---------------------------------------------------------- Lightning-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Sat 04/14/07: 1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 05:56 PM - gap seal experiment (Brian Whittingham) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 05:56:49 PM PST US From: "Brian Whittingham" Subject: Lightning-List: gap seal experiment To all, The proposed gap seal experiment that I am going to be doing flight testing for is finally at hand. As soon as the guys get back from Sun-N-Fun I'll begin with the baseline tests, and then do a retest after the modifications are done. I can't tell you how much of an increase in anything that we'll get from doing this without the testing. My thesis states that we'll see an increase in top speed, an increase in endurance/range, an increase in roll rate and climb performance. Some negative things that I expect to have are an increase in stall speed and an increase in landing distances though. I don't expect that the stall speed increase will be more than a couple of knots. With such a short landing distance I don't expect that even 10% would matter. The things that I really want to focus on are stall speed and max speed. Secondarily will concentrate on climb and glide performances. All data will be converted back to ISA conditions for a reasonable comparison. The looks of the aircraft will change very slightly as most of the gaps to seal are on the underside of the aircraft, with only an aileron gap seal for the top. We will explore the entire envelope to make sure that it is safe and will investigate the performance gains. My basic results will be posted on this site in probably 2 months time. This will most likely be some of the last flying that I do with Arion since I am relocating to Houston. It has been a privelage and I am going to miss flying the Lightning's in particular. After flying Rick's plane and the test plane I will leave with about 60 some odd hours in Lightning aircraft. Now I plan to finish up my CFI and get some students to start teaching. Hopefully I can make it back to SYI again at some point to check on how things are going with the Arion team. Brian Whittingham _________________________________________________________________ Interest Rates Fall Again! $430,000 Mortgage for $1,399/mo - Calculate new payment ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message lightning-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/Lightning-List.htm Web Forum Interface To Lists http://forums.matronics.com Matronics List Wiki http://wiki.matronics.com Full Archive Search Engine http://www.matronics.com/search 7-Day List Browse http://www.matronics.com/browse/lightning-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/lightning-list Browse Other Lists http://www.matronics.com/browse Live Online Chat! http://www.matronics.com/chat Archive Downloading http://www.matronics.com/archives Photo Share http://www.matronics.com/photoshare Other Email Lists http://www.matronics.com/emaillists Contributions http://www.matronics.com/contribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.