I had the sportsman on my 170 for several years and put several hundred hour on it with both the 0-300 and 0-360 before I installed the VGs. The sportsman is a massive improvement that is emediatly noticeable, where as the only real improvement I can see with the VGs is when you are steep turning it doesn't tend to slide in as much.
The downside is it feels mushy in slow flight, like the plane feels heavier than it actually is, I'm not sure why that is ?
The stall is very docile in any configuration now and you have to really pound a rudder pedal to make it drop a wing, but it was like that with just a sportsman.

This is only for the 170b with a sportsman though, on a cub VGs are an excellent mod! And I am always very sceptical of messing with a cub wing!

Yep. I will concur. Sportsman is the best bang for buck mod on a cessna for sure! It's dramatic. I would pull any cuff off to replace it with that. Old style wing at least for sure! In my experience the 206 is not AS dramatic due to te newer wing and huge flaps I guess.
I have the sportsman and wing x and vgs on my current 180. It's pretty sick what she'll do. I don't give much credit to the vgs except maybe a tad bit of aileron control back. My most negative downside to the wing x is loss of x wind controllability. I could and would tempt a lot higher x winds in my last plane with no wing x. But I do love it now aside from that. Still want a set of cyclone wings tho!!! It never stops.
Congrats on an awesome mod and bird!

I have been wanting the wing extensions , but we have 4 months of the year with nasty turbulent, crosswinds at our base airport.
My plane with Sportsman and VGs its already difficult to land in this winds, I do no flaps landings most of the time during the windy season.

I imagine with the extensions, will be even more difficult

The only real down side to Wing X is if you have a fairly narrow hangar door .

MTV

Have you had a chance to get some more flying time with the new wing? Any new thoughts? I would love to install a sportsman on the 58 180,maybe this winter if I stay busy all summer.

He left for Sweden to visit family.... Do not know when he will be back to give the 180 a good flight...

Brian

Hey guys, yep I'm in Sweden visiting my family. Out sailing right now in the Stockholm archipelago with my Sister's family. Life is tough!

I'll be back in Oregon next Sunday and plan on getting a lot of flying in soon. Can't wait to see what the new wing can do!

Here's a pic from some backcountry sailing in Sweden. Doesn't suck at all!

Hey guys, just a quick update. I'm back in Oregon and have been getting some flying in.

After a bunch of landings with a typical "going camping" load, I'd say I'm easily landing and taking off 20% shorter with the Sportsman, without any changes in technique, just going slower. That's huge in my opinion, and I'm really happy with it.

I especially love how it just solidly levitates off the ground on takeoff now at much lower speeds (fewer potatoes) than before. Rate of climb is much improved as well. No doubt taking off from places like Lower Loon will be a lot more comfortable now.

If you want, you can really get in short by mushing it in, plopping it on and standing on the brakes. The mushy non-stall really allows you to keep control at much slower speeds.

We're heading up to Alaska in two weeks, so I'll get a lot more time on it during that trip!

Nice Oregon180! Now I really want to get mine installed ASAP. It'll have to wait until January or February, as I can't tolerate the interruption in my flying.

Great to hear says me, not my wallet or wife. Haha. Sounds like the Horton will have to get pulled and replaced with a sportsman. That'll be the next mod on my 180 I'm sure.
David

A1Skinner wrote:Great to hear says me, not my wallet or wife. Haha. Sounds like the Horton will have to get pulled and replaced with a sportsman. That'll be the next mod on my 180 I'm sure.
David

I pulled my Horton for the Sportsman and WingX....Two of the best mods I have done for certain!

AKT

aktahoe1 wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:Great to hear says me, not my wallet or wife. Haha. Sounds like the Horton will have to get pulled and replaced with a sportsman. That'll be the next mod on my 180 I'm sure.
David

I pulled my Horton for the Sportsman and WingX....Two of the best mods I have done for certain!

AKT

I notice you left the Horton fences on Kevin. Do they give any gain to the Sportsman?

Has anyone else had problems, post Sportsman install, of anemic airflow through the spam can vents? Currently my flow is at least 1/4 of what it was prior to install, seems to get the most flow at higher angles of attack (like on climb out) and much less flow at cruise angle of attack. I called Willie at Stene's and I checked the wing template and my new vent holes are right on. He suggested I enlarge them towards the bottom of the wing. Also he mentioned some have used spray foam between the old wing and new and then cored out a hole to make a straight path for the air to flow! All I know is that it is getting hot in the desert and I need more air! If anyone has a solution... please let me know. Thanks!

180Driver-

I have the same issue with my Sportsman.... very low airflow. I'm open to ideas!!!

Reading your post I immediately suspected the "dead space" between the vents is part of the problem. Streamlining the flow through that area should reduce the pressure loss significantly, some sort of tube or similar could help?

I have air low flow too, even I did put foam between the STOL kit and wing to have the continued passage of air.

I think its a function of angle of attack. When you are climbing the air flow is good, in level flight its not. The leading edge of the wing is much different than a stock wing.... so my interpretation is that the relative wind is at a "higher" angle in cruise... preventing normal flow into the intake. If that is true then you should expand the opening at the top and not the bottom. The funny thing is the right wing airflow is better than the left wing on my airplane.

It is a tough nut to crack.

gunny

Gunny,

When I talked with Willie at Stene's he specifically cautioned NOT to extend the opening towards the top of the wing any higher than the mark on the template! He said this is a common mistake and that if you expand it towards the top you get into the low pressure (i.e. vaccum) side of the flow and it will be worse not better! I was hoping someone had experimented and found a tried and true solution to this problem..... I have been debating trying to fabricate some type of tube to direct airflow directly from the outer port into the inner port. Has anyone tried any solutions and did they work???

180Driver-

I can easily see that going higher on the wing will get close to the low pressure area. But without adding a scoop of some sort I don't readily see expanding the opening on the bottom will help much either. I also hope someone else has blazed a trail here.... I'm a little on the chicken side.I would really like to get more air!

gunny