Laminar Flow For Dakotas

[Robin]

Luis from Miami contacted me to ask what we could do to speed up his Dakota (PA28-236) and to get it to cruise at least 140 knots instead of his present 133. I unfortunately lost his letter, and this will serve to establish contact again, I hope!

He has flap and aileron gap seals on the plane, and the factory wheel pants.

I have a little experience with speeding up the 236, and I recall getting 13 knots IAS increase airspeed and a 9 knot reduction in stall speed.

This was done by adding flap and aileron gap seals, flap hinge fairings, fuel tank fairings and smoothing the wings. Since the flap and aileron gap seals are worth about 5 knots TAS and the flap hinge fairings will add another 2 knots TAS, that leaves 6 knots available for the wing smoothing/tank fairings.

However, we also have to be able to convert the indicated airspeed into true air speed.

Luis' suggestion was that we could do some rigging and substitute SpeedPants for his existing Piper pants and gain at least 5 to 6 knots.

My thinking is more along the lines of fuel tank fairings and wing smoothing.

So I'm hoping that we will be able to get what he wants (and more ) at a price which makes sense to him.

Thanks for helping us out with your experiences!

Robin

 

[Orest @ CYFD]

 

[Aviator305]

 

[JimC]

 

[Aviator305]

 

[JimC]

 

[Aviator305]

 

[Orest @ CYFD]

 

[JimC]

 

[Aviator305]