Kestrel 19 Questions

Also note that the datum is from the wing leading edge 500mm outboard from the fuselage.

Bruce

Jon Marshall wrote:
At 20:42 29 October 2008, JJ Sinclair wrote:
John,
Recommend you get a new W&B with you in the cockpit. Some ships fly
quite well behind the aft limit (Nimbus-3), but the concern would be;
How well do they recover from a spin with an aft GC? Your removing
factory weight from the nose and known added aft weight (rudder) would
leave me nervous.
JJ

wrote:
On Oct 29, 3:35=EF=BF=BDpm, wrote:

My calculations give a minimum pilot weight of 243 lbs, and simple
math puts the max pilot at 253. =EF=BF=BDI'll fully calculate the
range=
when I
get to my papers.
Found some figures.
CoG range is 11.5 - 14.76" aft of datum (leading edge at root)
Main wheel weight, 633 # at 2.5" aft
Tail wheel weight, 104# at 165.5" aft
Pilot sits at 17.2" forward

Plug it into the formula, gives min pilot of 247.7# and a max pilot of
359.5# (but I'm limited to 253# due to gross dry weight). Of course,
I might be having an off day with the calculator (or messing up my
physics); my memory keeps nagging that it's 243 minimum from the W&B
pictures and formulae.

My test pilot at 200# gives a CoG of 16.39" aft... 1.63" beyond the
max aft allowable. Yet, the ship flew beautifully.

Very odd, I think.

Regards,
John

John are you weighing the glider correctly?
eg tail boom should be at a certain angle, from POH
are you also measuring the distances carefully using the tail boom at the
correct angle and also using a plumb bob.

Errors in these figures will give a marked difference

jon