Microlighters

Need help. A friend of mine has a 582 Aerotrike spirit 2. The wing is very slow and heavy. We allready drilled a extra hole foreward on the hang point and it made it better, but hands off 1 up the cruise is still 41mph. We would like to get it up to 50 or so. Any suggestions?. The CHT runs at approx 98 degr in cruise and EGT 610-635 Watet at 60. RPM arround 4300 1 up. Do the wing flying wires need to be winded up or do they stay sepperate? If winded, how many turns?

KFA wrote: Do the wing flying wires need to be winded up or do they stay sepperate? If winded, how many turns?

As far as I know the winding up of the wires is to stop the "buzzing" sound found on some wings - not speed related.

Try give Jenya a call, he designed the wing and it is supposed to be faster than that!

Thanx DF did not want to call him on a sat. Hoped somebody with similar wing could give input, maybe Nkwazi?

I have the Spirit 2 wing with a 503 on a Scout. It is indeed a heavy wing but I cruize at at 50mph with slight back pressure on the bar.

This is not a fast wing but very economical I find.

I would roughly like to know the distance that the bar attachment to the keel is from the hangpoint. We drilled another hole foreward and will testfly later.

KFA wrote:1. The wing is very slow and heavy.

2. We allready drilled a extra hole foreward on the hang point and it made it better, but hands off 1 up the cruise is still 41mph.

3. RPM arround 4300 1 up.

4. Do the wing flying wires need to be winded up or do they stay sepperate?

Hi KFA,

Firstly, for comparative purposes, my 582 Aquilla 1 cruises at 55 mph, 5 500 rpm, EGT’s 550°C & water temperature at 65°C.

I have numbered some of your points, namely;

1. The wing is very slow and heavy.

Sounds like spreader bar cable requires tensioning and bungies could be shot and / or together with stretched wing fabric.

2. We already drilled an extra hole forward on the hang point.

Something that I would never do.

3. RPM around 4300 1 up.

Prop too big or wrong pitch setting. If it was fuel related like a clogged air cleaner etc., erratic performance would also be evident.

Need 5 500 rpm cruise and 6 200 rpm static maximum.

4. Do the wing flying wires need to be wound up or do they stay separate?

Sounds like the flying wires are slack when not loaded which is not a good thing. Any negative loading whilst flying would result in the flying wires being positively loaded back with a “twang” – read shock load.

Regards
John ZU-CIB

Moving the hangpoint is only one of a few things that influences a trikes speed. If you need to drill holes it tells me the set-up of your wing has gone awry sometime... (With the standard holes you should be able to get to at least 55mph)

I suggest you ship the wing to Jenya for tuning & test flying (tell him how fast you want it to go). If you can't send to jenya try and get a batten profile chart for your wing so you can check your actual battens against what they should be like - this is probably where your problem lies.

It can be dangerous to try and do this yourself but if you want to experiment at your own risk you can try reducing your washout (rotating both wingtips equally) or giving your outermost 3 top battens a bit more curvature (to increase lift on the wingtips). Both these changes will increase speed (but also influence stall characteristics).

Hi miskiet. I was also thinking of the washout. I have drilled the hangpoint and it has increased the cruise to about 47mph. I must also add that I know what I am doing. I will not just drill holes. I just wanted to hear some other opinions. The drilling of the holes was previously suggested by the manufacturer but we only drilled one hole foreward instead of the suggested two. This wing climbs to steeply, this is the major concern for me because the new owner is not experienced. This is the reason I am trying to get a flatter profile on the climbout and a higher cruise. The angle of attack was just to much even two up. I will try and post a pic later.

Ek het 'n Aros sprint vlerk en cruise tot 120 k/h met 'n bietjie wind van agter, maar stem saam dat dit 'n swaar vlerk is. Voorheen het ek my Windlass vlerk na Solo Wings geneem en nadat hulle die materiaal stywer getrek het was hy baie ligter om te hanteer en het ek wel 'n paar kmph viniger gekry. Ek stem egter saam met John dat die rpm nie goed klink nie watse ratkas en pitch prop het die tryke op?

O ja ek moet ook se dat my vlerk baie vinniger klim as wat die Windlass gedoen het. Soms verminder ek die rpm na take off om minder te klim, dis te scary om full throttle te klim.

NS Ek het 'n user manual op die vlerk as dit sal help. Kort net jou fax no.

John Young wrote:3. RPM around 4300 1 up.

Prop too big or wrong pitch setting. If it was fuel related like a clogged air cleaner etc., erratic performance would also be evident.

Need 5 500 rpm cruise and 6 200 rpm static maximum.

John ZU-CIB

Surely also depends on gearbox ratio and prop manufacturer. I've read of many Cobra's cruising 4500 with 4:1 E box's and Arplast Silent 4 bladers. PS the static is as you mention though.

My windlass cruises at 4600 1 up 50mph with e-box. Also remember we are only 500ft AMSL. It looks the drilling of the extra hole did the trick. She cruises at approx 47 but still climbs like a bat out of hell, but with good throttle mamagement she seems to be ok. I still would like to know if setting the washout trailing edge down would pitch the nose down.