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.

We captured a rare Piaggio Royal Gull amphibian on landing and taxi during at the Oshkosh seabase this year.

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.