Rolladen- Schneider LS3A flap seals- Do they really make anydifference?

Oh...Â* Flap to fuselage wiper seal.Â* I thought you were talking about
the flap to wing seal.Â* I made those for my Mosquito decades ago from
material pulled from the trash cans in the hardware engineering lab
where I worked at the time.Â* I don't know the thickness of that stuff.Â*
It was used for engineering drawings.

On 2/18/2018 7:06 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, 4 July 2001 19:57:55 UTC-6, dennis raphael wrote:
The flap seals at the wing root consantlty seem to get bent up , fall
off, and otherwise look lousy. How much good do they really do for a
recreational soaring pilot??? Any differnce in flight charactoristics
I will notice?. For those who dont know what I am talking about, the
seals are a piece of flexible plastic that attach to the top and
bottom of the flap next to the fusalage to seal a 3/8 in gap at the
rear 5 inches of the wing root where the flap raises and lowers.
thanks
I have owned an LS3-a for 9 years. It came without the mylar wipers and I added them after a couple of years flying without. One thing I noticed right away was that it is noticeably quieter at all speeds. I used two strips of the double sided mylar tape on the first try and I lost one while flying. I ended up reattaching them using contact cement after scuffing up the flap surface with a Scotchbrite pad. They have stayed on ever since. The mylar I used came from the leading edge of a hang glider I used to own. This mylar is considerably thicker than what I have seen on other ships. It is very durable and it bends and pushes against the fuselage making a good seal. I don't know for sure if it improves performance or not but it can't hurt and it will help your performance if you believe.

--
Dan, 5J