Hi Gents from South Africa,
I had to respond to the posts above. I am the proud owner of 1 of the first Zen1 Gyro's, having ordered a Xenon, but having to live through the spat. I have made my views clear on the microlighters forum in SA regarding the posts made by both parties during the spat, but so be it.
To JohnB, maybe I'm not really qualified to comment as I am still Air Pollution, having only received my NPL in May 2012 training on a Magni M16 and taking delivery of my Zen1 ZU-RBI in August 2012. Since then I have added 80 hours on the clock and here goes with the info:
1. She is a bitch and needs full attention, unlike the Magni that was a real lady, forgiving to a T. But as soon as she allows you into her heart, she is an absolute queen. She has a power curve unlike any other, and even at my home base at 5200', 34 Deg C(93 F), two up (200 kg/440 lb) and 45 kg/100 lb of fuel so a take off weight of 560 kg/1235, which is mauw, she rotates on 55 mph within 200 m and climbs at 800'/min, lovely!!
2. She has your typical side-by-side quirkyness, lots of drag if not in absolute coordinated flight. One up she needs quite a bit of side trim to stop her from rolling right. She also needs an approach with some power on or the rudders become very ineffectual, and she tends to swing left on her rotor, leaving you with some serious work to maintain centreline and not land on the right wheel and in the pooh!
3. She requires a bit in her mouth all the time, let her go at your peril! Yesterday I lost concentration for 15 sec and she was up to 120 mph, just shy of her do not exceed, and this all at mauw and using 22 lt/h (5 gal/h).
4. So you may ask, where is the bad stuff???? Well she arrived with a few unacceptable snags. Unacceptable if one purchases a $100 000 gyro, and some are still not sorted. This is probably more an indictment of the local agent, but ATA's assembly line quality controls are definately up the pole or non existant!
5. The EFIS installation is so bad it looks like a 10 year old did it. The fact that it works is a miracle, including the live 12V exposed wire just lying loose behind the EFIS! Talk about fire hazards. In fact if the FAA or any other controlling body sees the installation, all registration for this gyro will be scrapped! What ever you do dont let ATA send you a Zen1 with an EFIS, rather have that installed by an approved fitment centre.
6. The string type trim system is so ex 1 st world war technology and so Celier! I believe ATA is now moving to electric trim which should be standard on a gyro of this quality. The trim spring is also designed for european standards where the mauw is 450 kg and when you have 2 up at 100 kg, no amount of effort will allow you to trim her to straight and level.
7. Again for a $ 100 000 gyro, I think the allround finishing is just shy of quality, a point that I think ATA is working on if you see the sudden upgrades being published, from the adjustable seats to the new fuel tanks. I think that Her Fuhrer Celier kind of stiffled any improvements that did not meet his low expectations.
8. In summary, she is a beaut. In addressing all the shortcomings from ATA, I have in fact bonded with her on another plane, getting to know the inner workings better, not always a good thing for a novice pilot, but I have been lucky so far and fortunately had superior flight training.
9. So after me rambling on and on....the short answer is that the ATA Zen1 is in my mind one of the finest, safest and enjoyable gyro's around.
Amen