Long EZ - Winglets

alan0043

Well-known member
Hi Everyone,

I have a question or too about the Long EZ. I have my Long EZ looking like the Aviore Glider that is in the STEM program. I should say that my Long EZ has no body just the profile look from the Aviore Glider. Here is my question. How important is the length of the winglets ? Can they be made shorter ? Or is there a ratio of winglet length to the length of the main wing ? What happens to the plane if the winglet was made shorter ?

Thanks everyone for any input,
Al
 
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Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
How important is the length of the winglets ?
My guess is, it's not the length but the area that is very important. The Long EZ has a lot of area in front of the CG. It will need a lot of surface area behind the CG to compensate.
Can they be made shorter ?
Likely yes, if you make them wider, keeping the surface area the same.
Or is there a ratio of winglet length to the length of the main wing ?
I don't think it’s the length of the wing, rather how much nose there is.
What happens to the plane if the winglet was had shorter ?
If less area, then it would be like shooting a backwards arrow, one with the feathers in front, the plane would flip around.
 
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Aireal Anarchist

Elite member
I know nothing of the Long EZ.....but Winglets.....this is quite a science in itself, winglets purpose is to reduce turbulence at the tips of an airplane's wings. The air pressure on the bottom of a wing is greater than the pressure on top, so when air flowing across the two surfaces meets at the wing tip, it forms a vortex-a miniature tornado. they also direct air over the control surfaces instead of spilling off the wing tips making turbulence and
by breaking up vortices, winglets reduce the drag on an airplane, which translates into fuel savings on the full size aircraft.

So why don't all airplanes have winglets? The airflow around winglets is complicated, so designing them is tricky. It's easier to improve an airplane's lift-to-drag ratio by simply making the wing longer

do some research this is the best I got, sorry I cant give you a direct answer to your question, maybe some builder/experimenters in here have done some experimenting with the Long EZ
Ill be watching to see how your experiment turns out .... I have done some changes on the versa wing Winglets, mainly out of curiosity but havent really noticed enough diff to make a conclusion of any kind
 
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alan0043

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I would like to say ' Thank You ' to Merv and Aireal for their answers. I was curious about the winglets. How they work and the reason for them. Right now I am not going to change a thing at this time about my EZ Long chuck glider. I made the chuck glider to see how it glides before I would make it smaller. The reason for making it smaller is to put the EZ Pack on the smaller glider and see how it flies. I know that there is an EZ Pack plane in the STEM program. But right that I now, there is no plans out there right for the EZ pack Canard.

Al