VG thingy's

[geoffreywh]

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]

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.