Groove gear fairing

[Birdseyeview]

Eric, thanks for your thoughts - this fairing of the grove gear gets more complex with each iteration and this complexity may explain why no one has seemingly come up with the magic bullet that I could find so far. It may be that the flat plate forward surface of the rectangular gear cross section is in fact the least drag creating shape after all. Having said that an engineer friend of mine thought that most of the drag on such a flat plate surface is usually on the down wind side of the plate. I wonder what Kitfox does for their streamlined grove gear on their Speedster model?

Another possible iteration may be to place a triangular cross section length of foam just in front of, but not connected to the gear cross plate. This foam piece could be glued down to the fuselage fabric to act as a forward ramp for the air to slide over the gear surface while allowing the gear to flex during landings. This would prevent any air from entering the gap between the fuselage bottom fabric and the top of the gear plate. Something similar could be attached to the fuselage just behind the gear plate, again not quite touching the gear. I saw something similar to this on the front side of the gear in an old post but I didn't see anything on the back side, where most of the drag tends to be created. If this idea was without a down side I suppose the foam pieces could be enclosed in fabric to better hold it in place on the fuselage. Any thoughts and/or constructive criticism are welcome.

[FoxbuilderWill]

I've been thinking a lot about drag reduction on my build and I've heard from different sources that putting a bulge on the belly of some aircraft makes them faster. It's the case when adding a cargo pod to a super cub (but that's possibly just smoothing out the horribly disturbed air from the landing gear) and on another forum someone posted a pic of a business jet with a bulge on the belly and said that made the plane faster.
HD-wallpaper-cessna-citation-x-sky-jet.jpg
I'm not necessarily sold on that idea since the designer may just have needed to get the wing structure lower to increase cabin room then had to fair it.

But I have been looking at whales and interestingly the humpback whale which has to migrate long distances without eating is much flatter on the top than the bottom. Definitely not apples to apples but it's still fluid dynamics.

So my best guess would be to completely fair in your gear legs where they go across the belly and see what happens.

Eric, thanks for your thoughts - this fairing of the grove gear gets more complex with each iteration and this complexity may explain why no one has seemingly come up with the magic bullet that I could find so far. It may be that the flat plate forward surface of the rectangular gear cross section is in fact the least drag creating shape after all. Having said that an engineer friend of mine thought that most of the drag on such a flat plate surface is usually on the down wind side of the plate. I wonder what Kitfox does for their streamlined grove gear on their Speedster model?

Another possible iteration may be to place a triangular cross section length of foam just in front of, but not connected to the gear cross plate. This foam piece could be glued down to the fuselage fabric to act as a forward ramp for the air to slide over the gear surface while allowing the gear to flex during landings. This would prevent any air from entering the gap between the fuselage bottom fabric and the top of the gear plate. Something similar could be attached to the fuselage just behind the gear plate, again not quite touching the gear. I saw something similar to this on the front side of the gear in an old post but I didn't see anything on the back side, where most of the drag tends to be created. If this idea was without a down side I suppose the foam pieces could be enclosed in fabric to better hold it in place on the fuselage. Any thoughts and/or constructive criticism are welcome.

[Slyfox]

seems to me you can just put a covering over the whole area without an opening between the bottom of the airplane and the bottom of the spring gear and do much better, just my opinion. If you have the radiator in front of this area I'm sure you are going to be defeated on the whole thing anyway, that's how my model 4 is. take care.

[airlina]

On my Series 5 I knew I wasn't gonna be happy with the unfinished look of the gear under the fuse so during my build I fabricated this fiberglass fairing to reduce drag and give that area a more finished look. With the flex of that part of the gear during landing , it was important to leave that part open , so just front and aft are faired as you can see in the pics. Bruce N199CL

[bbs428]

"On my Series 5 I knew I wasn't gonna be happy with the unfinished look of the gear under the fuse so during my build I fabricated this fiberglass fairing to reduce drag and give that area a more finished look. With the flex of that part of the gear during landing , it was important to leave that part open , so just front and aft are faired as you can see in the pics. Bruce N199CL"

Wow! That's really nice! I like the look and its functionality.
I'm sorry I didn't catch this detail before my plane was done Bruce, or I might have done something similar.

No matter which way you go Larry, if it helps to reduce some drag, that's a good thing! Just have to keep it as light weight as possible.

[Slyfox]

On my Series 5 I knew I wasn't gonna be happy with the unfinished look of the gear under the fuse so during my build I fabricated this fiberglass fairing to reduce drag and give that area a more finished look. With the flex of that part of the gear during landing , it was important to leave that part open , so just front and aft are faired as you can see in the pics. Bruce N199CL

yes that's what I'm thinking right there.