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,

I’m pretty much done with the micro finishing of the top forward nose, the wheel pants, and the strake lower leading edges.  What’s left to micro finish you ask? Well, that would be the outboard underside of the wings and some final spot touchups on the canard. 

To be fair, I am currently in the process of working the final fit, finish and integration of the aft nose/avionics cover with the canopy front skirt.

I am also happy to report that the engine is off the bird and I’ve started the process of making and installing the CS spar heat shields, and the forward heat shields in the wing roots.  Once these are complete, I will then move on to cut and install the Titanium firewall.

As a point of note, I am getting married at the end of this month, so my build activities will be minimal during all of May… maybe an hour or two a day tops.  

  1. Chapter 25 – Wrapping up micro-finish Leave a reply
  2. Chapter 25 – Plodding to Finish Leave a reply
  3. Chapter 19/25 – Finishing end near? Leave a reply
  4. Chapter 23/25 – Spring Cleaning Leave a reply
  5. Chapter 25 – Trifecta Leave a reply
  6. Chapter 25 – Nose Job: Part 3 Leave a reply
  7. Chapter 25 – First official Grazing! Leave a reply
  8. Chapter 25 – Pants & Nose Leave a reply
  9. Chapter 25 – Nose job: Part 2 Leave a reply