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Friends and Fans of the Beloved Lancair 360
series...
In looking at some air to air photos of my airplane,
Unleashed, the lightbulb finally came on. I've had the airplane for just over a
year - you'd think I'd be a bit sharper...
Anyway...
I noticed that my elevator is displaced a little bit up,
meaning that I need more tail down force for level flight. Being interesting in
racing, I'm looking to have the elevator flush at warp nine. Then I remembered a
fellow racer had made a comment when we were flying formation... "Wow, Scotty,
you have a lot of reflex in your flaps!"
The last nugget of wisdom came on the flight from Reno back to
Chandler... I knew I had an aft cg, and was prepared for it... After takeoff, it
was a little squirrly, so I ended up doing some experimentation. I blipped the
flaps down just a touch.
Plane flew great, I didn't see any change in true airspeed,
and I'm sure the elevator was more in trail.
Viola. The Lightbulb came on and I fully grapsed deeper
understanding of my simple little world. Food tased better, wine sweeter, beer
colder...
So, for the $64,000 question...
Just how much flap reflex are we supposed to have in our
planes? I'm an owner, and didn't build it, so I have no way of finding out other
than asking the experts out here. When my flaps are reflexed fully, I have about
one inch between the fairing on the fuselage to the flap; in other words, the
flaps rises above the fairing by that much on the inboard side.
Oh... And Greyhawk... I saw your speed for the EAA race -
nice! We'd have fun racing together... My best Reno lap speed was 237
mph on a measly, stock O-360... Not even an IO!
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