Drag of Transponder Antennae compared

Back in the 70s, the original 201 Standard Libelles didn't have the little plastic half-embedded wingtip wheels you see on most of them. Woody Woodward (W1 for those with good memories) got the kit from Glasflugel to install them on his glider. Concerned about drag, lazy, or maybe just with an inquisitive mind, he installed a wheel on one wing only and flew around with it for a year. Unable to tell any difference, he stopped worrying about it and installed the second one.

Three years ago when we were refinishing my ASW 24 wings, UH built the molds and installed a similar set of wingtip wheels in my glider. I love them! Now I can move the glider around by myself on the ground, even (especially) on pavement. They're half embedded in the wingtips so the profile is actually slightly less than that of the factory's rubber wingtip skids.

Chip Bearden
JB

Chip Bearden wrote on 2/13/2021 5:47 AM:
Back in the 70s, the original 201 Standard Libelles didn't have the little plastic half-embedded wingtip wheels you see on most of them. Woody Woodward (W1 for those with good memories) got the kit from Glasflugel to install them on his glider. Concerned about drag, lazy, or maybe just with an inquisitive mind, he installed a wheel on one wing only and flew around with it for a year. Unable to tell any difference, he stopped worrying about it and installed the second one.

Three years ago when we were refinishing my ASW 24 wings, UH built the molds and installed a similar set of wingtip wheels in my glider. I love them! Now I can move the glider around by myself on the ground, even (especially) on pavement. They're half embedded in the wingtips so the profile is actually slightly less than that of the factory's rubber wingtip skids.

Chip Bearden
JB

I had one of the tip wheels fall off my ASH26E while pushing it out of the tie down (how did it
hold on through the previous day's taxi, takeoff, flight, landing, taxi?). Flew the next two
days with one wheel; awkward, but fortunately, the winds were light.

The other drag I accept gladly is the steerable tailwheel. Makes taxiing easy, also pushing
around by hand (forward only, pushing backward is a PITA) and steering with the rudder, but a
big bonus is the terrific control of the ground run when taking off or landing, especially in
cross winds or tailwinds. If I went back to towed gliders, I'd still want a steerable tail wheel.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

On 2/13/21 6:47 AM, Chip Bearden wrote:
Back in the 70s, the original 201 Standard Libelles didn't have the little plastic half-embedded wingtip wheels you see on most of them. Woody Woodward (W1 for those with good memories) got the kit from Glasflugel to install them on his glider. Concerned about drag, lazy, or maybe just with an inquisitive mind, he installed a wheel on one wing only and flew around with it for a year. Unable to tell any difference, he stopped worrying about it and installed the second one.

Three years ago when we were refinishing my ASW 24 wings, UH built the molds and installed a similar set of wingtip wheels in my glider. I love them! Now I can move the glider around by myself on the ground, even (especially) on pavement. They're half embedded in the wingtips so the profile is actually slightly less than that of the factory's rubber wingtip skids.

Chip Bearden
JB


Refinishing my Ka6-CR wings a number of years ago, we made the
surprising discovery the leading edges had been made more pointy by the
addition of balsa wood strips. Somehow they had never gotten dented
over the years.

Glider was owned initially by Rudy Moser, and apparently he had the
habit of doing experiments like this on one wing and flying it for a
while. If it wanted to fly in circles of the correct direction, he'd
go ahead and do the other wing.