On 01/16/2012 04:44 PM, John Wigney wrote:
> It is still open after
> 10 years and 800 hours and I am not aware of any ill effects.
Well, in that case to make you aware of it:
Diverting air, rushing by with a speed of 100+ knots, from a smooth path
alongside the airplane, instead into a hole with lots of obstacles,
sharp turns, etc and letting it out again as a turbulent mass in the
wrong direction and with the wrong speed, is certainly costly in terms
of performance and efficiency. And in this case for no usefull purpose.
Maybe you have invested a lot of effort to make the airplane as smooth
as possible, in that case such a needless source of drag is an even
larger waste.
As a general rule you should close off all unnessecary holes in an
airplane. This is the reason why you have made the covers for the torque
tube access holes. You can leave them off without any ill effects,
except of course a reduction in speed and fuel efficiency.
Frans
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