Originally Posted by
jimjim1
Thanks.
I guess I extrapolated from my personal experience without justification?
I was at Ouston for the A & B certificate and they operated only the T.21 for the few days (5?) I was there. Unfortunately
we were not able to finish and I only did one solo. I then went elsewhere a few months later and did another entire A & B course on the T.31 Tandem Tutor.
The T.31 had a much inferior glide ratio and I seem to recall that circuits lasted barely three minutes as opposed to almost five for the T.21 Sedbergh. On an early T.31 landing the instructor was horrified when I gently extended the spoilers to (quite appropriately I thought) steepen the descent as I had been instructed on the T.21. There was no drama and as I recall, after I landed I was asked "Did I tell you to use the spoilers?". I was told not to use them again.
At Air Cadet Central Gliding School (ACCGS) RAF Syerston in the 70s we were taught to crack the spoilers open on the mark 3 on finals just in case, but it’s a big field with plenty of undershoot.