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Re: Europa-List: Drag Reduction

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Drag Reduction
From: Cliff Shaw <flyinggpa@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 16:39:16

Those interested in TG fairings

I flew my TG with and without the fairings in different combinations.

I am sure that the fairings on the landing gear struts are by fare the most 
beneficial.
I think they made a 5 MPH difference by themselves. They are not easy
to fit the way the factory kit does it. And I tried to do it better and failed.
New fairings for the landing gear struts will be another project I might do.
(easier to install and smoother trailing edge.)

I did make small fillet type fairing at the intersection of the landing gear 
strut
fairing and the fuse and the wheel pant. They should have been bigger I suppose,
but bigger would have been much harder to do. Sorry my web pictures don't
show much of that. (there is another to-do)

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cliff Shaw
1041 Euclid ave.
Edmonds, WA 98020
425 776 5555
http://www.europaowners.org/WileE


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: beecho@beecho.org
  To: europa-list@matronics.com
  Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 10:49 AM
  Subject: RE: Europa-List: Drag Reduction


  Hi Fred

  Do you think that fairings around the flap hinges are beneficial?  I have
  made them but am undecided abut mounting them.  The frontal area of the
  hinges isn't much and maybe the fairings will be adverse due to more skin
  friction?

  Tom Friedland

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
  [mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Fred Fillinger
  To: europa-list@matronics.com
  Subject: Re: Europa-List: Drag Reduction


  >...and am  modifying the...a decent airflow in the area
  > of the ugly join between  the leg fairngs and the wheel spats.
  >
  > The minor tiny mod merely attaches a small half circle of surplus 
  > wheel fairing material, about 15mm tall, fixed to conceal the gap at 
  > the  bottom of the leg fairing.
  >
  > Patrick

  A definitive answer is either a) better; b) worse, or c) no change.  :-) It
  actually may be possible that interference drag is increased, if you have a
  gear leg fairing.  What I did is make an aerodynamic "spat" which seals
  everything and mitigates interference drag.  Latter BTW is the effect of,
  especially with an acute angle of the gear leg, airflows of different
  velocities mixing and going turbulent at the junction.

  The "spat" the airframe manufacturers design here is probably by eye. It's
  so commonly that they may just assume the effect is, net, "proverse."

  Reg,
  Fred F.


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