Larry Flesner wrote: > I went for a short flight after work today and was going to check my speed > brake for you...
I did that test for real today, since it was a calm day and I had lots of time. Reality is closer to a 50% faster descent rate with flaps than without, if you can believe what I did today. I'm not sure I do, but it wouldn't surprise me either. Most of what I did today was good old-fashioned stopwatch and altimeter work, verified later by the EIS altitude/time/speed/RPM record (the 26 data points per second information that was used to create the plot at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/flights/flight98.gif ). I got my new replacement Sensenich 54x54 prop yesterday, so I also did some more extensive speed and climb testing with the Sterba so I can compare them after I put the Sensenich back on. I'm pretty confident with the 162 mph true airspeed at 7500', which is what you'd call "cruise", I guess. This is based on several 4-way GPS runs. Not bad considering I have no spinner, wheelpants, or lots of other things that will further reduce drag later. One thing I did test pretty carefully was glide ratio. Bottom line from 8000' to 6000' is that I got 16.0:1 at 97 mph, which makes me feel pretty good, considering how draggy my plane is at this point. That's an average of 533'/min, so that tells me that I can climb out of the airport and probably make it back if the engine croaks on climbout, since my climb rate is an average of 750'/min from 800' to 5800' with full fuel at 90 mph IAS (which is very close to TAS at low altitudes). Why am I doing all this testing knowing that it'll all be "wrong" after I add wheelpants, etc.? Because I want to know how much difference each improvement makes to the KR, so I'll know what I'm talking about when I answer these questions I also worked on making my landings "power off" (idle, anyway) from abeam the numbers to touchdown. This way if the engine quits I'll make it anyway. I had to do several "maxed out" slips to get it down on the numbers, but that was fun too. Since it's going to be warm but gusty tomorrow, maybe I'll start doing a little body work, and clean up some of this drag...and also add a blast tube to my Ellison's pressure regulator cover. > 198 hours at shutdown this evening with Langford gaining fast !!!!! I did 2.3 hours today, so I'm now up to 158... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
