April 15, 2012 by bviv
My former glider, a 15 meter span
ASW-20BL, underwent some dramatic alterations to allow for some
experimental prototype winglets from my very close friends at Vortecx
Industries here in Utah. We cut 16" off each wing tip to allow for the
new multi-cant winglets to be installed and still stay within 15 meters
so I could fly the glider in contests. Why am I telling you all of this
when this video is about testing on a Lancair IV-P? Well, these are
the same guys that did my glider and now they are showing the world
their technology on other aircraft including jets, turboprops and piston
high performance airplanes and not just gliders.
If you are a glider guy, stay with me and keep reading. I have more info for you that will be of great interest to glider pilots. I helped to film and edit this video of their flight testing their winglet technology on a beautiful Lancair IV-P. They will be displaying this video in other places but I wanted to show the glider community what kinds of results this unique winglet technology is getting.
Let's talk about what results I got in my 1985 ASW-20 with this winglet technology. It is pretty accepted that a good 20 will get somewhere around a 42:1 L/D glide ratio. After we put these winglets on I was getting somewhere better than 47:1 and the ship's polar seemed to improve compared to the old polar the faster I flew up to 120 knots! I know you just swore under your breath reading this that I am a big fat liar. I know I am fat but I am not a liar - I have plenty of evidence...here on youtube even.
Take a look at the following videos I have shared on my channel over the last few years:
Example 1 - I flew for over 20 miles against a Duo Discuss flying between 60 knots and 100 knots. The Duo is a well known glider that is accepted to get an honest 45:1 glide ratio. Here is the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2H4SQpjRxc
Example 2 - I flew against the 2011 15-meter National Champion on a hard ridge day with these winglets. He loaded up his Ventus 2a with ballast to equal my wing loading. We both knew the terrain very well. Check out how the flight went with this gps reenactment of the flights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5x5wYTDTc
Example 3 - I sold the 20 last year to one of my closest friends and took this video flying against him in my new ASW-27B which has a non-contested 47:1 glide ratio and we were at the same wing loading. As you can see the 17 year older veteran 20 held its own quite well against the 27. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxKjaJ7k70
Video 4: I always kept this next video private but will link to it here. It was of a wing tuft test with the glider at full max weight. It is cut to show the few times the air separated over the winglets and isn't the most interesting but the mountain backgrounds are quite spectacular and thought you might think it was interesting. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a7WWaAsy_M
Example 5: I was lucky enough to fly in the 2011 15 meter nationals in the 20 flying against the best of the best pilots and newest super ships flying fully loaded up to the gills with water for max performance. Over the course of 9 contest days here are my best 5 daily results: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th. I am not that great of a pilot to get these results. This winglet technology really does work!
So why am I telling you all of this? I don't have any part of Vortecx Industries, the makers of these winglets. They are just my friends and I am excited to support them as best I can because I have seen that what they have is very special. I think these winglets will take many older gliders and improve their performance to equal or at least close to that of today's newest ships of the same span. They are testing them now this spring on the newest ships and they haven't gotten final results yet. Will be interesting to see what they find. What I can tell you is that if you have an ASW20 or similar glider they can transform it into a completely new machine in terms of performance. If you want to contact them to talk more about their winglets, call John Neel at (435) 632-2917 or email him at vortecx@fiber.net If you have somehow read all the way till this point I am both sorry for you and think you need to spend more time gliding instead of reading long posts on the Internet! ;) Take care, Bruno.
http://youtu.be/w7ihTLUOoDk
If you are a glider guy, stay with me and keep reading. I have more info for you that will be of great interest to glider pilots. I helped to film and edit this video of their flight testing their winglet technology on a beautiful Lancair IV-P. They will be displaying this video in other places but I wanted to show the glider community what kinds of results this unique winglet technology is getting.
Let's talk about what results I got in my 1985 ASW-20 with this winglet technology. It is pretty accepted that a good 20 will get somewhere around a 42:1 L/D glide ratio. After we put these winglets on I was getting somewhere better than 47:1 and the ship's polar seemed to improve compared to the old polar the faster I flew up to 120 knots! I know you just swore under your breath reading this that I am a big fat liar. I know I am fat but I am not a liar - I have plenty of evidence...here on youtube even.
Take a look at the following videos I have shared on my channel over the last few years:
Example 1 - I flew for over 20 miles against a Duo Discuss flying between 60 knots and 100 knots. The Duo is a well known glider that is accepted to get an honest 45:1 glide ratio. Here is the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2H4SQpjRxc
Example 2 - I flew against the 2011 15-meter National Champion on a hard ridge day with these winglets. He loaded up his Ventus 2a with ballast to equal my wing loading. We both knew the terrain very well. Check out how the flight went with this gps reenactment of the flights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5x5wYTDTc
Example 3 - I sold the 20 last year to one of my closest friends and took this video flying against him in my new ASW-27B which has a non-contested 47:1 glide ratio and we were at the same wing loading. As you can see the 17 year older veteran 20 held its own quite well against the 27. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxKjaJ7k70
Video 4: I always kept this next video private but will link to it here. It was of a wing tuft test with the glider at full max weight. It is cut to show the few times the air separated over the winglets and isn't the most interesting but the mountain backgrounds are quite spectacular and thought you might think it was interesting. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a7WWaAsy_M
Example 5: I was lucky enough to fly in the 2011 15 meter nationals in the 20 flying against the best of the best pilots and newest super ships flying fully loaded up to the gills with water for max performance. Over the course of 9 contest days here are my best 5 daily results: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th. I am not that great of a pilot to get these results. This winglet technology really does work!
So why am I telling you all of this? I don't have any part of Vortecx Industries, the makers of these winglets. They are just my friends and I am excited to support them as best I can because I have seen that what they have is very special. I think these winglets will take many older gliders and improve their performance to equal or at least close to that of today's newest ships of the same span. They are testing them now this spring on the newest ships and they haven't gotten final results yet. Will be interesting to see what they find. What I can tell you is that if you have an ASW20 or similar glider they can transform it into a completely new machine in terms of performance. If you want to contact them to talk more about their winglets, call John Neel at (435) 632-2917 or email him at vortecx@fiber.net If you have somehow read all the way till this point I am both sorry for you and think you need to spend more time gliding instead of reading long posts on the Internet! ;) Take care, Bruno.
http://youtu.be/w7ihTLUOoDk
No comments:
Post a Comment