Horton STOL kit

[zero.one.victor]

I installed some bootleg flap-gap seals on my ragwing,on the advice of some friends who had them on their 140's. The gap seal is just a strip of duct tape,applied to the gap from above when the (hinged) flaps are down. I was surprised that it did make a real difference in stall speed,between 5 & 10 mph.
However,I don't land any shorter now,& this mod may actually make me land longer. Before the gap seals,I used 60-65 as my target approach speed. Now,while the airplane stalls quite a bit slower, if I come in any slower than about 60 on final, the ailerons are very mushy & I feel like I don't have very good control of the airplane if/when I need to make any corrections for burbles. So I still use 60-ish. Trouble is,where the airplane would stall & land before,now it just floats & floats before the wing gives it up & finally stalls ( at the lower speed) for a three-point landing.
I'm thinking about pulling the gap-seal tape back off & seeing if that shortens up my landings. Trouble is,I think the gap seals help my takeoff's ( I use half flaps) so I hate to lose that improvement.

Eric

[mrpibb]

Does anybody make a VG kit for the Ragwing? I seen them for the A and B models but haven't seen them for the 48 It would be nice to get a little more aileron.

[zero.one.victor]

They not only have them available for the 170 A & B,but the 120/140 as well. But I've never seen the ragwing 170 mentioned.
Nobody I've asked seems to know about the ragwing 170 airfoil. Is it different from the A & B models? I assume it is.
Is it the same airfoil as used on the 120/140? Seems like a logical assumption,after all,the 48 170 is really just an overgrown 140. Even though the wing has more area, I've never measured chord to see how it stacks up versus a 140. Even if the chord is different,it still might be the same airfoil design just in bigger proportions.
I suppose a guy might be able to get Micro or VG-STOL vg's engineered/approved for their ragwing,but it would likelu ionvolve loaning their airplane to the vg outfit for use in working up flight test data. Even if they threw in a big discount,that doesn't appeal to me at all.

Eric

[GAHorn]

And if you have an STC'd VG system and you blow or knock a few off while washing it the airplane is technically illegal to fly without a ferry permit. (Glue metal devices onto fabric?)

[buchanan]

VG's are STC'd for a lot of rag-wing airplanes.........Cubs, Champs etc. I had them on my dusters......Cessna 188's for years and we pressure washed until you thought the paint would lift and never lost one. That 3M glue is damned good. They would be a pain however if a person needed to use wing covers. Like I said in an earlier post Mike Vivion told me that if he had it to do again he wouldn't put them on his 170 B again. FWIW

Buck Buchanan, Valier, MT ...Galena, AK

[N1277D]

Instead of duct tape, many use FAA approved aluminum tape to seal the gap between the wing and the flap on the 170A.

[frainiea]

I installed both the flap gap seals and the aileron tape on my ’53 170B. I thought the results were pretty dramatic. The pop rivets supplied with the kit are less than acceptable in my book. I had a number of them break short of the full pull. They also interfered with the movement of the flap gap rollers when mounted as recommended. I had to drill a small bevel on the back side of the roller guide and used flush rivets. Fit up was a little bit of a challenge for me and the project took a couple of days after the painting of the parts was completed.

My biggest recommendation would be to get yourself some better pop rivets. Don’t use the ones that come with the kit. Secondly, double check the fit line of the flap seal to the wing. I found there was about 3/16 inch run in on the last couple of feet as you move to the inboard end of the flap. Lastly I built a little two hole rivet jig so all the rivets came out in a nice straight line with a constant gap in-between.