VG installation follow-up!

As I said before, we still have the stock wing on our 185, no cuffs or extensions. The only mod so far is the Micro Aerodynamics VG kit installed last week. I got a chance to spend a few hours wringing them out a couple days ago and really explored the low-speed regime of the envelope. To say that I'm impressed is a rather pathetic understatement.

HOLY COW!! These things are amazing!!!

It was 90°F, about 32°C, when I took off from SZT at 2100 ft MSL and climbed up to 7000 ft MSL over Lake Pend Oreille to do about 45 minutes of air work. Temp at 7000 ft was about 70°F, 21°F, giving me a density altitude of around 9300 ft. Takeoff weight with me, fuel and some lightweight gear was 2580 lbs. Max Gross on our bird is 3350 lbs, so i was about 77% of Gross.

On the card for the flight:

Slow flight / Minimum Controllable Airspeed
- with and without flaps
- straight and turning

Departure stalls

Approach to landing stalls

High Density Altitude Go-arounds from simulated flaps 40 approach

Pattern work
- 3-point Landings
- Wheel Landings

After clearing the area, I started with slow flight and MCA to get a feel for low speed handling with the VG's. Right off the bat, I could tell that the aileron effectiveness was much better at high angles of attack. Flaps up MCA in level flight came out to be about 45 KIAS, and flaps 40 MCA about 40 KIAS or slightly less (bottom of the indication). Aileron control during 15-20° banked turns was very good. There was a pronounced flap buffet approaching the stall - LOTS of warning for the bottom of the envelope!

Stalls were a bit of a surprise - it took some coaxing (Hyuckah! Maneuver) to get a definitive break in all flap configurations. The wing simply did not want to give up flying. Lots of buffet warning, then more of a mushy bucking feel with no clean break. No tendency for a wing to drop off in either straight-ahead or turning clean and dirty stalls, and the ailerons remained effective throughout.

Go arounds had nothing new (trimtrimtrimtrimtrim!!!), with good rates of climb for my light load at 9300+ DA.

Time for some sightseeing and pattern work.

I did 3-point and wheel landings at 3 different paved airports over the next 1.5 hours, with my preferred technique being tail-low wheel landings. I like 55 KIAS over the fence with a little power, and noticed the airplane definitely felt more solid at that speed than it did before, and again, with much better aileron responsiveness.

I'm really impressed, to say the least. I'm looking forward to seeing how it behaves with more of a load onboard and an aft CG. I like what I've seen so far!

CapnMike wrote:

Bloody hell! like father like son much!