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Tim:
There
is absolutely nothing wrong with the Lancair 320 airfoil. I have been
flying my 320 small tail for two years and have done a pretty thorough stall
investigation on the airplane and have found nothing abnormal. There is
sufficient stall warning and my airplane stalls pretty much straight ahead if I
keep the ball centered. I took a lot of care to make sure both wings were
at the same incidence. Clean stalls occur at around 60 KIAS and the flaps
down speeds are a few knots slower. The 320 is finely balanced and the
trim curve is nearly flat. If you have built the airplane to plans and
have a forward CG empty, you should not have any worries unless you find
yourself unable to control airspeed.
If I
understand what you have said about reading accident reports, you seem to have
missed the universal fact that stalling any airplane can kill you if
you are close to the ground. If you are fearful of your inability to
maintain flying speed in the pattern you need to get some practice. 200
hours over 20 years (is that actually correct?) places you in the student pilot
amateur range. What you most need to do is get some intensive flight time
in a C-150 or something with a CFI before you attempt to fly the 320.
There is a world of difference between a 320 and a 150, but some recent flight
time will be of great benefit. Get yourself thoroughly familiar with the
150's stall characteristics and get good at stall
recovery. There are any number of 320 owners who will give you
some introductory flights in their airplanes, me included, before you take yours
up.
I don't know how to put what follows more kindly, but putting RV wings on a 320
is, in my opinion, absurd. What you will have, if it can even be done, is
a one-of-a-kind airplane no one can advise you about and for which there is
no prior flight experience. Moreover, the 320 wing carry through structure
is not designed to support a fat wing outboard of the stub wings - no one can
tell you to what G level the airplane will be limited. What are you going
to tell the FAA or DAR, I built a kit airplane and then modified it to ...
a what? Unless your A&P friend is also an aerodynamics expert he
should stick to being a repairman.
Best regards,
Pete Field
LNC2, St. Louis
From: Tim Jørgensen [mailto:tj@yacht-pool.dk]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 9:35 AM
To:
lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: True "composite"
question
Hi all.
My LNC2 is near completion and I have started
preparing all the paperwork necessary for the flight permit.
During my research I have stumbeled across the NTSB
website and made a search on "Lancair 360". For those of you who have not
done that (probably most!), this is HORRIFIC reading !!!
There seems to be quite a large number of stall
related accidents, which leads me to believe that the airfoil is basically
unsafe. Anyway, I am not going to fly this thing as is, although I have had my
license for more than 20 years and have accumulated more than 200
hrs.
I have now come across a set of RV-7 wings that
survived a hangar collapse last winter. This airfoil seems much more forgiving,
anyway, that is what my A&P says, and I am trying to come up with a way to
install them on my otherwise finished airframe. I will, of course, have to keep
the stub wings and make them fit the slightly larger RV wing but, apart from
that, would I be in for at lot work? Has anyone done this before? Any advice
taken!
Regards
Tim Jorgensen
Lancair 360, was 95% done, now back to maybe
60%.....
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