Aviators By Design Sponsoring The Effort At The Homebuilder's Hangar

The nonprofit organization Aviators By Design says that a group of teenagers will be building an airplane this year at AirVenture. Aviation Explorer Post 9868, which holds its meetings at Central County Airport near Iola, Wisconsin and sponsored by the non-profit, will be working on a STOL CH 750 airplane kit in the Homebuilders’ Hangar on the AirVenture grounds located just east of the Forums and north of the tower.

“The goal of the AirVenture project is not to complete the kit aircraft during the week, but, more importantly, the goal is to get kids and adults involved in building an airplane,” explained Aviators By Designer, Founder Jerry Graf. “The project will be a learning process that puts emphasis on developing S.T.E.M. (Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Math) skills and exposing flight to many with the aircraft home building process.”

The young people from Aviation Explorer Post 9868 will be joined by young teens from Aviation Explorer Post 491. Those kids built a Kit Fox and did an outstanding job. Unfortunately, it was destroyed at Sun-n-Fun in the 2011 storm. The lessons learned with that project were incredible and Aviators By Design, along with great supervision especially with the help of experienced light aircraft builder Tracy Buttles, will be working on the STOL CH 750 kit.

The STOL CH 750 kit is manufactured by Zenith Aircraft Company (located in Mexico, Missouri). The CH 750 is an exceptional airplane and is a great project plane for the kids to build. Many airplanes were considered for this project but the CH750 really stood out as the plane of choice. “The Zenith STOL CH 750 aircraft kit was chosen for this project due to the simplicity of the required kit assembly, needing only basic tools and skills and a few hundred kit assembly hours,” Graf said. “The all-metal kit is manufactured using advanced CNC pre-drilling, cutting and forming, with extensive match-hole technology, making it both quick and simple to build, while offering an excellent educational tool.”

The STOL CH 750 is a remarkable “short take-off and landing” (STOL) aircraft with excellent short field and off-airport capability. The aircraft features roomy side-by-side seating, standard tricycle gear configuration, and great visibility, making it well-suited for low-time pilots and Sport Pilot flight training.

After AirVenture, the partially completed airplane will be brought back to Central County Airport (68C) to be completed by the Explorers. Once the plane is completed, it will be used as a marketing tool to get more kids involved and excited about aviation. It will be flown to airshows, fly-ins and even taken to high schools to promote aviation and all the aspects of math, science and engineering that go with aviation.

(Image provided by Aviators by Design)

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