Earthstar Forums

Has anyone tried vg's on our aircraft or the Titans. If so what were the results? I know it's a great wing, but could vgs make it better? Mike

I talked to Mark about that recently. He did extensive testing in the past and achieved maybe a 1% improvement. But also saw much worse performance depending where they were placed. Bottom line. Leave the wing alone. It is perfect.

Dick O'Reilly

Moreover, even if there was any gain in maximum angle of attack achievable,
there is no practical gain, as VG are installed to make the wing capable of
a higher angle of attack, which in this case it is worthless
In the ground you are limited by the geometry of the landing gear and the
tail, which almost touches the ground at maximum rotation and at minimum
speed on landing
In the air, what would be the purpose ? To be able to fly slower ? Hardly
conceivable, and now, you might be prone to the typical abrupt nosing down
of stall behavior, in an aircraft that is stall resistant as it is

I tried Vgs on my Gull 2000 with the 20 ft wing and I agree completely. There was no noticeable lowering of the stall speed.
Instead I built engine bay gap fillers and still have to be careful not to touch the tail first. These give a me a little more flare time and a milder stall.
Besides that the Vgs look ugly...lol
Mikeinthehat

Can you please post a picture of those gap fillers ?

Iím on that one too. There is no way that we can increase the angle of attack with vgís without making the gear legs longer. Even now, if I do a full stall landing, the tail wheel hits first, and in the air I can already slow to 39mph with full flaps and the short wing. Whatís the point?

Hey hey, good to hear about the engine bay gap filler and your experience in the Gull 2000. What I noticed was a much cleaner stall break without the heavy mush first. I also see better climb, and better glide, as well as a reduction in clean stall speed. I still touch the tail wheel about 1 out of 5 landings when I get the nose high for slower landings. No big deal, just fly the plane to the ground at slightly higher speeds, chop the power and let it settle in.

kb

You can check mine out in Kess’s Gull folder. Oh, and the Titan gang here love my gap fillers and are replicating them on their planes. When our planes where ultralights, the gap helped keep our planes slower for the ridiculous legal airspeeds. Now that we are proper small airplanes with a much higher speed limit, the gap fillers help clean up the drag. Add gear fairings and wheel pants and 95-100 cruise speeds are easy, and still stall with flaps at under 40mph. Life’s good, and Mark gave us a really fun plane to fly. Blowing past Champs, Cubs, and other slow GA planes and still being called an ultralight makes me giggle.

kb

Thanks for the responses, I agree great wing and aircraft ! Was just wondering and hadn't seen a discussion about it. Still exploring the limits of my gull. This is my third season with my gull 2000 and still smile every time I open the hanger door!
Mike

Hi Mike
I have done extensive tests on the thundergulls with VG's The wing ins not
improved with them but the fuselage is sometimes improved especially the
older models with the fabric. it is an as needed thing that can be seen by
tuft testing.
Happy Flying
Mark Beierle, Earthstar


In a message dated 5/26/2013 9:00:36 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
mmarckel@msn.com writes: