You may have read an article that appeared in Skywings last August about porosity. In that article I referred to the diagram in Ozone’s paper about SharkNose technology which showed how the difference between the internal wing pressure and the external pressure is greatest at the leading edge (Figure 1). [...]
So the weather’s getting better and prospects for some good flights are looking brighter. As well as feeling the excitement of spending more time in the air, some of us may be savouring thoughts of getting a new or replacement wing. If part of our thinking is that our “old” [...]
One of our least favourite tasks at Aerofix is to ring up a pilot and let them know that their glider has reached the end of its life. It’s a call that is often half expected by the glider’s owner, but that doesn’t make the news any less unwelcome. But [...]
We all know that the less porous our canopy fabric is, the better. It is important that our wing stays pressurised, and cloth that leaks air will reduce that pressure. But is it equally important all over the wing, on the bottom and on the top surface? The proper maintenance [...]
The risk of suffering a deep stall has featured in SkyWings Airmail in recent months. In March, Nigel Page observed that “porosity and line shrinkage can both make a wing more prone to deep stall”. So how serious a risk are these two factors to our flying safety? There are [...]
Canopy porosity In the past two articles we’ve focussed on line length and strength. But our gliders’ performance and safety also depends critically on the porosity of the fabric because increased porosity will reduce internal pressure. So how good does the porosity have to be, and what causes it to [...]
