flyingforx
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2020
- Messages
- 42
Greetings, I'm sure I am not the first person to think about this but as I am constructing an experimental Pacer. I have just completed the fuselage by lengthening 20 inches and added PA-18 horizontal without moving the engine. As a result, I feel the fuselage is ready for a wing with enhanced trailing edge lift devices as I plan to add 18 inches to each wing and stick with pacer style struts for now. As I have the wings uncovered I noticed that there is a bunch of space between the rear and false spars. I also feel that the flaps and ailerons are on the low side of chord percentage. I have been reading a bunch about high lift devices and have gained attraction to a dropped hinge single slot design. I fly otters for a living and love Keller's flaps but they are more than I want to spend. I have been debating on two options: A: using current flap shape and fabricating dropped hinges. B: increasing the chord of flaps and ailerons. I am not an engineer by any means, and may not be in the best position to jump to conclusions. It doesn't seem like dropped hinge flaps induce much torsional loads on the rear spar, of course, bigger flaps do, would it be unwise to try larger flaps with reduced Vfe? I'm thinking of going with Bearhawk chord flaps and ailerons, with VGs on the flap themselves which may add a few degrees to flap effectiveness. All in the meantime attempt to improve flap shape and geometry so it's not just a drag device as I know them to be.
