Claudia Bernhardt, missionary from Chimoio, Mozambique, Africa showed up at my church in October of 2010 stating that she’s heard from God that she was supposed to get a private pilot’s license. Everybody looked me because I am a certified flight instructor. I didn’t know if she could do it, as a German national, she only had 6 weeks before her US visa ran out of time and she would have to leave the country and go back to Africa. Miraculously, she went back to Africa in December 2010 with 100 hours in her pilot log-book and a private pilot’s license in her pocket.
Iris ministries, under which Claudia worked, had recently lost their Cessna in an accident leaving our newly minted mission pilot without a plane. So the small and brave little River of Life Church decided that she needed a plane and while we couldn’t buy one, we went about building one. The Zenith STOL CH 801 kit-built aircraft appeared to be a perfect choice for durability and short landings and takeoffs.
Posting a large sign in the yard of the Church at 5701 Clarendon Hills Road, we quickly started getting volunteer builders. One volunteer found an orphan CH 801 with rudder, horizontal stabilizer done and one wing only 1/2 done. Bruce Browning sold us the kit aircraft at a major discount when he saw how the plane would be used for relief of children and families deep in the heart of Africa.
This blog is the builders log, Maintenance Log, Flight Log, Weight & Balance, and Pilot Operating Handbook for Zenith STOL CH 801 serial number 8 – 4413 amateur built experimental aircraft.
Jeffrey Tideman, Aircraft Builder
March 6, 2019