Vortilons

Wing Vortilons

Vortilon construction is detailed in the Roncz Canard plans since they are a mandatory addition to the wings if flying the Roncz Canard.  There was a well-known Cozy accident that resulted from a main wing stall due in large measure to the pilot/builder removing the Vortilons before a test flight.  Clearly these little guys are critical to safety of flight when incorporating a Roncz Canard into the configuration.

Now, as far as classification . . . although these are specified & mandated in the Roncz canard plans (canard = Chapter 10), they clearly go on the main wings (wings = Chapter 19).  So I’m adding them here as noteworthy item, albeit I’ll leave this page “chapter-less.”

18 October 2015 Since I had a little bit of pure epoxy left over from glassing the left canard swoosh tip, I grabbed the BID scrap box and a piece of plastic to make a 4-ply BID sheet, of which I would cut out a Vortilon or two.  I laid the 4 plies of BID into a pre-preg setup and poured all the epoxy into the layup.  After heating up the pre-preg with the heat gun it flowed well enough to wet out all the epoxy.  I then put another plate on top of it and weighed it down with my heavy tool bag (pic below).

Vortilon 4-BID layupWeighing down Vortilon 4-BID layup

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19 October 2015 — Since I had used some leftover epoxy yesterday to make a set of Vortilons, today I wrote it into the work plan to finish the set for both wings.  Here’s the 4-ply BID layup for two more sets of Vortilons.

#2 vortilon layup 6"x 8" 4-ply BID

And here are the initial two that I cut from the glass I laid up yesterday.  These are the largest of the 3 sets of Vortilons.

BL 80.0 Vortilons cut

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Recent Posts

Project Update

Hey Guys,

As the firewall re-populating continues I’m migrating to wiring up the engine components inside the GIB headrest and finishing up plumbing/wiring inside the hellhole. 

With the constant rain and wind, due to the Nor’easter currently hitting us, I have the wings inside the shop.  This doesn’t allow for any space right now to do any welding on the rollbar before final paint on that before it, and in turn the canopy, get installed.

As for painting, I am currently working on the black accent stripes on the winglets, with the white wing paint next up on the docket.  Also I’ll finalize the surface finish and get some paint on the lower cowling as well.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough” is still my thinking regarding paint. 

In between the paint jobs, I will continue to work on getting components installed and wiring knocked out inside the bird.

  1. Chapter 25 – Still on winglets Leave a reply
  2. Chapter 13/25 – Winglet blue reshoot Leave a reply
  3. Chapter 25 – Mother nature strikes Leave a reply
  4. Chapter 13/23 – Firewall covering on Leave a reply
  5. Chapter 13/23 – Firewall plasma cut! Leave a reply
  6. Chapter 13/23 – Dialing in Firewall Leave a reply
  7. Chapter 13/25 – Canopy install ready Leave a reply
  8. Chapter 25 – Canopy & cabin final paint Leave a reply
  9. Chapter 25 – Paint clean-up Leave a reply