Bug Smashing

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 15:42:16 -0600, Dallas
wrote:


Can anyone explain bug smashing?

I can drive my car around for a month, often at 80 mph on the freeways and
maybe get two or three bugs on the windshield.

Yet an airplane has every leading edge covered in layer of dried bug in a
matter of days.


If you're flying a Fly Baby like me, don't forget to check the trailing edges,
too! :-)

Ron Wanttaja

Dallas wrote:

Yet an airplane has every leading edge covered in layer of dried bug in a
matter of days.

Nope, not if you wipe the leading edges off after every flight :-) Ok,
sure, heading to OSH, I don't do so...but once I'm there, a few minutes
with a damp rag and no more bugs.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Student - CP-ASEL
Chief Bug-wiper-offer after flying our Arrow

"To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become
a private pilot you must strive to master four of them"
- Rod Machado

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

"Al G" wrote

I think the bugs hear you and are attracted. They sort of fly over to
you to see what's go..Splat.
Ya' know the last thing that goes though his mind, don't you?

His butt!

Really, could it be the aerodynamic difference between airplanes and cars?

Cars are designed to make air go up and over them, to reduce drag.

Airplanes _must_ make air go over and under the wing to make them fly.
(according to some theories of lift that have been widely debated here, but
I'll save you all of that g)

Since so much more air (with lots of bugs in it) goes past on top and on the
bottom, more must impact the wing's leading edge, right?

I-dunno, but it's an idea. :-)
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Al G" wrote

I think the bugs hear you and are attracted. They sort of fly over to
you to see what's go..Splat.
Ya' know the last thing that goes though his mind, don't you?

His butt!

Really, could it be the aerodynamic difference between airplanes and cars?


More likely it's the 10,000 cars, trucks and busses that are just in front
of you on the highway that "cleaned out" all the bugs before you got there.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote:
"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Al G" wrote

I think the bugs hear you and are attracted. They sort of fly over to
you to see what's go..Splat.
Ya' know the last thing that goes though his mind, don't you?

His butt!

Really, could it be the aerodynamic difference between airplanes and cars?


More likely it's the 10,000 cars, trucks and busses that are just in front
of you on the highway that "cleaned out" all the bugs before you got there.

This is the most obvious answer.

About the only time I ever get any significant bugs on the windshield
of the car is when driving rural roads with little traffic, which
would support that theory.


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

More likely it's the 10,000 cars, trucks and busses that are just in front
of you on the highway that "cleaned out" all the bugs before you got there.

.... or is it because there are fewer bugs these days? I remember car
windshields getting so covered with bug splats that you had to clean
them several times a day. That was 50 years ago. Doesn't seem to
happen today.

For that matter, I remember seeing huge flocks of birds as well. Don't
see many these days.

David Johnson

On Dec 9, 12:59 am, Dave wrote:
More likely it's the 10,000 cars, trucks and busses that are just in front
of you on the highway that "cleaned out" all the bugs before you got there.

... or is it because there are fewer bugs these days? I remember car
windshields getting so covered with bug splats that you had to clean
them several times a day. That was 50 years ago. Doesn't seem to
happen today.

For that matter, I remember seeing huge flocks of birds as well. Don't
see many these days.

The birds all starved because there were no bugs to eat:-}

I don't see a lot of bugs in town or on the main highways, but anyhing
more rural brings out a flock of them.

There was a story in "Air and Space" magazine about a plane fitted
with an optical glass bubble for air to air movie work. They covered
the glass with paper to protect it from bugs on takeoff, then tore off
the paper at altitude before they started filming.

John Halpenny