I?ve had a Vans tailwheel fairing hanging around for the past few years, and a month or so ago I decided to finish it and install it.
Was a CAVU day today, great day for speed tests. Flew the first one without the fairing installed, came back, installed the fairing, refueled the 5 gallons used in the first test, and flew the second test. Fuel flow was set the same (11.8 gph), RPM was the same (2300) altitude was the same (8000? PA), temps were the same (32*F), and the route was the same. Flew 3 legs, 120* apart and used the data recorded by the EFIS to average the groundspeed for the last 30 seconds of each leg. Put the data into ?Kevin Horton?s Spreadsheet?.
The final result??
Without the fairing the True Airspeed was 197 knots.
With the fairing the True Airspeed was 197.5 knots.
WoooHooo!!
"Is the data repeatable?" you ask. Don't know, don't really care, was just a fun exercise.
Was a CAVU day today, great day for speed tests. Flew the first one without the fairing installed, came back, installed the fairing, refueled the 5 gallons used in the first test, and flew the second test. Fuel flow was set the same (11.8 gph), RPM was the same (2300) altitude was the same (8000? PA), temps were the same (32*F), and the route was the same. Flew 3 legs, 120* apart and used the data recorded by the EFIS to average the groundspeed for the last 30 seconds of each leg. Put the data into ?Kevin Horton?s Spreadsheet?.
The final result??
Without the fairing the True Airspeed was 197 knots.
With the fairing the True Airspeed was 197.5 knots.
WoooHooo!!
"Is the data repeatable?" you ask. Don't know, don't really care, was just a fun exercise.
