Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 21:20:10 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-2578500@logan.com>
Reply-To: "Dan Schaefer" <dfs155@earthlink.net>
From: "Dan Schaefer" <dfs155@earthlink.net>
Subject:  Re: Turbulator Tape
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This stuff is used by the soaring crowd on what are already some of the most
efficient aircraft in existance. Some friends into soaring swear that the
tape (applied to the bottom of the wing) improves aero- parameters by a
measureable factor (sink rate, improved stall characteristics, etc. - I not
actually sure, but they swear by it)! Always trying to squeeze a bit more
out of N235SP (an early 235) and hearing that Dave Morse had put it on his
Lancair, I put it on my airplane (called Dave and asked where he put his and
did the same thing). Can't say if there was any noticed change in
performance (plus or minus) but it sure is difficult to clean around!

Also, the adhesive it uses makes it all but impossible to remove without
also removing a lot of paint on the bottom of the wing.

As far as the exact aerodynamic function (I agree that delaying laminar
separation on the bottom of the wing seems an odd goal unless there is some
drag reduction benefits), maybe someone from the soaring community can chime
in with some words of wisdom.

Dan Schaefer