I'm never surprised by findings like these.
I'm not sure whether it's instinct, or the straightforward consequence
of aerodynamic principles. It seems to me that the profile of most
Europas is pretty similar: XS, classic, monowheel, even tri-gear: They
are all pretty sleek and smooth, with low drag, high efficiency and not
too much excess power. It's not like they are covered with a myriad of
draggy protuberances which detract from their form and demand to be
'designed out' !
Is there really so much scope for performance variation ? Or is it all
down to understandable, wishful thinking on the part of proud owners ? I
now know the performance of my airplane, but it's been a long hard
effort to get there. The final results are within a knot or two of the
original figures for G-YURO, all these years ago.
In my imagination, given the efficient shape, power is the limiting
factor. Put in more, and you go faster (to a point; with rapidly
diminishing returns !). Franky, I'd be really surprised if 10 knots
separated virtually all of them.
I have a clear memory of an hour long cross country, from the Midlands
to S.E. England alongside an identical Europa with more that 20% more
horse power at its disposal than I had, and I can honestly report 'IMHO'
that he wasn't 'pulling away' !!
But what do I know, ehh ?
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: forum-owner@europaclub.org.uk
Subject: Re: Aerobatics in Tris vs Monos
I know a guy in Scotland who had a monowheel - then converted to a
Tri-gear
and fitted his own nicely designed and made wheel fairings. He says
there is
very little difference in the cruise performance of his mono versus his
now
Tri-gear.
Jerry
Jerry@ban-bi.com or LTS@avnet.co.uk
www.Ban-bi.com or www.avnet.co.uk/touchdown
----- Original Message -----
From: "McFadyean" <ami@mcfadyean.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Aerobatics in Tris vs Monos
> On Tuesday, May 14, 2002 1:19 PM, Tony Renshaw
> [SMTP:tonyrenshaw@ozemail.com.au] wrote:
>
> Lastly, I wonder about the flight
> > characteristics of the conventional taildraggers out there, the one
or
> two
> > varieties that I know of. In anticipation.
> >> Tony Renshaw
>
> There is no discernable difference.
> Also, the prototype conventional gear aircraft (G-RICS) reported no
speed
> degradation upon conversion (from the monowheel). Can't confirm
whether
> that was true or not or whether it was carried out under comparable
> conditions.
> But the addition of leg fairings adds about 7knts.
> I wouldn't dare to suggest that this makes it faster than a
monowheel!! To
> date, no wheel fairings have been tried.
>
> Duncan McF
>
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