Jeff,
Why does the tape need to be so wide, or does it just come in 2 1/4" widths?
If you get a chance, perhaps you could publish a photo.
Best wishes,
William
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rman" <topglock@cox.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 3:51 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Thank you, John Lawton.
>
> Last year, I had the pleasure of flying into John's airstrip, in Tennessee
> and visiting with him and his near finished bird, for a while. In our
> conversation, John mentioned how sealing up the aircraft would clean up
> the lines, resulting in better speeds. As John said, the glider guys do
> it and it works. Well, while I had Baby Blue disassembled and was
> cleaning her up for Sun-N-Fun (which she did not make, as she was still
> ailing from the weak carb spring incident) I decided to add some gap seals
> to the wing, to seal the flaps, upon retraction. What I used was a 2.25"
> wide piece of .020" styrene, a product that I use, almost daily in my
> sign/graphics business. I attached it to the wing using 1" hem tape (a
> very strong, two sided tape, used to hem banners). Once the engine was
> restored to normal operating condition, the results were immediate and
> astounding. I haven't done a complete test, yet, but the results seems to
> have yielded about 4-5 kph at cruise. It has also resulted in more float,
> during landing, which I attribute to reduced stall speeds. I say reduced
> stall speeds, because, by reducing my final approach from 65 kph to 60
> kph, across the numbers, Baby Blue lands like she used to. I'll be doing
> more extensive tests, as the weather settles. However, I am extremely
> pleased with the initial results of the simple and inexpensive mod.
> Thanks again, John for your suggestion...
>
> Jeff - Baby Blue
> 284 hours
>
>
> --
> 269.6.4/790 - Release Date: 05/05/2007 10:34
>
>
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