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dashvii(at)hotmail.com
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 Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 6:54 pm Post subject: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Hey everybody,
I just thought I'd share the latest developments. I have done some
preliminary data reduction for a baseline on N323AL for comparison with
tomorrow mornings flight tests. If everything goes well I'll be heading to
Arkansas to stay a night with my parents before heading on to Houston.
Today I modified the plane with gap seals on the tops and bottoms of the
ailerons, the underside of the flaps, and the underside of the elevator.
After literally months of planning the best course and safest course of
action it was time to see if it would work. At a little after 5:00 p.m.
this afternoon Nick hopped in the plane and took off on runway 36 for about
a half hour flight. The gap seals withstood the speed tests. He reported
that it didn't make the plane any more sensitive in either pitch or roll,
but that it seemed like the climb was really better and that he got a good
speed. I won't really know for sure until I run the numbers sometime within
the next week, but I have a feeling that we'll get a little. Some
discussion today went into how to attach these for a permanent installation,
how to improve fit and finish on these things, and what is practical. The
aileron gap seals seem to be great, but the flaps have an issue. Right now
they're overhanging the flaps and simply bend when the flaps are deployed.
They are only attached to the wing though, not to the flap and they vibrate
with flaps down. It would be possible to simply shorten them so that you're
not covering up the whole opening, but just part of it. Reducing the size
of the gap, but probably eliminating the annoying noise. A post flight
inspection revealed they are all still very much attached and in good shape
for tomorrow morning's run.
In other local news, Mr. Hubbard's plane went to have a canopy painted this
afternoon and with any luck the wheelpants might be finished tomorrow.
Rick's plane has 39 hours total time on it and in a couple of weeks he'll be
out to take her home. They touched up his paint today and I am hopeful to
fly the last hour before the 40 mark tomorrow after the flight test
experiment.
Here's a couple of pics for you all:
1. Not the greatest look, but functional. If you did a permanent install
I'm thinking adhering them with some kind of glue to the inside of the wing
gap might be an option. For this temporary installation I laid down a strip
of double sided carpet tape just ahead of the aileron on the wing, then
placed a mylar gap seal, cut out to the length of the gap, and then put a
layer of 100mph tape over the top. In this pic you can see the three
layers, the top is the speed tape, the carpet tape can be seen in an outline
underneth and the gap seal can just be seen at the rear. There's also a
mylar rub strip so that it doesn't wear the paint down on the aileron.
2. A little hard to see, but the flap gap seals are larger and clear. Made
out of duralar. I attached them in the same way. This does create some
problems as I couldn't get it perfectly straight and therefore it is a
little wrinkled. Perhaps a slightly thicker strip or some way to put it on
straighter can be devised.
3. Nick after the first successful flight with a sealed up Lightning.
Reports everything good. It is interesting watching from the side of the
runway and the plane flies just overhead. In the air with the gap seals it
looks like just a solid wing, no ailerons, no flaps.
Just thought I'd give an exclusive, top secret glimpse into the "Polecat
Works" latest and greatest. I'll post some of my more interesting findings
on here as I, well, as I find them. Also, huge thanks to Nick for taking
the time to fly this experiment with me to keep me from having to fly and
take data at the same time! Big thanks to Pete for giving me a chance to
fly the various models of Jabiru, the Esquals, and the Lightnings and for
giving me the chance to use the company's assets in order to perform tests
for my thesis. Thanks again to Buz for loaning me the supplies. I'll leave
the box with Nick next time you're around Buz.
Brian W.
_________________________________________________________________
PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best Web mail—award-winning Windows
Live Hotmail.
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cdewey6969(at)yahoo.com
Guest
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Brian, Great work. Thanks for all you have done to
help improve performance. Can't wait to see the final
numbers- good or bad. It'll be a sad day when you
leave for Houston. Charles
--- Brian Whittingham <dashvii(at)hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Hey everybody,
I just thought I'd share the latest
developments. I have done some
preliminary data reduction for a baseline on N323AL
for comparison with
tomorrow mornings flight tests. If everything goes
well I'll be heading to
Arkansas to stay a night with my parents before
heading on to Houston.
Today I modified the plane with gap seals on the
tops and bottoms of the
ailerons, the underside of the flaps, and the
underside of the elevator.
After literally months of planning the best course
and safest course of
action it was time to see if it would work. At a
little after 5:00 p.m.
this afternoon Nick hopped in the plane and took off
on runway 36 for about
a half hour flight. The gap seals withstood the
speed tests. He reported
that it didn't make the plane any more sensitive in
either pitch or roll,
but that it seemed like the climb was really better
and that he got a good
speed. I won't really know for sure until I run the
numbers sometime within
the next week, but I have a feeling that we'll get a
little. Some
discussion today went into how to attach these for a
permanent installation,
how to improve fit and finish on these things, and
what is practical. The
aileron gap seals seem to be great, but the flaps
have an issue. Right now
they're overhanging the flaps and simply bend when
the flaps are deployed.
They are only attached to the wing though, not to
the flap and they vibrate
with flaps down. It would be possible to simply
shorten them so that you're
not covering up the whole opening, but just part of
it. Reducing the size
of the gap, but probably eliminating the annoying
noise. A post flight
inspection revealed they are all still very much
attached and in good shape
for tomorrow morning's run.
In other local news, Mr. Hubbard's plane went to
have a canopy painted this
afternoon and with any luck the wheelpants might be
finished tomorrow.
Rick's plane has 39 hours total time on it and in a
couple of weeks he'll be
out to take her home. They touched up his paint
today and I am hopeful to
fly the last hour before the 40 mark tomorrow after
the flight test
experiment.
Here's a couple of pics for you all:
1. Not the greatest look, but functional. If you
did a permanent install
I'm thinking adhering them with some kind of glue to
the inside of the wing
gap might be an option. For this temporary
installation I laid down a strip
of double sided carpet tape just ahead of the
aileron on the wing, then
placed a mylar gap seal, cut out to the length of
the gap, and then put a
layer of 100mph tape over the top. In this pic you
can see the three
layers, the top is the speed tape, the carpet tape
can be seen in an outline
underneth and the gap seal can just be seen at the
rear. There's also a
mylar rub strip so that it doesn't wear the paint
down on the aileron.
2. A little hard to see, but the flap gap seals are
larger and clear. Made
out of duralar. I attached them in the same way.
This does create some
problems as I couldn't get it perfectly straight and
therefore it is a
little wrinkled. Perhaps a slightly thicker strip
or some way to put it on
straighter can be devised.
3. Nick after the first successful flight with a
sealed up Lightning.
Reports everything good. It is interesting watching
from the side of the
runway and the plane flies just overhead. In the
air with the gap seals it
looks like just a solid wing, no ailerons, no flaps.
Just thought I'd give an exclusive, top secret
glimpse into the "Polecat
Works" latest and greatest. I'll post some of my
more interesting findings
on here as I, well, as I find them. Also, huge
thanks to Nick for taking
the time to fly this experiment with me to keep me
from having to fly and
take data at the same time! Big thanks to Pete for
giving me a chance to
fly the various models of Jabiru, the Esquals, and
the Lightnings and for
giving me the chance to use the company's assets in
order to perform tests
for my thesis. Thanks again to Buz for loaning me
the supplies. I'll leave
the box with Nick next time you're around Buz.
Brian W.
_________________________________________________________________
|
| Quote: | PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best Web
mail—award-winning Windows
Live Hotmail.
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http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396546091
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http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
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pequeajim
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 708
Location: New Holland, PA
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| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 5:32 am Post subject: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Brian:
What youa re doing is pretty exciting and thanks for the efforts.
Can you tell me why the tape is applied to the top and bottom of the aileron gaps? I am curious why not just the bottom?
Jim!
[quote][b]
| | - The Matronics Lightning-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
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dashvii(at)hotmail.com
Guest
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| Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 5:38 am Post subject: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Jim,
This is for my thesis and the reason why I used two layers of tape is
just to make sure that it wouldn't come off in flight. I don't think it
would be a big deal if it did, other than I'd have to reattach and for my
thesis stuff I'd have to redo some numbers. All stayed on well though. As
to why I put the gap seals on top AND bottom, well I looked at where the
biggest gaps were in the plane and covered them. The flaps were easy, the
bottom of the elevator was too. The ailerons have a gap as well, but the
bottom is bigger than the top. The idea is to keep the airflow from the
bottom from reaching the top of the wing. That will increase lift, and
effectiveness. If I had it to do over though I would put an S-shaped piece
of tape to really tightly seal the ailerons off from air going through the
gap. We did learn a few lessons with the whole thing about how we would do
it different. I think that we'll see an increase in lift for sure. I
believe we saw 1-2 knot increase in stall speed. (I think the numbers were
43 kts before 45 after) Not a big deal, but it was one of the things I
hypothesized would happen. Haven't had a chance to play with the numbers
yet. I traveled to Arkansas last night and will stay another night here to
visit with family and head on to Texas. One really interesting thing that
we found was that we had a little right roll in the plane before the mod.
Just never got around to fixing that yet. When we put on the gap seals it
was much more noticible in the stick force to hold the plane in level
flight. The plane wanted to roll to the right more. To me that's a quick
and easy determination of a couple of things. We got increased aileron
authority, and an increase in overall lift. I'll let you all know the final
results though. Brian W.
Brian:
What youa re doing is pretty exciting and thanks for the efforts.
Can you tell me why the tape is applied to the top and bottom of the aileron
gaps? I am curious why not just the bottom?
Jim!
_________________________________________________________________
PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best Web mail—award-winning Windows
Live Hotmail.
| | - The Matronics Lightning-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
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Scotty
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 44
Location: Peachtree City, GA
|
| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 5:51 am Post subject: Re: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Brian,
I am following your tests with great interest. You said:
"The plane wanted to roll to the right more. To me that's a quick
and easy determination of a couple of things."
What two things did you quickly determine from it rolling more to the right?
Thank you for what you are doing, and I sincerely hope it improves and already great design. Good luck with your studies and future. I am sure you will be missed in the Middle Tennessee Lighting Works.
Scotty
| | - The Matronics Lightning-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
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dashvii(at)hotmail.com
Guest
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| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 2:18 am Post subject: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully) |
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Scotty,
I think that the increase in right roll is due to either an increase in
lift, or an increase in aileron effectiveness, or both. The sensation was
more pressure was needed on the stick and the right roll tendency was
greater. It'll be an easy fix, but I'm glad it wasn't perfect in rigging
b/c that gives me another thing to write about in my thesis. Brian W.
From: "Scotty" <mr.scotty(at)earthlink.net>
Reply-To: lightning-list(at)matronics.com
To: lightning-list(at)matronics.com
Subject: Re: Gap Seal Experiment Final Day (hopefully)
Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 06:51:57 -0700
Brian,
I am following your tests with great interest. You said:
"The plane wanted to roll to the right more. To me that's a quick
and easy determination of a couple of things."
What two things did you quickly determine from it rolling more to the right?
Thank you for what you are doing, and I sincerely hope it improves and
already great design. Good luck with your studies and future. I am sure
you will be missed in the Middle Tennessee Lighting Works.
Scotty
--------
Old pilots remember when flying was dangerous and sex was safe.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=113746#113746
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More photos, more messages, more storage—get 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail.
| | - The Matronics Lightning-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Lightning-List |
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