CH 801

Art Mitchell and the STOL CH 801 prototype

Art Mitchell

Art Mitchell has been involved in professional aviation for more than 20 years with over 4,000 hours flying and 14 years in maintenance and repair. He has taught at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. and helped develop a course in mountain flying. Since 1980 he has been with Mission Aviation Fellowship, flying mostly in East and Central Africa. Flypass Ltd. is Zenith Aircraft's central Canada distributor. The company built the prototype STOL CH 801 under the design and construction supervision of designer Chris Heintz.

Design Features of the CH 801
PERFORMANCE AND SPECIFICATIONS

STOL CH 801 with a Walter-LOM M337B. It is a 235 hp, inline, inverted, injected, supercharged, 100% aircraft engine."

Designer Chris Heintz has announced his newest design - a high wing all metal four seat kit aircraft. The new design, called the STOL CH 801, is a utility kit aircraft based on the successful two seat STOL CH 701 design developed by Heintz in the mid eighties. Since its introduction in 1986, more than 400 short take-off and landing STOL CH 701 aircraft have been successfully flown around the world, many being used for light utility purposes.

The larger STOL CH 801 has been developed to expand the utility of the 701 model by increasing the useful load from 500 lbs. (225 kg) to over 1000 lbs. (450 kg.) while retaining the original design's short and rough field capability. While the two designs share many similarities in appearance, they actually do not share any airframe parts due to the significantly larger size of the STOL CH 801.

Development of the STOL CH 801 actually began in 1988 when Chris Heintz started design of the four seat aircraft for an offshore customer, but a prototype was never completed when the customer postponed the order due to the lack of a suitable powerplant for the design at the time (conventional aircraft engines were deemed unsuitable by the customer due to cost and spare parts availability). The prototype was powered with a 180-hp Subaru automotive conversion .

	"For the last four years, we at Flypass have been involved in the development of the Zenair CH 801 Super STOL. Our purpose has been to help produce an aircraft that would be useful for workers in underdeveloped regions of the world, particularly missionaries and nationals. In this type of environment simplicity, durability, economy and reliability are not luxuries but essentials." Art Mitchell - Flypass Ltd.
		"The CH 801 has proven itself to be all we had hoped for. It has flown well with several engines to date. I have flown three of them so far and normally I would be reluctant to say that one is a great deal better than the other but… I really love this Walter-LOM M337B. It is a 235 hp, inline, inverted, injected, supercharged, 100% aircraft engine." Art Mitchell - Flypass Ltd.
	The Engine The original design is by Walter Aircraft Engines. For the last several years these engines have been manufactured, overhauled and serviced by LOM Praha. The heritage behind this machine is as long as that of Lycoming and Continental. Unfortunately it has been hidden behind the "Iron Curtain" for these many years. If you were to walk through the Aviation Museum at Litneny airport in Prague, you would see saw aircraft from the 1920s and 30s with Walter engines. You would also see Lycomings from the same era. The difference is that the Walters have changed since then.

With Zenair's production facilities devoted to the production of the type-certificated design, including the ZENITH CH 2000, the prototype STOL CH 801 is being built by Flypass Ltd. in Guelph, Ontario. Headed by Art Mitchell, a veteran missionary pilot, Flypass began construction of the prototype STOL CH 801 in the fall of 1997 under the design supervision of Chris Heintz. Flypass Ltd. is the central Canada representative for Zenair kit aircraft designs. It operates a flight school using Zenair aircraft, and houses a builder assistance center at its facilities at Waterloo Regional Airport in Kitchener, Ontario.

With form following function, the STOL CH 801 looks like the workhorse it is designed to be. Not designed to be just another "pretty" aircraft, the STOL CH 801 was developed to provide maximum short field performance while being easy to build and maintain.