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1. 07:28 AM - Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 (John Markey)
2. 09:03 AM - Re: Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 (Craymondw@aol.com)
3. 01:56 PM - Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 (MPPalmer@aol.com)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 |
Would you mind sending me digital pictures of the fairing and engine cowling inlet/outlet
mods?
Thanks,
John
GII FT
Then I started a long string of modifications. In 1996 I repainted the craft and
made
further mods (closing the cooling inlets, closing the engine inlet, changing
the strut fairings, bringing up the flap setting etc) bringing the cruise
up to 200 mph. Racers have informed me that the "Y's" on the landing gear
create drag. Some say the wheel pants are not designed well. My biggest increase
came from installing a set of experimental only Airflow Performance .028
Injector Nozzles (They are located in Spartanburg N.C.) that added another 6 mph
bringing the cruise up to 206.
---------------------------------
Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.
Message 2
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| Subject: | Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 |
Hi,
I closed up the inlets by an inch. My cylinder head temperatures now
range around 325 degrees. You have to also bring the outlets forward or you will
build a flat area that will buffet. I air foiled the inside top inlet to
smoothen out the air flow. The engine breather inlet was shortened by well over
two inches in height. I found more air went in than was required and was
spilled out resulting in a slight oil streak of air filter fluid on the cowling.
Racer Ken Johnson has formulas for engine breather and cooling inlet/ out let
ratios.
Note: the flaps should be reflexed a few degrees. My ailerons are around
zero. I also used tape under cowling joints to fair them up even with the
fuselage. For the main wheel pants, I hung plumb bobs off the tail and wing
center and drew a center line on the floor. Then I used a steel measure to align
the wheel pants parallel to that center line, doing that added a few knots. A
friend sawed off his wing fairing's and picked up a few knots. I was told by
a Stoddard Hamilton engineer that the wing fairing's worked against you.
A Swiss builder used 2" X 6" strakes on the fuselage about one inch in
front of the leading edge of the wings and claimed he added a few knots. That
area is poorly designed and when 3's go over 300 mph a buffeting sound can be
heard in that area. Formula one Reno racers feel the dirtiest part of Gl
Ft's are the "Y's" between the fuselage and the wheel pants. Cirrus aircraft has
well designed fairing's in those areas.
When I complained to New Glasair that further factory development on the
Glasair 2's and 3's has come to an end, they replied how wonderful that
builder's where performing them??!! I feel the new owners have dropped the ball
and let Lancair march ahead. There are known design flaws on both Glasair
models and also much lighter composite material could be employed. When I lived
in
New England a good friend from Germany and expert in composite design looked
at my parts and said; "what are you building..a tank!!" A young Stoddard
Hamilton engineer presented an all carbon fiber wing at Oshkosh that was longer
that the three wing. I was able to pick that wing up with one hand. Gl 2 & 3
wings take two strong men to carry. I was about to reproduce modified
Glasair models in carbon fiber when a business opportunity in Georgia came up.
At
the time my German friend's brother ran the Black Hawk Division of Sykorsky
that had developed using multi layered pre preg composite sheets, stamping out
parts and heat curing them in molds. This took out the labor intensive lay
up work and greatly reduced Sykorsky's production costs. We were about to
make molds out of a thin ceramic material backed by ply wood to heat cure
fuselage, wing skins, cowlings, aileron skins, and flap skins that we planned
on
quickly cutting out with lazers. We estimated we could reduce the weight of
both models by several hundred pounds. To give you some idea of how heavy
Glasair parts are. I weighed the tail feathers of an RV 4 and just the Glasair
rudder alone weighed more than the complete empennage of the RV 4. We estimated
that by reducing a Glasair's weight several hundred pounds a 160 hp would
have nearly the same performance of a much heavier Glasair with a 200 hp
engine.
An Eglin Airforce base officer built a Glasair 2 FT that cruises 220 mph
and installed a McCauley prop. He completed the plane in 1992 and claims
when he goes side by side with Gl2 RG' he has never been beaten. My Hartzell
works up to 2375 RPM. When I turn up the RPM the plane actually goes slower!
That tells me that there is a turbulence problem with the prop design.
Back in the 1980's I owned a T-18. At the time, T-18's where considered
"Hot Rods." Now the T-18 is considered old technology. I am afraid that if
factory modifications and new production techniques aren't deployed on the
Glasair 2's and 3's, not only will they become has been's, they will also be very
expensive kits to buy. Some one will surely tool up a pre preg heat cured mold
kit production and greatly reduce the costs and the rest will be history.
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Message 3
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| Subject: | Re: Glasair-List Digest: 2 Msgs - 05/29/07 |
I haven't done much in the way of speed mods... I have slightly smaller
inlets and reflexed the flaps. (And have a funky augmenter exhaust system from
day
one.)
Reflexing the flaps gave me about 2 to 3 knots. I also went with Van's
pressure recovery wheel pants on the mains, and picked up 4 to 5 knots, although
my
old Glasair wheel pants were very crummy, so YMMV. I did some oil testing on
the wheel pant / gear leg fairing, and that was a real surprise. There's a lot
of weird stuff going on down there that's not intuitively obvious to this guy.
Long story short, I seem to have interactively stumbled onto an intersection
fairing that keeps most of the airflow attached there. I would like to try
Van's pressure recover nose gear someday. I think that's probably worth a few
knots, being up there in the accelerated propellor airflow.
We have been seeing an honest 200 mph (174 kts) True at 4000 ft in the
Arizona heat running full throttle, 2700 rpm, best power mixture (10 GPH) on a
slightly tricked out O-320. (9:1 pistons, PLASMA ignition, some porting with the
valves). Just had a 5 angle valve job done and are still gathering data on that.
In theory, it should go a bit faster now, albeit on more fuel.
I've heard reports that taking off the Glasair cosmetic wing fairing is worth
a few knots. But haven't tried it.
While it's nice to go fast, it's mostly a guy thing. We took off in front of
a guy who stuffed a 540 in his Glasair II RG. Unbeknownst to us, he was going
to the same airshow as we were. He took off #2 but called on the UNICOM ten
minutes ahead of us, in a one hour trip. (Slightly different courses.) We burn
7.2 GPH, LOP and see 165 kts. He throttles back to 11 GPH and sees 215 kts. (!)
He has two extra cylinders that cost that much more money. For ten minutes
and bragging rights, he can have it. When IFR, I'll take the extra endurance
over speed any day. If you can do it, the best way to go fast is to reduce drag
and clean up your existing engine. Especially with AvGas in the $4 to $5 range.
Mike Palmer <><<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> See what's
free at
http://www.aol.com.
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