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On 01/04/2014 10:43 PM, jonathanmilbank wrote:
> The speed kit in its entirety doesn't appeal, because I don't
> fancy having to clean grass and mud repeatedly from inside the
> spats, nor struggling to check brake pads and inflate tyres.
My "home field" is a muddy grass strip. But I never have to clean out
the spats (but I would have to clean the underside of the wing after
every landing without the spats). If your home field is a grass strip,
you don't have to worry much about the brake pads, but if your home
field is a hard surface you don't have to worry about mud and grass.
I remove the spats once a year, sufficient for maintenance, brake pad
checks, and cleaning out the inside of the spats.
> But I see that some folk fit "pants" on the legs and fairings over
> the hinges. My question is "What are the different figures between
> the two arrangements, with or without wheel spats, in terms of
> weight and speed gain?"
Never measured these things individually, but from what I know about
it is that tubular constructions (like the legs) are extremely draggy
(some folks even claim that leg fairings have a greater benefit than
wheel spats) and that the hinge fairings are probably adding drag
instead of removing it. The hinges are pretty much knifes slicing
through the air, but with the fairing there is much more skin drag due
to the increased surface, and the opening at the rear is one of the
worst things you can do to any aerodynamic profile. I have left the
hinge fairings off, made a few tiny simple fairings for the transition
between wing and hinges to just cover the bolts and reduce
interference drag and keeping the rest of the hinge as is, and
optimised the outboard "double" hinges which are legacy things from
the monowheel (to avoid recertification of the wings and controls
after changing the gear lay out).
Frans
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