Fred, Seems to be a bit of a misconception here. Gliders virtually never
climb in a true sense, only in fact when they are being winch launched or
when slowing up to enter a thermal. For the remaining 99% of the time they
are going quietly down hill in their air mass, even though they go out of
their way to find a rising air mass. Glider design aims for optimum
lift/drag ratio between their thermalling speed of about 50 knots and the
between thermal cruise of up to 100 knots.Increasing the L/D ratio is good
news for Europas too. Regards, David Joyce
----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Fillinger <fillinger@ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: Gap Seals
> Gap seals are most effective when pressure differential above/below
> the wing surface is the greatest -- in the climb. Hence they are very
> popular on gliders.
>
> Regards,
> Fred F., A063
>
> > Message text written by "Garry Stout"
> >> While strolling through the various aircraft displays at Sun'N Fun I
> >> stopped to examine the Stemme motor glider. I noticed that mylar "gap
> >> seals" were fitted to both the ailerons and the flaps, on the bottom
and
> >> top gaps. The sales representative explained that the gap seals
reduced
> >> drag, and improved the aileron roll rates. Since I am interested in
> >> anything that improves performance I thought I'd look into it. Has
anyone
> >> tried this? Was it worthwhile? What kind of changes did you
experience?
> >
> > Go to< wingsandwheels.com> and find the materials for doing internal and
> > external gap seals in this glider (sailplane) related mail-order
company.
> > The owner is Tim Mara and he will be glad to counsel you on what it
takes
> > to avoid air passage through the gap at any control surface. Reduction
in
> > drag and improvement in control response are the advantages of this
simple
> > and cheap upgrade as any glider driver will tell you. Go for the
internal
> > seals first and see what the results are.
> >
> > Herbert
>
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