I’m a MEL IFR Comm rated pilot with about 1400 hrs in bonanzas (F33A, B36TC) and barons (B55 Colemill P2). I have an interest in a zenith just for fun. I was watching the zenith demo on YouTube and the Zenith pilot said that he was skidding in the base to final turn. This goes against everything I’ve ever been taught about aerodynamics. Is this an accepted procedure in the zenith, or did he perhaps misspeak? Thank you.

https://youtu.be/mlPq-JppLbE
Start at about 14:00 into video

Link to the video?

I have flown a Zenith 601 and read the POH, no mention of skidding turns there and I never used them. Flies like a normal plane. Light, long-throw elevator, short-throw and heavier ailerons, rudder normal feel with plenty of rudder power.

There are all kinds of special STOL techniques in planes from Super Cubs to Just STOL to Zenith, I always figured if a strip was too short to use normal technique with a STOL plane it was too short for me.

A skid's a skid. He can brush it off in conversation but no, a skidding turn in the pattern is not recommended, and I'd be surprised if the Zenith behaves differently enough in a skidding stall that it would make it OK.

I saw that Zenith video a while ago and thought it was an odd thing to say as well.

I think the pilot is a great guy and a very good pilot. When the cameras roll and catch every word, we say some things that we should not. I think what he said was just a mistake.

It is not a good idea to skid base to final. It probably works in the CH 750, but it is not good practice.

It is worth noting that the Zenith 750 is nearly stall proof. There are some test pilot videos on YouTube (link below) showing that the Zenith 750 goes into a 800 fpm sink rather than stall.

https://youtu.be/IMi4TTeTJuc

The Zenith 750 is an awesome plane.

KJ

Even though they cut off that turn into the clouds around 3:10 it still means that he entered them and did not maintain clearance. It did not appear to be a <legal> IFR flight.