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The Zenith STOL CH 701 is a light, two-seat, all-metal kit aircraft designed by Canadian engineer Chris Heintz and produced by Zenith Aircraft Company, purpose-built for extreme short take-off and landing performance in off-airport bush flying. First flown in 1986 and still in production today, it has earned the nickname "Sky Jeep" among owners and has become one of the most widely built and most copied light aircraft designs in the world. Its combination of rugged simplicity, forgiving low-speed handling and genuine backcountry capability makes it a natural subject for sim pilots interested in bush flying.
The STOL CH 701 is a light, two-place, kit-built short take-off and landing aircraft designed by Canadian aeronautical engineer Chris Heintz through his company Zenair, and produced and distributed in the United States by the Zenith Aircraft Company of Mexico, Missouri. It is an all-metal, high-wing design conceived specifically for off-airport operations rather than conventional runway flying, and it sits at the head of a broader family that includes the later CH 750 and the four-seat Zenith STOL CH 801. The aircraft can be built and flown under a variety of regulatory categories depending on country, including as a basic, advanced or amateur-built ultralight in Canada, under microlight or ultralight rules elsewhere, and in the United States either as a Light-Sport Aircraft or an experimental amateur-built machine.
The STOL CH 701 first flew in 1986, developed by Chris Heintz by applying his French and Canadian aerospace industry experience to a dedicated backcountry design, built to comply with the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association of Canada design standard DS 10141 for Advanced Ultralight aircraft that Heintz himself helped develop. Zenair, based in Midland, Ontario, expanded into the United States in 1992 with a factory in Mexico, Missouri, from which Zenith Aircraft Company kits have since been produced. In Europe, the CH 701 was built under license by Czech Aircraft Works (CZAW) from 1992 until the licence agreement ended in 2006. By the autumn of 2007, 750 CH 701s had been completed and were flying, and by December 2011 the total had reached 870 CH 701s alongside 45 of the newer CH 750. The design has proved so influential that it is thought to be the most copied light aircraft in production, with several dozen unauthorised versions built around the world. The line was extended with the CH 750 in 2008, the CH 750 Cruzer in 2013, the CH 750 Super Duty, and, more recently, an electric-powered CH 750 derivative called the Nuncats Sky Jeep, first flown in January 2023.
The CH 701 is an all-metal, tricycle-gear, high-wing design with the wings mounted above the cabin roof - an "above-cab" arrangement intended to maximise upward and side visibility for spotting suitable landing areas. Its high-lift wing carries full-span, fixed (non-movable) leading-edge slots, and the trailing edge combines ailerons and flaps into full-span flaperons; the tail uses an all-flying rudder and an inverted elevator. Large tyres and a shock-absorbing spring gear suit rough-field operation, and Heintz also designed a purpose-built tricycle-gear amphibious float system for the type. Standard powerplants have included the 64 hp Rotax 582 two-stroke, the 80 hp Rotax 912UL, the 100 hp Rotax 912ULS and the 85 hp Jabiru 2200, and the aircraft has also flown with the JLT Motors Ecoyota engine and with Continental A-65/C-85 four-cylinder engines, for which Zenith continues to offer a mount. The cabin is a side-by-side two-seater 40 inches wide (44 inches with the optional bubble doors), fitted with a centrally mounted control stick usable from either seat, dual throttles, dual rudder pedals with hydraulic toe-brakes on the pilot's side, and a baggage area behind the seats. For the original CH 701 configuration: length is 20 ft 11 in, wingspan 27 ft, height 8 ft 7 in, horizontal tail span 7 ft 4 in, wing area 122 sq ft, and aspect ratio 5.98:1. Empty weight is 580 lb, useful load 520 lb and gross weight 1,100 lb, giving a wing loading of 9.00 psf and a power loading of 13.75 lb/bhp with the 80 hp Rotax 912. Fuel capacity is 20 US gallons, and the ultimate load factor is rated at +6/-3 g.
Short-field performance is the CH 701's defining characteristic: at gross weight it is airborne in less than 120 feet of unprepared grass or 90 feet of hard surface, with rotation possible as soon as full throttle is applied and lift-off achievable at 25 mph in ground effect with no wind, all within under four seconds from a standing start. With the 80 hp Rotax 912, factory figures give a top speed of 85 mph, a maximum sea-level cruise of 80 mph, a 75-percent-power cruise at 8,000 ft of 92 mph true airspeed, a stall speed of 28 mph, a never-exceed speed of 110 mph, a rate of climb of 1,100 fpm, a take-off roll of 60 ft and a landing distance of 80 ft, with a range of 372 miles and an endurance of 4.6 hours (no reserves). Fitted with the 100 hp Rotax 912S, performance improves to a top speed of 95 mph, a sea-level cruise of 85 mph, a 75-percent cruise of 98 mph TAS, a rate of climb of 1,200 fpm, a take-off roll of just 50 ft, a range of 350 miles and an endurance of 4.1 hours, with stall speed and VNE unchanged at 28 mph and 110 mph respectively.
The original STOL CH 701 had a 960 lb gross weight, a 10-gallon header fuel tank, steel spring gear and a Rotax 503 engine. The STOL CH 701SP followed with two standard 10-US-gallon wing tanks, solid aluminium spring gear and refinements raising gross weight to 1,100 lb (500 kg). The STOL CH 750, introduced at AirVenture in 2008, has an enlarged cabin with wider doors and was optimised for US Light-Sport Aircraft rules at a maximum take-off weight of 1,320 lb, with builder options to register for water operation at 1,430 lb or as an experimental amateur-built aircraft up to 1,440 lb; it was briefly factory-built by AMD as a Special Light-Sport Aircraft before being withdrawn from that programme. The CH 750 Cruzer, introduced at Sun 'n Fun in 2013, replaces the STOL wing's leading-edge slats with a plain wing and fits a conventional tail with separate fin and rudder rather than the all-flying rudder, trading some STOL capability for cross-country speed, though its specified 350 ft ground roll still qualifies as STOL by most definitions; the prototype used a 130 hp ULPower UL350is engine, with other engines in the 100-160 hp range usable. The STOL CH 750 Super Duty increases carrying capacity and climb performance, accepting engines from 150 to 230 hp; its prototype, powered by a 205 hp Aero Sport Power IO-375, achieved a cruise speed of 105 mph and a climb rate of 1,350 fpm at a gross weight of 1,900 lb with a typical empty weight of 1,100 lb. The Nuncats Sky Jeep is an electric-powered derivative of the CH 750 that first flew in January 2023. The CH 701 concept was also developed further into the larger, four-seat Zenith STOL CH 801.
The CH 701 was conceived for private owner-builders and sport pilots rather than commercial operators, and the great majority of the more than 500 examples flying are based away from conventional airports, operating instead from short off-airport grass strips, backyard fields and remote areas, aided by an all-metal airframe suited to continuous outdoor storage. One notable military-adjacent order came from the Indian Air Force, which acquired 85 aircraft with options for a further 48 for use by the National Cadet Corps, with 25 already in service by February 2001. Zenith Aircraft Company has noted that the type's popularity has continued to grow over the decades as interest in short take-off and landing and bush flying has increased.
The Zenith CH701 STOL has been recreated for Microsoft Flight Simulator by SimWorks Studios, built from the manufacturer's own factory drawings and featuring custom sounds, a detailed cockpit and bush-flying trips set in New York state. This faithful sim recreation lets pilots explore the type's core appeal: genuine short-field performance, simple all-metal systems and forgiving low-speed handling, making it well suited to backcountry and off-airport flying scenarios rather than fast cross-country work.
