The Zenith CH750 Cruzer Has Been Added To The FAA’s List Of Eligible Amateur-Built Aircraft Kits

For any homebuilt airplane to be certificated as ‘experimental amateur-built’, the builder must show compliance with a requirement that majority portion the aircraft was built for the purpose of education and recreation. Now, the Zenith CH750 Cruzer kit rolls out the factory door with the FAA 51% requirement in place.

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration visited the Zenith Aircraft kit factory in Mexico, MO to evaluate the Zenith CH750 Cruzer kit, a requirement for the amateur-built aircraft kit to be added to the FAA's list of eligible Amateur-Built Aircraft Kits.

Zenith reports that in preparation of the FAA's visit by the National Kit Evaluation Team, company staff spread out all the kit parts in a hangar bay at the factory, demonstrating what the complete kit looks like as supplied to builders. The kits are supplied ready for assembly, using pulled (blind) rivets. Parts are pre-formed and finished at the factory, and supplied mainly match-drilled (final hole-size and ready for riveting). Welded assemblies are welded at the factory, and wing spars are supplied factory-finished.

Zenith said that as expected, the FAA's team officially determined that the CH750 Cruzer kit allows an amateur builder to meet the major portion requirement, or "51% rule."

"With this latest kit, we've added substantially more CNC manufacturing to the parts completion to make them easier and quicker to build," stated Roger Dubbert, Zenith Aircraft demo pilot and customer service specialist. "It's good to see that this newest kit still easily conforms to the 51% rule."

The Zenith CH750 kit-aircraft, when properly equipped, meets the definition for Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) that can be operated by sport pilots or any pilot exercising sport pilot privileges. As amateur-built (kit) aircraft, the owners are able to choose their own engines, avionics, and other options for their custom-built airplane.

Zenith says popular engines include Continental, Lycoming, UL Power, Rotax, and more (including a number of auto conversions). Instrument panels can also be fully customized by the builder/owner, ranging from full IFR glass panels (Dynon, Garmin and others) to basic "steam gauges" and/or iPad panels.

The CH750 Cruzer can be built from the standard complete kit, from a Quick Build Kit, or use Zenith’s "Two Week Wonder" accelerated builder assistance program. Zenith tells us you can also build a bit at a time from component kits, and for those that really want to get into the nitty-gritty of aircraft building, you can build the entire airplane from just the blue-prints (drawings).

(Images provided by Zenith Aircraft)

FMI: www.zenithair.net