Thermix

Eighty knots: As I'm sure you know, the S fuselage has a radius on the corners of the box beam structure of the fuselage (as opposed to the right-angled corners on the previous models). This is inherently stiffer, though I can't quantify what the improvement is. This design also has twice as many longerons (eight cf. four) relative to the XL. Again, another inherent improvement. So the only reinforcement provided are a few plates around the tail-wheel segment itself to take up and distribute the concentrated forces here. The mains are also shifted forward and, in the factory version, these points get some reinforcement too. Petr: There is a kit available, but they are very reluctant to provide this for the XL. You'd be best speaking to the local distributor if you wanted to go down this route.

If there is an owner of a taildragging Savannah reading this, I would dearly love to know the results of your weight and balance. In the pilot's operating handbook for the S model, these are listed as Pt, Pm (the sum of the weight on the main wheels), Dt and Dm. I'd be very grateful if you could email those to me at andtone2602(at)gmail(dot)com. For better or worse, I'm converting an XL into a taildragger and would love some representative numbers to guide my calculations. Many thanks in advance, Tony.

Frustratingly slow I'm afraid. Just not enough time at the moment. But your posts have been very helpful, especially the list of tools you set yourself up with!

Hi everyone, I've been reading these threads for a while now, but time to contribute (and get rid of the darn message!). I fly with SRFC, am building a Savannah XL and continue to fly (non-motorised) paragliders too. Thanks to everyone for the wealth of knowledge contributed on this site.