This may have been done before, but I first learned of it in Chris Kaiser's write up on the Kahu. Even if you are not building a Kahu the write up has many good ideas.
http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/kahudlg/chriskaiser_kahudlg.htm The procedure: Move the ailerons out of the way (down). Add some tape (scotch is ok for HL) along the span. Then with a thickish camel hair brush, brush some talcum powder on to the the exposed sticky part. Trim it to the proper width. Also, I should say I don't really know whether doing this is worth it except possibly for the apparent damping effect. I have not taken the time to try to model a tape on the top surface in xfoil to try to see what really happens. Seems clear to me though that it has to be difference since the flap position is effectively farther back on the top when using camber and the same on the bottom. Also not sure what the thickness of the tape does compare to an open gap. Tony Rogers did some similar work to determine the effect of the distortion of the airfoil shape due to the material in spar cap. His conclusion was that it did not degrade performance. A good project would be to do the same analysis for the gap seal tape, hinge tape (if used), and the spar cap. IE modify the coordinates of the foil to have these elements and compare in xfoil. Tom -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 3:48 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [RCSE] Flutter and Gap Seal Mystery In a message dated 3/12/02 11:46:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << (scotch using the talcum powder method) >> Top, What is the (talcum powder method)? Rich RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
