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Showing results for tags 'dorsal fin'.
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Throwing this out for fun but largely pointless discussion: Kerrville stopped putting dorsal fins on the M20C in my year (1968), and this omission remained through the last year of the model in 1978. As far as I can tell, every single other metal wing M20 ever made has a dorsal fin. So why the heck did they take it off all the later Cs? They started making some other cost cutting changes that year, but i can't imagine not riveting that simple aluminum piece on one model saves very much. Google says dorsal fins add yaw stability. My short body has many wonderful traits, but yaw stability in turbulence is NOT one of them. In turbulence, the tail wags quite a bit and helps rear sear passengers who sit further off the CG axis get all pukey. But I would imagine adding yaw stability also decreases rudder effectiveness? So, has anyone here put a dorsal fin on their '68-'78 C model? Does it improve anything, other than help the plane feel like it fits in better with its siblings? It's a $500 Lasar mod part that I bet is easy to install but hardly seems like a priority.
