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Vortex generators on an Ovation?


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Got the plane back from annual with vortex generators. Flew with a CFI and stalled it clean - about 5 kts slower than pre-vortex speeds. He said I landed about 5 kts slower than before as well but I wasn’t paying attention to the airspeed indicator at that time.

Winds were 20s gusting into the 30s and it seemed to have good aileron and rudder authority throughout the landing. 

Going to try out the cruise speeds this weekend.

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On 3/8/2019 at 4:06 PM, aviatoreb said:

I also a lot of people who KNOW what they will do but have no direct information. I find they do exactly as advertised.

BTW indeed they are trivial to remove.  Absolutely trivial.  I don't plan to.

The only down side is it is a tad harder to wax and wash the plane.

 

I installed a set on a C414A back in the 90's when I was doing A&P stuff. As I recall, they were quite trivial to install as well. I think there was a roll-on paper template with cutouts for the VG's and special glue. Cleaned the surface per recommendation. Rolled on included paper template indexing to specific reference points. Took the VG's out, applied glue, applied and let cure. Then went to test fly..lowered stall by several KTS and also made it handle less mushy. I think even for that aircraft the things only weighed several ounces so added weight was absolutely negligible.  

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Flew again with my instructor today after he sorted out some “life insurance issue.” Whatever that means.

Did approach and departure stalls, accelerated/turning stalls, MCA (real MCA not the FAAs touchy feels version of it) and normal and short field landings. Feels like a totally different plane at low speeds. Amazing how well the ailerons work near stall speed and in the landing flare. Short field approach at 63 KIAS over the numbers seemed to work well.

Still haven’t tested high speed cruise but unless it knocks 10 kts off my cruise speed I’m a satisfied customer!

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I think we saw 51 kts but I’ll ask the CFI. We probably did about 10 full stalls but I was just concentrating on keeping the ball centered and not doing any spins.

Which begs the question, if you actually unintentionally stall the plane, what do you think your chances of having the ball centered is? After all, you just made a big mistake stalling the plane, a small mistake of not being coordinated is pretty likely.



Tom
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4 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:


Which begs the question, if you actually unintentionally stall the plane, what do you think your chances of having the ball centered is? After all, you just made a big mistake stalling the plane, a small mistake of not being coordinated is pretty likely.



Tom

Excellent point. I make great efforts not to UNINTENTIONALLY stall the plane. 

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I just want to know if theres a change in cruise speed. Im guessing with the VG's lightly loaded, you should be able to get stopped in 500 to 650ft. My record as of now is 750ft. 100ft shorter is worth 2 or 3 knots.

You must land on some very short fields. What we need is retractable VGs (like speed brakes), get the best of both worlds.


Tom
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9 hours ago, ilovecornfields said:

I think we saw 51 kts but I’ll ask the CFI. We probably did about 10 full stalls but I was just concentrating on keeping the ball centered and not doing any spins.

I saw 52 in a V that was a couple hundred under gross. Good idea on the ball focus. My MK 1 sphincter co-ordinator helps me from keeping a wing from dropping on a full stall also.

 

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1 hour ago, mike_elliott said:

I saw 52 in a V that was a couple hundred under gross. Good idea on the ball focus. My MK 1 sphincter co-ordinator helps me from keeping a wing from dropping on a full stall also.

 

so that's vs: 57 KIAS in an Acclaim S.  1.2*5 KIAS is 6 knot reduction in 1.2Vso VREF.  Is the float factor 100 or 200' per knot?

-de

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11 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:


You must land on some very short fields. What we need is retractable VGs (like speed brakes), get the best of both worlds.


Tom

The shortest field so fat is 2300 feet, but I like the idea of not being majorly limited to where I can go, to a certain limitation of course.  The VG's just add another amount of safety IMO.

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6 hours ago, carusoam said:

@Niko182,

If I may...  What are you using to measure your landing and roll distance?

Just wondering if we are doing the same thing.

Best regards,

-a-

I would calculate it by amount of runway used. The small runway at john wayne has yellow arrows on the ground that you can see from google maps. Id do a full stop as short a possible. then see how many arrows I passed, and where on the runway I stopped. once clear of the runway, I'd use foreflight to see how much runway I used. I don't know how much ground roll there was, but I was completely stopped in less than 800ft from the beginning of the runway.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/21/2019 at 12:32 AM, ilovecornfields said:

Haven’t done a lot of cruising in it yet. There were some post-annual issues I’m dealing with so I haven’t had a chance to do a lot of flying. I’ll post an update when it’s all sorted out.

Everything sorted? Did you finish your numbers?

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  • 1 month later...

I have them on my 2000 O2 and feel more confident knowing that I have a few extra kts of protection when slow.  I have nothing to compare to as they came with my plane when purchased.  Being able to confidently land at 68 kts with total control and no float makes them priceless to me.  Once I realized that keeping speeds lower (except when gusting) was the key to great landings, they were a no brainer.  BTW I have no problem doing 175-180 kts in cruise.

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