geoffreywh Posted April 8, 2009 Posted April 8, 2009 I saw, a little while ago, a thread on VG's, Here is my take...I have always been a fan of aerodynamic aids since I flew competition free flight glider. (20 years!) I helped develop them in Europe around the early-mid seventies, after seeing the effects I never built one without them fitted. The reason for the story is that I have just today fitted a set of stolspeed plastic feathers to my Jodel. I noticed that the Jodel (although supposedly having an engine off stall speed of 33 knots) would just stop flying at about 42-44 and just drop onto the runway from whatever height I happened to be at at the time. It was supposed to be better than that!. The end result was that I landed, wheeler style, at between 46-50+ knots. I didn't dare come in any slower...I fitted the feathers as instructed. Although I only had time for a brief test the results were astonishing!..I had previously (many times) tried stalling the Jodel.. Always I ended ( @ approx. 1000rpm ) at 40+ and sink speed of 400fpm. Today, I had the stick back in my stomach with the ASI reading 26 knots,also with 400 fpm sink...Just ridiculous angle of attack..The landing was odd, 50 over the fence, as usual. I floated and floated and almost had to go around as the runway disappeared beneath me. I believe that I had increased climb of approx 150ft.p.m. But one take off doesn't make a summer!...What has happened to cruise speed and consumption I will be interested to find out as there was too much low cloud to continue today...Interesting things, VG's...Geoffrey
Steve Donald Posted May 16, 2009 Posted May 16, 2009 hiya Geoffrey, yep those VG'S are great and work so well you will notice improvements all the way through your performance figures, i tried some and flew a flight test schedule for the obvious safety issues, but i had to remove em due to the LSA rules. going experimental was not an option for me, but it was such a shame to lose the performance gain and a much safer flight envelope, i attempted to get approval to permanant fit them but i was confronted with a negative responce, oh well you can only try i was Don'ded, anyway bud you will love em it will really help your plane perform extra good, all the best.
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