Here’s a nice video of our Zenair CH-701 amphibian making a takeoff and landing during Oshkosh AirVenture 2008 at the Oshkosh seabase.

Our Zenair has the Rotax 912S 100HP engine with 3-blade Warp Drive propeller. We removed the fixed leading edge slats last year to improve cruise speed and glide performance (at a slight penalty to high-angle climb rate).

For an idea of the takeoff performance in the video, we were off the water in ~11 seconds and less than 1000′ with 1 pilot, normal water gear, 10 gallons of fuel in calm winds. For water takeoffs we use 1/2 flaps.

Here are a few pictures from the CH-701’s flight home from Oshkosh AirVenture 2008. Weather was amazingly clear for summer.

Call weather on Thursday provided a great day for flying action. We took our CH-701 out for an hour of landings and takeoffs ourselves. The forecast for the rest of the show looks favorable for continued calm-water operations.

The 1st day of Oshkosh was fairly quiet. A good north breese kept casual seaplane flying to a minimum until mid-afternoon. Following the airshow, we repositioned our Zenair CH-701 Amphibian from Whitman Field to the Seaplane Base where it will stay for the week.

We’ll try and update photos daily through the week.

We’ve posted a set of five videos showing the fun qualities of the Zenair CH-701 STOL aircraft. In this case, we are flying a kit-built CH-701 with Zenair 950 Amphibious Floats and the 80hp Rotax engine. We have since upgraded the engine to the 100hp Rotax 912S and performance is even more impressive. The videos demonstrate normal land takeoff, normal land landing, pilot’s eye view of a water landing, ‘hover’, and STOL takeoff and landing. Be sure to scroll down the page to see all 5 videos.

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PlanePlaces.com Correspondant Larry Z filed the following report and photos on his attendance at MERFI 2006 held at the Marion Municipal Airport (KMRT) in central Ohio:

Wow, what a couple of years and a change of leadership can do. I just came back from the annual MERFI (Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-in) in Marion Ohio. In years past I’ve always been a little disappointed in the communications and services once you’re on the ground there. This year was just a wonderful experience.

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Our CH-701, N701ST has had quite a life in photos- including features in EAA Experimenter, Water Flying, and other online and print venues. The latest is the August 2006 issue of the EAA Sport Pilot magazine in an article about light seaplanes. Great shot of Sarah and Larry out for some fun during AirVenture 2005.

We got our 1st full day at AirVenture today. The 1st suprise was finding a picture of our Zenair CH-701 in the current issue of Sport Pilot magazine. It is a nice picture taken during lasts year’s Oshkosh with Sarah and Larry out for a ride.

One of the earliest CH-701 amphibians is parked in the homebuilt section this year. N701SR has a distinctive sunset paint scheme and sports a Continental O-200 engine. This CH-701 was completed prior to having the Rotax 912 series as a viable engine option.

One of only two flying Brittish Lanchaster bombers from WWII arrived just prior to the airshow.

The airshow was interupted by a 15 minute downpour which sent much of the crowd running for cover.

We spent the evening back at the seaplane base taking pictures of the action. Tomorrow we’re off for an early morning photo walk with the Canon EOS promotional team followed by another full day of airplanes and those that love them. We’ll get pictures posted to the gallery as soon as possible.

We’re looking forward to another great Oshkosh Airventure this year.  Weather permitting, we’ll have our Zenair CH-701 amphibian at the AirVenture Seaplane Base.  Anyone planning to fly into Oshkosh should get a copy of the current year NOTAM and read it carefully.  General information about the show, lodging, and schedule is available at www.AirVenture.org.

Hope to see you there! And check back here at PlanePlaces.com for full coverage after the show.

Last spring we tested the service ceiling of our Zenair CH-701 with the Rotax 912S. Solo climb to 10,000 feet took approximately 25 minutes. The aircraft was still climbing about 200ft per minute at 10,000 when it was decided to level off and head home.

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