Tests with Turdulators on Cherokee II

Today when I got the glider out of the hangar I noticed that it had
been graced with Avian Turdulators. Ive heard a lot about this
revolutionary aerodynamic breakthrough so i thought id try it out. I
did take a hose and knock them down pretty flush with the wing
planform so that they only did their magic on the boundary layer
flow. It seemed to work out pretty well during most of my flight (see
Wood over Iowa thread), but late in the day I was not impressed as I
landed out about 5 miles from home. So much for these 'inspired by
nature' performance enhancing devices...

I think the performance is noticeably affected by the differing thermal
characteristics of dark vs light colors. On glass birds, the turbulators
appear as yellow or red objects against a white background, while on my
1-26 they are white against the yellow/red backgrounds. Also, on glass
they mainly generate themselves in-flight and have to be removed
afterwards, while on the 1-26 they appear overnight and may be removed
pre-flight.

Despite suggestions from other observers, I cannot verify that while on
glass they cluster on the leading edges but on Schweizers thay prefer the
trailing edges.

Ian



At 04:00 02 June 2008, wrote:
Today when I got the glider out of the hangar I noticed that it had
been graced with Avian Turdulators. Ive heard a lot about this
revolutionary aerodynamic breakthrough so i thought id try it out. I
did take a hose and knock them down pretty flush with the wing
planform so that they only did their magic on the boundary layer
flow. It seemed to work out pretty well during most of my flight (see
Wood over Iowa thread), but late in the day I was not impressed as I
landed out about 5 miles from home. So much for these 'inspired by
nature' performance enhancing devices...

"Ian Cant" wrote in message
...

Snip...
Despite suggestions from other observers, I cannot verify that while on
glass they cluster on the leading edges but on Schweizers thay prefer the
trailing edges.

Ian

I know Schweizers can get bird strikes from the rear - but bugs? Wow, you
guys can fly slow.

On Sun, 1 Jun 2008 21:00:31 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Today when I got the glider out of the hangar I noticed that it had
been graced with Avian Turdulators. Ive heard a lot about this
revolutionary aerodynamic breakthrough so i thought id try it out. I
did take a hose and knock them down pretty flush with the wing
planform so that they only did their magic on the boundary layer
flow. It seemed to work out pretty well during most of my flight (see
Wood over Iowa thread), but late in the day I was not impressed as I
landed out about 5 miles from home. So much for these 'inspired by
nature' performance enhancing devices...

So when they go it doesn't help you go?

rj