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Re: Europa-List: Mylar seals and stall speed?

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Mylar seals and stall speed?
From: Frans Veldman <frans@privatepilots.nl>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:13:26

Hi Pete,

> My seals are all on the top surface and the hinge line of the rudder.

Ah, I also did the underside of the ailerons and the underside of the
tailplanes.

> I will be most interested to hear the results of your stall speed tests. I
> would have expected hot and high to have had an opposite effect on
> performance.

What do you mean? You expected the performance to get worse by using
seals? Or the other way around?

> My rudder is also a poor fit at the bottom, the fuselage is too wide, how
> ever it is probably in turbulent air off the prop. 

Well, after I applied seals on the hinge line of the rudder, I noticed
that I need more right rudder than before. I have a small trim tab to
get a neutral rudder during cruise, but I had to bend the trim tab quite
a bit more to the left after I applied the seals. So at least the seal
is doing something, be it good or bad.

More right rudder needed is actually the opposite effect of what I
expected. Can't explain why this is or what the implication is.

The rudder is anyway a mystery to me. I have a vent opening in the
D-panel and connected a scat hose to it to a similar opening to the
rudder closeout. The idea here is that the rudder closeout is a low
pressure area, due to the shape and also due to the gaps, and helps the
air vacate the cabin to improve ventilation. Oddly enough though, the
D-panel opening not sucks the air out of the cabin but actually blows a
lot of air *into* the cabin! My doors don't leak, I have no other
openings in the cabin. I have no idea where that air coming in from the
rudder is going and why the rudder closeout is a higher pressure area
than the cabin. Really weird. If anyone has an idea I would love to hear.

Regards,
Frans



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