View Single Post
  #1  
Old August 8th 07, 09:12 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 172
Default To profile or not to profile

My Speed Astir's wings show a considerable amount of waviness at the
spar caps and every rib. There also appears to have been some repair
work on a leading edge, and the profile is noticeably NOT the same as
the other wing.
I have Compufoil Pro, which will outpout CNC mill files for the
templates, and a friend with a CNC mill, willing to produce the
templates. I will almost certainly take care of the leading edge
issues, but I'm waffling about undertaking a full wing re-profile. On
one hand, you want your glider to be as good as it can be. On the
other hand, I don't fly contests, and I'm pretty sure the pilot is
causing more loss of performance than the extra drag from the waves in
the profile.
Opinions??

BTW, the single biggest improvement I've made to date is the addition
of a flight recorder and a iPAQ with XCSoar. That combo made it
immediately clear that I was being too conservative (chicken!)

Jim