I have often heard that wing waxing does not really help performance but
have never heard anything definitive but my own experiences with the Marske
flying wings lead me to believe that at least for the marske designs it
improves performance.

On our first flights in the Marske Pioneer we had upper and lower spoilers
and although it took some care to adjust the pitch when in use they worked
fine. Upon waxing the wing... just the upper surface, the pitch control
became eratic as the glider was very quick to gain airspeed. so we blocked
off the lower spoilers and corrected the difficulty in operating the
spoilers.

Recently just before our local contest I waxed the upper surface and part of
the lower surface to find that again pich control with the spoilers extended
was more difficult since the glider so easily picked up speed with any pitch
change.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

-mat


--
Marske Flying Wings
http://www.continuo.com/marske