TOPLESS WING QUESTION

[Conrad]

You HAVE to fly one and feel the difference !!...!!>>

[Tailspin]

Conrad

Will take you up on that one day.

[Dish]

"Will take you up on that one day" - NO pun intended there !!

[Tailspin]

[Bundy]

I must admit, these topless wings do look pretty sexy!

There must be a major difference in the "feel" of the wing though. For instance on the Aquilla wing, the luff lines pull the trailing edge up and you really have to fight her to keep the plane in a steepish dive/descent. I would imagine that the topless wing allows you to remain in such a dive a lot easier due to the absence of these lines?

[JCH]

I must admit, these topless wings do look pretty sexy!

There must be a major difference in the "feel" of the wing though. For instance on the Aquilla wing, the luff lines pull the trailing edge up and you really have to fight her to keep the plane in a steepish dive/descent. I would imagine that the topless wing allows you to remain in such a dive a lot easier due to the absence of these lines?

Cannot really say that I find that to be true on a descent.
You feel the difference more in turns and if you round-out at too high a speed she floats forever...

[Bundy]

I must admit, these topless wings do look pretty sexy!

There must be a major difference in the "feel" of the wing though. For instance on the Aquilla wing, the luff lines pull the trailing edge up and you really have to fight her to keep the plane in a steepish dive/descent. I would imagine that the topless wing allows you to remain in such a dive a lot easier due to the absence of these lines?

Cannot really say that I find that to be true on a descent.
You feel the difference more in turns and if you round-out at too high a speed she floats forever...

Thanks JCH for a lekker flip this morning. I now have a much better understanding of the topless set up! As you say, there is definately a difference in the roll and the "float".... haha I had a jol! Overall flying str and level Id say very little difference between the other than a slight speed advantage depending on the wing position. Next time lets remember our wallets for the intended breakfast!

Your plane is a beaut!

[kloot piloot]

Saw this thread a bit late.

There is a lot more involved than a couple of tubes and brakcets to convert a conventional wing into topless.

The conventional top-rigging does 2 things.

1. Upper flying wires are there for ground handling and negative G's in flight.
2. The king post, more importantly plays the main role in your anti dive characteristics in that it holds the luff-lines.

1 above is sorted with the underwing profiled struts. But 2 above (in a topless) is replaced with sprogs placed incide the doubles surface of the wing, preventing the wing to enter into a death dive. The sprogs in turn support the reflex in the root battens, helping the glider to recover from a Vne dive.

That is why a topless is more aerodynamic, but not lighter in weight. Hence relative small speed gain.

But it is definitely the absolute platform for future wing development.