What you experienced is an undersized horizontal stab going in and out of the prop blast. The tail is mounted high on the 750 series Zenith, so just as you rotate the nose up, the small tail drops into the prop blast and suddenly becomes highly effective, so it tends to suddenly pitch up, much like you would find on a T tailed Tomahawk when it is over-rotated. On landing, when you pull the power, the tail loses it's air flow from the prop blast, and suddenly becomes ineffective, allowing it to suddenly drop the nose. You want to use a bit of power on landing to keep the tail effective while learning the plane, and you want to be very gentle on rotation. Like all planes with somewhat marginal horizontal stab and elevator control (the KR series comes to mind), changes in air flow over the tail makes a huge difference in effectiveness.
As for the oil canning and rattling of the fuselage, that is endemic to flat surface aluminum. That could have been eliminated with a bit of curvature to the aluminum surface, but Zenith chose to keep it as simple as possible to build. The Sonex also has some of the same oil canning, although not to the degree found in the Zenith. Once you get used to the handling, it's actually a pretty nice little STOL aircraft. Not my first choice, but not an unreasonable choice either. It seems they fly just as good without the slats found on the original CH-750s as they did with them. In fact removing them seems to improve the speed and some of the handling characteristics without adversely affecting the stall performance. Thus, the birth of the Cruzer version you flew. -Jeff Scott > Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2019 at 10:18 AM > From: "Flesner via KRnet" <krnet@list.krnet.org> > To: krnet@list.krnet.org > Cc: Flesner <fles...@frontier.com> > Subject: KR> rodeo ride > > > I made what would basically qualify for a first successful flight in a > Zenith Cruzer yesterday. It's first flight landing by the owner ended > in mishap and the second flight takeoff by the owner ended in mishap. I > was able to takeoff, climb to altitude, and land without breaking > anything. Probably as much a matter of luck as skill. I'm not > impressed with the flying qualities of this aircraft in particular and > the design if this one represents the fleet. Very light in pitch > control, heavy in aileron control, large pitch change with little stick > movement. I don't like flat screen panels as I tended to "chase" the > numbers when little pitch change makes airspeed numbers start to > scroll. This aircraft seemed to have a great deal of either "oil > canning" or "air frame" buffeting at engine idle and 5 to 15 mph above > the stall. Very unnerving. I landed into a bad haze induced sun glare > so I had very poor visibility which didn't help the approach but was > stable down to the flare. When I pitched up for the flare there was no > float, it just landed. It seemed the bottom just dropped out the last > 10 feet. On takeoff with 130hp, when the nose comes up it wants to head > for the weeds on the left side of the runway. Instant right rudder is > the only salvation. Bottom line, I'm not impressed. I don't think I'd > enjoy flying that thing even after a number of hours practice. By > comparison, I can fly my KR in the middle of a nap and have to be wide > awake and on "speed" drugs to fly this thing. My taildragger KR has > more pleasant ground handling than the tri-gear Cruiser. So much for > first impressions. > > As always, your results may vary........... > > Larry Flesner > > > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at > https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. > Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org > _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
