Thinking about buying a Zodiac XLi

On Feb 25, 3:38*pm, Jay Maynard
wrote:
I'm in Santa Rosa to get a few hours in the Zodiac XL at Dragonfly
Aviation. I got 1.4 hours of flight time today, familiarization and four
really lousy landings. Some comments:

On 2008-01-05, Vaughn Simon wrote:

In general, the thing seems fragile and "fussy" to me.

Considering the way I mistreated the one I was in today, fragile is about
the last word I'd use to describe it. The gear feels damn near
indestructible, as long as you land on the mains.

I like the control stick and the sensitive controls, but others hate it
for just that reason.

I don't know yet what I think about this. It's very sensitive, especially in
pitch; I was never able to establish an airspeed and get it to stay put.

* *No, and because of the shape and tilt of the tanks it is hard to tell how
much is in them.

We had that discussion. The guy said that you can tell how much is in them
by seeing how much fuel you can see just below the cap with the wings level;
if you can see blue at the corners, it's got about 9 gallons in it.

The gauges on the Zodiac seem to be excellent, particularly compared to
the POS in Cessnas.

This one has a Dynon EMS in it, and the gauges were a dream compared to the
usual untrustworthy Cessna crap.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC * * * * * * * * *http://www.conmicro.comhttp://jmaynard.livejournal.com* * *http://www.tronguy.nethttp://www..hercules-390.org* * * * * * * (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff athttp://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390

The whole Zenith Line designed by Chris Hienz is sensitive in the
pitch axis, and for that matter in all directions. I will agree the
landing gear is just about bulletproof too. In another few hours you
will get used to the quick reaction the controls give, mainly because
of most of us grew up flying trucks like cessna's, pipers and the
like. Even my Zenith 801, which is the Mack truck of the Zenith line
has a pretty twitchy control feel to it..... I love my toy. !!!

Ben
N801BH
www.haaspowerair.com

On 2008-02-26, wrote:
The whole Zenith Line designed by Chris Hienz is sensitive in the
pitch axis, and for that matter in all directions. I will agree the
landing gear is just about bulletproof too. In another few hours you
will get used to the quick reaction the controls give, mainly because
of most of us grew up flying trucks like cessna's, pipers and the
like.

I sure hope so. I was pretty discouraged when I left the FBO yesterday. Yes,
all of my time to this point is in 172s and PA-28s and Tigers, and the
Zodiac feels quite a bit different.

I'm going to try the instructor's suggestion today and fly it with two
fingers, and the other suggestion in this thread and rest my hand on my leg.
Between the two, that should help with the tendency to overcontrol. I'm also
going to spend a bit of time at altitude figuring out power settings and
pitch attitudes to maintain airspeeds, so I can set up a 60 knot approach
and have it well stabilized before I get to the runway.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
http://www.hercules-390.org (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff at http://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390

Jay Maynard wrote:

I'm going to try the instructor's suggestion today and fly it with two
fingers, and the other suggestion in this thread and rest my hand on my leg.
Between the two, that should help with the tendency to overcontrol. I'm also
going to spend a bit of time at altitude figuring out power settings and
pitch attitudes to maintain airspeeds, so I can set up a 60 knot approach
and have it well stabilized before I get to the runway.

It will help a lot. I got my helo rating in an R22 and it was a pretty
much required method in that twitchy SOB. The first time I flew in the
601 I heavy handed it until the the person I was flying with asked,
"Didn't you say you flew helicopters? Handle the stick like that."

As mentioned the 172s and such we have have all flown so much are trucks
compared to the 601s. And while the 601 isn't a Porsche it is closer to
a MGB and needs to be handled that way.

BTW... A fool report on Dragonfly's operation would be appreciated. I'm
planning to go somewhere to get about 20 hours before my 601s first
flight and they are on my short list.

On 2008-02-26, Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
BTW... A fool report on Dragonfly's operation would be appreciated. I'm
planning to go somewhere to get about 20 hours before my 601s first
flight and they are on my short list.

They're a good bunch of folks to deal with. The owner and chief instructor
is the guy I've been dealing with. He's been very patient with my attempts
to tear up his airplane, while having some good suggestions to make that
have helped quite a bit. He's also friends with Michael Heintz, of Quality
Sport Planes and son of Chris Heintz. Michael apparently inherited the
Zodiac prototype when Chris moved back to Europe.

Dragonfly's Zodiac, N601BA, is an experimental, with an O-235 with the
Sparrowhawk 125 HP conversion. (They're also a Cessna Pilot Center, and the
engine was one they had in their rotation there.) It's also got a 3-blade
Warp Drive prop. I don't know how much difference that will make in how the
aircraft flies from whatever it is you're hanging on yours, beyond raw
speed. (We were able to get 118 knots indicated level at full power at 3500
feet.) You might factor that into your thinking. Aside from that, it looks
like a pretty stock aircraft, with a full Dynon 100/120 panel and IFR GPS.
No wheel pants, which is probably a good thing considering the abuse it gets
from ham-handed students.

STS is a nice airport, with not a lot of traffic and a very accommodating
tower. It's pretty much all GA, though Horizon does fly in there. Aside from
that, you'll fly into SFO or Oakland and drive an hour; the drive up US 101
is gorgeous.

They've got several other aircraft, mainly 172s of various stripes. Even so,
they didn't seem too busy while I was there, although that may be due to
weather over the past week as much as anything.

I'm happy I came here, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
http://www.hercules-390.org (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff at http://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390

On 2008-02-26, Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
It will help a lot. I got my helo rating in an R22 and it was a pretty
much required method in that twitchy SOB. The first time I flew in the
601 I heavy handed it until the the person I was flying with asked,
"Didn't you say you flew helicopters? Handle the stick like that."

Well, I got 1.6 in N601BA today, and it went a hell of a lot better. I was
in much better command of the aircraft, and was able to do everything
passably well. 4 landings, one of which even failed to suck. I know I need
more practice time, and more dual wouldn't hurt either.

The big difference? I kept my left hand firmly planted on my thigh and used
just the thumb and forefinger on the stick. It was like night and day: I was
flying the aircraft, instead of it flying me.

I did screw up one approach by not staying on top of it, and wound up at 45
knots, nose high, way too high above the ground...and got a compliment from
the CFI when I said "Going around", and did it. He had several nice things
to say about decision making.

I'm now in position to make a decision on what to buy...but that's another
post.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
http://www.hercules-390.org (Yes, that's me!)
Buy Hercules stuff at http://www.cafepress.com/hercules-390