Rogerck Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Has anyone conducted any tests to determine the difference in airspeed with all wheel pants on or off? Are these things just pretty or are they functional? Roger Kuhn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandpiper Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Nothing official or scientific but my feeling was they were worth and extra 2-3 knots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 John's right about 2-3 knots, but most of us couldn't really tell with our instruments any way. Most of our instruments are off that and more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastEddieB Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I would have thought more. Much bigger loss on a Cirrus, but I guess that makes sense since drag increases as the square of the increase in velocity, so the difference between 120k and 170k is more than one might intuit. I've considered wheel pants for my Sky Arrow, but every ounce of useful load is precious so I'll probably forget about them for the immediate future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Meade Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I left the main wheel pants off my CTSW. I figure the machine is limited at 120 knots Vh anyway, and if I need to make up 2-3 knots I can change the prop pitch. I don't personally know the speed effect on an LSA. 2-3 sound rights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I think it really depends on the airplane design...when I was building a Sonex, the factory assertion verified by the building community was that pants and gear fairings are worth 10mph on the Sonex, which is significant. But the Sonex is an entirely different design than the CT, so in CT-land they may really only be worth 2-3kt. The Sonex also has shorter gear legs and entirely different gear geometry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Cesnalis Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 My wheel pants are small. I can't sense any speed difference when I remove them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Lee Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 There is certainly a lot of hype on wheel pants verses no wheel pant speeds. In some planes there is a significant difference depending on speed, size and configuration. The CT is one where it makes such a little difference that it isn't worth worrying about. My personal concern without the pants is the debris that can now be thrown at the plane without them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Cesnalis Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 What happened to the cool looking fairings that someone was selling? A CT without pants is ugly and these fairings cleaned up the look nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandpiper Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 The RV-12 kit can include wheel pants which add, I think, 3-5 knots. What doesn't come with the kit, but some add later, are gear leg fairings which seem to add another 3-5 knots. Unfortunately, the CT already has gear leg fairings so no help for us there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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