T59D - Heavy on the ground but a pleasure in the air.

Some comments -
1] Why would you want extra airbrake?
There are two versions of the landing flaps, but from my experience the landing flaps are effective at establishing
steep descents. Just be aware the roll rate is a lot lower in landing flap.
The airbrakes are pretty weak on their own.
The drogue chute really brings you down fast - but make sure you have excess speed.
Throw airbrake, landing flap and the chute out and "if you can see it over the glare shield you cant get there" applies.

2] The one I fly does not have a tiny CG range, the allowable cockpit weight ranges from 79kg to 110kg. So - 9 pounds
where? - on the tail 9 pounds is quite a lot.

3] The anti balance tab on the elevator (Mod 9) allows aft CG limit to be 15.83 inches.

As an aside - You know who your real friends are the second time you ask for help rigging the T59D - Especially when
someone has lost the tool to pull the wings together...

If you manage to get any manual pages I would appreciate - the condition of 1771s is so poor they are virtually
unreadable. I sent you a copy of the BGA data sheet with the basic information directly.

My guess on real L/D is at least as good as the claimed 1:44.


wrote:
Sorry for posting aircraft-specific questions in here, but I haven't
received any responses from my queries in the Kestrel401 forum.

I recently bought a Slingsby T59D Kestrel 19. Love the ship Okay,
it's big and heavy, but so am I.

I need to get my hands on the Addenda for the POH, specifically
numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8. Does anyone have a copy that they could
photocopy and send to me (I'll pay costs), or scan and e-mail?
Slingsby wants 70 GBP for this -- am I naive in thinking that's rather
costly?

Secondly, I've read on-line that there is a modification to the
spoilers to add a second panel and (hopefully) increase their dismal
effectiveness. Does anyone have a copy of the information on how to
do this, and willing to share? Is the modification approved? How
effective is the new setup? The directions used to be posted at
gliderpilot.net, but it seems that the files section has not returned
up after the unfortunate problems earlier this year.

Thirdly, my weight and balance is "odd", to say the least. I've only
got a 9-lb range to stay within CoG limits, which seems fairly narrow
(same was true for the factory-delivered W&B). Granted, my previous
experience was with club ships (1-34, L-33, G-102) which had a wide
range. The plane has also flown 40 lbs under min. pilot weight (we
goofed) but flew beautifully -- certainly not like an aircraft beyond
aft CoG. Is this typical for the Kestrel?

TIA,
John