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JetPilot
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1246
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 Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:09 pm Post subject: Gap Seals - An Easy Way to Give your Kolb more control Autho |
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Installing Gap Seals in on a Kolb is a very easy way to make the flight controls more responsive. Most people already have gap seals on their ailerons which is a great help in roll, but putting gap seals on the elevator and rudder can also help those control surfaces. Attached are some pictures of my Gap seals, I used light Polyfiber fabric and just attached it the way the book says to do a patch, its worked very well. I put the gap seal on the top of the elevator because on my Kolb, the horizontal stab on my Kolb is rigged in such a way that the air is always pushing it down ( Yours may vary depending on a lot of things ). On the rudder, I put the gap seal in an S pattern attaching to the left side of the Vertical tail and the Right side of the rudder. This means that no matter which way I push the rudder the gap seal stays in place. I would highly recommend that elevators also be done in the S configuration top to bottom also, having a gap seal lift up could create a very bad and dangerous condition !
Results were very positive, I have more elevator authority for heavy passengers and forward CG loadings, and my standard Kolb spring elevator trim system is effective over the entire CG range of my plane. On the tail, the effect of the increased authority can clearly be seen by how much I had to bend the trim tab to get the Kolb to fly straight in Cruise. The clear lexan tab was the standard Lexan trim tab bent to the standard 30 degree angle that Most MK III's require to fly straight before the gap seal was added to the rudder. After putting on the gap seals, I only needed about half as much bend in the rudder tab for the plane to fly straight at cruise as can be seen in the new aluminum tap, demonstrating that the rudder is now more effective and requiring less trim and deflection for the same cruise condition.
Mike
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_________________
"NO FEAR" - If you have no fear you did not go as fast as you could have !!!
Kolb MK-III Xtra, 912-S |
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John Hauck
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 4639
Location: Titus, Alabama (hauck's holler)
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| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:41 am Post subject: Gap Seals - An Easy Way to Give your Kolb more control Autho |
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On the tail, the effect of the increased authority can clearly be seen by
how much I had to bend the trim tab to get the Kolb to fly straight in
Cruise. The clear lexan tab was the standard Lexan trim tab bent to the
standard 30 degree angle that Most MK III's require to fly straight before
the gap seal was added to the rudder. After putting on the gap seals, I
only needed about half as much bend in the rudder tab for the plane to fly
straight at cruise as can be seen in the new aluminum tap, demonstrating
that the rudder is now more effective and requiring less trim and deflection
for the same cruise condition.
Mike:
Did you take into consideration, the lexan tab will bend quite a bit more
than the sheet metal tab in flight, not requiring as much initial angle?
I have never experimented with gap seals on the tail section, but others
have. I use quite a bit more hinge on rudder and elevators than called for
in the plans. This kills a lot of the gap in the tail section on my mkIII.
john h
mkIII
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_________________
John Hauck
MKIII/912ULS
hauck's holler
Titus, Alabama |
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JetPilot
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1246
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| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:47 am Post subject: Re: Gap Seals - An Easy Way to Give your Kolb more control A |
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John H,
The hinges makes a great gap seal ! I did not put any gap seal over the hinges in my rudder, not enough air is going to get through those hinges to worry about. I also like the idea of putting more hinge material on the control surfaces, it should wear better and sure wont hurt anything. You get the added benefit of that much extra gap seal.
The change in trim tab material from Lexan to aluminum was done before the gap seals, here is a better picture of the original bend in the aluminum tab, and then much lesser bend for coordinated cruise after the gap seals. The amount of bend in the first picture is much more than it looks, as the camera is not looking at the rudder from straight on, I took about half the bend out.
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| Much less trim tab bend required after the installation of Gap seals. |
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| Trim tab Bend required for straight cruise flight before Gap Seals were installed. |
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_________________
"NO FEAR" - If you have no fear you did not go as fast as you could have !!!
Kolb MK-III Xtra, 912-S |
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