Desert Rat
Well Known Member
I've seen s bunch of flying rv6&7s where the trailing edge of the wingtip is further aft than the trailing edge of the aileron. In fitting my wingtips, I noticed the same on mine; about a 3/16" discrepancy between the two, so I beefed up the interior of the acute angle in wingtip trailing edge with a buildup of additional flox and fiberglass cloth. My plan is that after phase 1, once I'm sure everything was rigged properly, I can go back and trim the trailing edges a bit to bring everything in line.
As they come from Vans, the trailing edge radius approximately matches the radius of the aileron trailing edges, but I know of at least one RV7 where that radius has been eliminated on the tips in favor of a flat vertical face to allow for the addition of an LED strip for courtesy lights. Presumably the Ziptip wingtips have something similar going on because that's where they put their white nav lights.
Is there any reason aerodynamically to favor one shape over the other on that trailing edge? Also, what if anything, would be the impact of creating say a 1/2" radius at the outboard trailing edge tip? That sharp corner seems to be an area thats prone to paint and gel coat chips due to getting banged into by bags and cameras and whatnot. Seems like a little radius there might alleviate some of that.
I suspect that this is more of an aesthetic question that anything, and that a guy would have to make some pretty major changes to the profile and planform shape back there before noticing any significant aerodynamic impact, but just thought I'd ask the question.
Here's a picture of what I currently have going on.
As they come from Vans, the trailing edge radius approximately matches the radius of the aileron trailing edges, but I know of at least one RV7 where that radius has been eliminated on the tips in favor of a flat vertical face to allow for the addition of an LED strip for courtesy lights. Presumably the Ziptip wingtips have something similar going on because that's where they put their white nav lights.
Is there any reason aerodynamically to favor one shape over the other on that trailing edge? Also, what if anything, would be the impact of creating say a 1/2" radius at the outboard trailing edge tip? That sharp corner seems to be an area thats prone to paint and gel coat chips due to getting banged into by bags and cameras and whatnot. Seems like a little radius there might alleviate some of that.
I suspect that this is more of an aesthetic question that anything, and that a guy would have to make some pretty major changes to the profile and planform shape back there before noticing any significant aerodynamic impact, but just thought I'd ask the question.
Here's a picture of what I currently have going on.
