Today, I had the opportunity to talk with a Bearhawk owner who first flew his plane with everything like mine - original. Then he added the wood strips just on his hor stabs after tearing some fabric on a fence. Then he added some gap seals between his hor stabs and the elevators. The gap seal comes in three ft sections from Spruce and is what Pat Fagan used. The difference here is that these things were done one by one and not all at the same time resulting in good info on each change.
The airfoil shaped ribs did add control authority and added stability. But this pilot felt like the gap seals actually gave more additional control authority than the airfoil shaped ribs.He said the airfoil shaped ribs did 30% and the gap seals did 70%. I was surprised with this but Bob Barrows wasn't. Bob said the gap on his BH design is wider than the Patrol & LSA. He wasn't surprised of what this pilot was reporting. Bob thinks both the airfoil shaped ribs and gap seals are something worth doing. Just thought I would pass this along to you guys building. I might have to put those gap seals on myself. Mark
The airfoil shaped ribs did add control authority and added stability. But this pilot felt like the gap seals actually gave more additional control authority than the airfoil shaped ribs.He said the airfoil shaped ribs did 30% and the gap seals did 70%. I was surprised with this but Bob Barrows wasn't. Bob said the gap on his BH design is wider than the Patrol & LSA. He wasn't surprised of what this pilot was reporting. Bob thinks both the airfoil shaped ribs and gap seals are something worth doing. Just thought I would pass this along to you guys building. I might have to put those gap seals on myself. Mark
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