3. Trying different planes. Friday I went up in a Cirrus but instead of an intro flight I did the NYC tour. It was pretty cool but a little bumpy and nerve wracking. I've never handled turbulence well, even on commercial flights. Good luck with your training and enjoy.
 
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