Thinking about buying a Zodiac XLi

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.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 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:38:54 GMT, 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
rest your arm across your leg while flying to steady your hand.
stealth Pilot

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

If I were in the market to buy a factory-built SLSA, I'd have to go
for the RANS S-19LS

http://www.rans.com/S19achievesSLSA.htm

It's not IFR however, but I'm not too keen on taking anything smaller
than something and less powerful than a C182, Mooney, Dakota or
Bonanza into IMC.

wrote:
If I were in the market to buy a factory-built SLSA, I'd have to go
for the RANS S-19LS

http://www.rans.com/S19achievesSLSA.htm

It's not IFR however, but I'm not too keen on taking anything smaller
than something and less powerful than a C182, Mooney, Dakota or
Bonanza into IMC.


There's imc and there is IMC. Plus there are those that just like to
file IFR even in perfectly clear weather for a X-C.