I just ran across some neat stuff and though some of you might find it interesting or useful.

This site is a weather tool: http://www.weather.aero/hems/

It was designed for emergency helicopter pilots for a quick look at current and recently past weather. It is quite nice because it puts a lot of information into a graphic map that can be "swallowed" easily. Ceiling, visibility, wind, convection, metars, tafs, radar, are all selectable. You can zoom and center the map anywhere you want and save the view for frequent checks. My apologies to the folks outside the USA, since this only covers US airspace.

This site has an interesting comparison of props on light sport aircraft:
http://www.stolspeed.com/props-comparison/
They tested five different props and found that when they took pains to get similar testing conditions set up there was very little difference in performance. I guess I am not surprised, since a well designed prop can be something like 90% efficient, there isn't much left to play with. Anyway, I think that a lot of "prop tales" come about because the teller of the tale does not really have comparable data.

tom

Tom,
Did you read the StolSpeed article about removing the fixed slats and using vortex generators?
What your take on that?
It sounds good to me but what do I know.

wirsig wrote:Tom,
Did you read the StolSpeed article about removing the fixed slats and using vortex generators?
What your take on that?
It sounds good to me but what do I know.

I've been following the discussion. It sounds pretty interesting, but I'm still waiting for more experience to act on it. I lost a friend in a homebuilt that self destructed at 2000'agl, mostly to a kit that was badly designed. The small gain in speed doesn't seem worth the price of being on the "bleeding edge".

tom