Actually I thought the article was very fair and the authour went to great lengths to make it equitable.
As a long-time user of fenestrons on Gazelle and AS 365 (instructing on both) there is definitely a different feel to one over a conventional TR but both work equally well - just requiring s subtly different technique.
It sounds like the GA (H) community are revisiting what was referred to as Fenestron Stall in the UK Military 30 years ago on the Gazelle - it was lack of sufficient right pedal then and it seems to be the same now on the Cabri.
Think of it like Nr control in auto - a small input made pre-emptively avoids a larger input required reactively - just a question of anticipation.
The Fenestron Stall problem is in the name. The British Army thought that the fenestron stalled and asked to add pedal into the turn when unanticipated yaw started. It can be found in the CAA paper on Tail Rotor Failures dated November 2003. "
Recommended procedures for military operators following Fenestron stall have included reducing right yaw pedal application until Fenestron effectiveness is restored and then reapplying right pedal, attempting to shut down the engine, and lowering the collective lever and accepting a heavy landing." The same mistake was initially made by US Army when they had a series of OH-58 accidents.
It was demonstrated by Aerospatiale at that time that it was always possible to stop a yaw rate. The Ministry of Defence issued the Advance Information Leaflet 1/93, quoted in an AAIB accident analysis (Westland Gazelle HT-Mk3 G-BXZE, AAIB Bulletin 1/2002) : "
In light wind conditions, an extremely rapid build-up of yaw rate can follow a relatively small left pedal application during low speed flight or in the hover, particularly with the ASE disengaged. In this event, immediate and positive application of right pedal, up to the maximum, should be applied and maintained to arrest the rate of yaw. Recovery action may be ineffective if the pedals are returned only to the hover position, and the yaw rate may initially continue to increase before deceleration and an eventual steady hover is established. Furthermore, if the pedals are not returned as far as the original hover position, a steady hover will never be achieved and the aircraft will stabilise at a particular rate of yaw which may be very high. Pilots may misinterpret this as a loss of yaw control. Be warned that any delay in applying corrective action will require progressively larger right pedal inputs to achieve a steady state hover and may lead the pilot to believe that he has lost control. Yaw rates of up to 165° per second to the left can rapidly be arrested by applying full right pedal without any discernable loss of fenestron performance. In the hover and at low forward speeds, ensure that pedal turns to the left are always made slowly and smoothly."
Unanticipated yaw problems do not come from missing pedal, but from not using the available pedal.