Here a beautiful story where The owner of Zigolo Kit 25 has prefer help to build his Zigolo, Marco is a new pilot of ultralight and chose to start with fly with Zigolo, Chip Erwins (U.S.A distributor) Trip to lima Peru to Help him to assembly and fly his zigolo. below article Written By Chip Erwins owner of Aeromarine lsa:
First off I would like to thank Marco for choosing the Zigolo for his first aircraft and for his hospitality over the last 3 weeks I spent in his basement and airport building and flying his new Zigolo. We had a lot of great dinners and conversations and are on the same page with a lot of aviation and non-aviation topics. In 35 years of aviation business I have been fortunate to meet many really nice people and am happy to include Marco on this list.
These photos are from Marco’s garage in Lima. Just enough space to fully assemble the aircraft.
The mission was to finish the Zigolo build, test fly, and show Marco how to fly all in the short term of Nov 3 to 23. 20 days less 2 Sunday afternoons off to watch the Packers. Small disclosure: There was about 1-1/2 day’s work already done with the ribs and part of the fuselage and stabilizer finished.
The build went pretty well. Of course it helps a great deal that I had already build 2 Zigolos prior. So much less time spent staring at the drawings. We did need one part from Francesco which he shipped quickly by DHL. 2 days transit then 4 days in customs…. And Marco upgraded the seatbelt to my new design from a racing harness supplier. It does add a kilo to the aircraft empty weight but is so much more secure that the good feeling that comes with this security is well worth it.
Marco had lined up a couple of workers for me but outside of final assembly I chose to work alone. The components go together quickly so just as easy to do it myself and avoid any potential ‘lost in translation’ issues.
Interesting note: The total cost of the paint was $20! We used a high-quality exterior latex paint with UV protection.
Here is a classic photo of Alex’s Goat and a Marco’s Zigolo. If we had more time we may have flown together although the Goat had only 1 minute endurance as Alex was limited to a car tow to get airborne. We were happy to let Alex fly the Ziglo to get his impressions from a Goat owner/flyer.Here are some quotes Alex posted on the airchair blog:
Today the Zigolo in Peru flew its maiden flight! It flies really nice with a great cimb rate 400+ fpm.
Chip got it built in 15 days. Soon I hope to do some test flights to compare their performances.
Yesterday I got to fly my friend Marco’s Zigolo. It is a very nice plane!!
First impressions, The landing gear is remarkably stable, the engine has plenty of power and it flies really well.
I got to go over the hills to catch some dynamic lift and a bit later a great thermal ( ~ 2.7m/s I never actually turn off the engine, I just idle it while thermalling. )
In the air, the handling is just about like my GOAT, except that I now have fairings which change the plane dramatically. Next week we might put the same mylar fairings on the struts of the zigolo to see what difference it makes.
Regarding the plane itself, it is very nicely built, it is all anodized aluminum, it uses teleflex cables. This particular plane was covered with dacron using Stewart’s Eco Bond and simply painted with standard UV protected latex.
Alex headed for the big hills next to the airport and found some nice lift at 2.5 m/s (around 600 fpm) with the engine at idle.
Huge smile from Marco after one of his first flights!
Marco’s Zigolo required zero trim. It flys hands and feet-off. See this video from a flight I made to see the ocean:
This was a beautiful scenic flight. Marco will get to make this action all he wants now.
Happy Thanksgiving!
CHIP