[speyers]

Does anyone have some first hand experience with vortex generators on RV's? I have a read a few things and flown a couple planes with them. Do they make much of a differance with the RV's? I know that Van's is not a big fan of them.

 

[chuck]

They reduce the top speed slightly (2 mph?) and move the stall down a little bit (2 mph?). It was hard for me to measure. I didn't change my approach speed but suspect there might be a hair of extra margin. Where I do notice them is trying to turn with other planes. Other RV's w/VG's used to out turn me (I'd enter an accelerated stall). That is no longer the case

People who have competed in acro with the RV's also like VG's.

It seems for the vast majority of RV's there is not a strong reason to have VG's.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Terry Jantzi did some VG testing on his RV-6, with a flight test airspeed boom with swiveling pitot-static head. He seems to have found about a 5 ft stall speed reduction with flaps up, and about 3 kt reduction with flaps fully extended. He found that the stall speed reduction did not allow a landing speed reduction, as the tail wheel would hit the ground first in a three point landing. He found about a 3 kt loss in top speed.

 

[Finger Lakes RVer]

I have VGs on my -6. Everything that Kevin (Terry) reported is true. Mine are semi-permanently installed until next paint job. I would not recommend them.

JB

 

[mikeljshields]

I tried them this week

I found it very hard to determine any changes to my flying speeds, approach and landing with them as compared without them. I have my VG's attached with really good carpet tape, I plan to experiement with them some and see if I can make a more educated conclusion as to keep them or remove them. I made my own VG's out of raw aluminum T stock, took approx 4 hours of my hobby time and $14 for 12 feet, I have 6 feet left over. Size of the VG are 1 inch in lengh, each tab are 3/8" and I made the base concave to better surface for adhearing to the wing. I based my size of the VG's after the BLR VG's on our Cheiftain that I fly. I placed each pair of VG's approx 3 inches apart starting at the wing tip gave me 11 pairs (22 total) for a grand total of 44 VG's.