vortex generators

[cposer]

Anyone here glued their vortex generators to their wing using super glue? How did that work out?

[efwd]

I bet it works great until you break one and need to replace it. Don't they come with nice little, preshaped, double sided adhesive stickers?

[jrthomas]

I have Stolspeed VG's that I installed probably 4 years ago with the adhesive they provided. They're all still there. They will come off easily if needed and not pull the paint off. The adhesive never gets hard. Any glue would probably bring paint with it if you had to pull one off.

[Maverick]

This morning I watched videos on short landings on YouTube by Trent Palmer and by BackCountry Flying. Then I went to the air and spent time flying slow flight. I was following Trent's recommendation to get up high and get used to flying in slow flight. . . allot. He suggested going to 5,000agl and pretending you are on a landing approach down to 4500ft at various slow speeds over and over until you feel comfortable with the way the plane handles at the different speeds and throttle control inputs required to keep the descent at a rate you are also comfortable with. While getting used to flying slow with no flaps at 55 & 50 mph and then with 20 degrees flaps at 50mph and finally at 40 degrees flaps, I noticed a couple of things.

The most interesting/disturbing thing was the buffet on the horizontal stabilizer when trying to fly with 40 degrees which went away immediately at changing to 20 degrees so my first lesson learned was don't use 40 degrees in my plane until I know more about that. Maybe the horizontal tail was stalling. Phil is this why you are considering VGs on your horizonal tail?

The second thing I learned was that flying with 20 degrees was comfortable but, like Slyfox said, I like the more responsive control with no flaps or having to mess with them. And the nose comes up pretty quick when you go back to no flaps which I haven't gotten used to yet. The only time I ever felt I needed flaps was in my 150/172/182 and then only because that is what I was taught. Then I got a J-3 and since then I've always slipped airplanes. In all of my other planes since the J-3 (all armature built experimental) I never felt that the flaps were worth the time to mess with them or didn't have them in the first place.

Back to the airport. I have been slowing to 80mph at the runway threshold on downwind, down to 70mph on base and down to 60 on final and tickling the stick with power off to get down to stall but, the floating was carrying me past the first taxiway exit requiring me to taxi another 1,000ft to the next turn off. Today I came over the threshold at 55mph and hit the landing line at 45mph and made the first taxiway turn off without having to stand on the brakes, just a little as I approached to make the turn off the runway.

I don't know yet if the first taxiway turn is more than 300ft so, I don't know if I got down in the length of a football field which is my goal. I'll have to find out the distance. Next, I'll try coming over the threshold at 50mph. And, I will spend more time slow flying with 20 degrees. I've heard one should fly with 20 degrees getting up and getting down but, I'm not there yet.

I don't think that the VGs offer enough of a benefit to motivate me to pursue them further. To those who like them, enjoy washing those wings.

[Slyfox]

first off my model 4 is right close to 650 empty. that's a huge thing next to the 5 - 7 aircraft. when I come in to land I generally have 70 than down to 50 over the numbers. yes when not using flaps I can pull back and have the tail drag on the ground. that is fun. Oh and I'm always looking out the left door at the wheels when landing. I have electric trim in the elevator so that takes all forces off the stick, it's fairly easy to pull back or should I say micro use the elevator, very comfortable. Now this is my trick, I have the throttle to where if I pull back sort of hard it will idle slower than 2000rpm on the ground, so if I need to get slower for a nice 3 point stall, I pull back on the throttle, along with my prop being able to go flat with a switch, , I can nail my landing right at the start of the runway, very cool. I can be stopped very quick and I always do a turn back after landing with a short trip back to the start of the runway. only time I have a problem is when the grass is wet, than I slide with both wheels locked. sometimes when that happens I just hit the rudder and put the airplane sideways. I'm sure some people that might be sitting in the runup area just shake their head at me. I'm out for fun and this airplane does it for me. I don't think I need to do anything with the vg's, things are going just fine.

[Maverick]

Okay, since there is another discussion on the service alert regarding major changes to a wing upon which I brought up VGs, I didn't want to high-jack that thread so, I'm waking up this message to ask my question.

What are the pros and cons of VGs on a Kitfox 5-6-7? I understand what they do and given a no flaps stall speed of 44 power off stall and 42 power on, how beneficial are these to the Kitfox. I saw that Papua Flyer is thinking about adding them. I've seen them on other KFs via YouTube videos. Are these worth the cost and time?

If so, what brand/source is good for them?

[Av8r3400]

[jiott]

Washing my wing leading edges (I do this after every flight) is the one and only reason I hesitate to install VG's.

[Shadowrider]

Really?? My airport is located next to Utah lake, with a population of trillions to the tenth power of bugs. Basically anytime other than winter you can plan on getting plastered by bugs, BIG ones. Enough bugs that the plane will smell like dead fish when it’s in the hangar. I wipe down my plane after every flight and having vgs adds virtually no time maybe a min at most. The bugs impact the leading edge and underside and rarely impact vgs. I think in the 100 hours I have one or two bugs hit a vg. I have flown without vgs for a season and with vgs for a season and have zero regrets or have it negatively effect cleaning. Along with that point, those that are clean ocd like myself, ceramic coating makes wiping the bugs off about a 5 min post flight job.

[PapuaPilot]

If I install VGs it would only be on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer.

I rewatched the videos to remember what he found out. He claims VGs don't make any difference from 0 to 15 degrees, it's only around 25 degree nose up that the VGs help. I don't see any reason to install VGs on the wings of my plane. My landings are normal 3 point, I don't do the tailwheel first landings. I think my Kitfox sits at 8-10 degrees depending on tires.