The International Cessna^® 170 Association

There was a small country store where most customers had charge accounts, and paid their bills monthly when the livestock was sold at market.
One day Joe's duck walked into the store and waddled up to the storekeeper and asked for a package of condoms.
The storekeeper placed them on the counter and asked, "Shall I place these on your bill?"
"No", Waddles replied. "I'm not that kind of duck!"

Russ,don't waste your money on the VG's. I got something better.
I never clean the wings on my 170. After 5 years of smashing bugs,there's finally enough of them on the leading edge that all their tiny little wings act just like VG's. The law of aerodynamics insure that they ended up stuck on the leading edge in PRECISELY the right place to be most effective.
Go organic. Go natural. Go with Eric's Genuine Bug-tech Lift Augmenters.
Check our website for pricing info.
http://www.unbelievable----.com

Eric

On a non-constant level lake in Central Texas lived many ducks. One duck in particular caught George's eye. Everywhere this duck went, he pulled along behind him this chain with a wierd shaped object glued to every fifth link. Finally, George couldn't stand it any longer and he confronted the duck. "Why do you pull that chain with those things on it everywhere you go?" George asked. "Are you CRAZY? Have you ever tried to push one of these things?" replied the duck.

Recent posts have revealed a whole new relm of possiblities!!! We have about 10 million ducks and geese here on the Chesapeake Bay in the winter..just think where we could go with this!!!!!!

Hover quackers duck taped to the top of the wings and tail and float geese stuck to the belly...sounds like a VSTOL Amphib to me!!! AND.....after the snow stopped yesterday, we had freezing rain beginning at about 10'AGL, but the ducks and the geese were flying!!! WOW....an all weather VSTOL Amphib!!!! How many ya think it would take to make a 170 fly and float (remember they're cheap...assuming diaper cost is only a factor when you go to big town airports)??

Don't forget the cost of training the ducks and geese!

JOEY BOY YUH JES LERND LESSNS ABOUT TRYIN TU PUT DIPERS ON A DUK AN NOW YU WANT TU TEECH EM TU FLI? YUH BIN SMOKIN WAKY WEED (AGIN). I HADA GO BACK TU SUM EARLIER POSTS AN RE-REED URE STORY BOUT SUMMA URE UNLUKY FLYIN AN I DONT THINK ENY DUKS WUD WANT TO HAVE U TEECHIN EM TO FLY!

Its pretty obvious the weather has been lousy lately--way too much time on your hands--you can see what happens when these inventive minds get too much fertilizer.

flyguy wrote:JOEY BOY YUH JES LERND LESSNS ABOUT TRYIN TU PUT DIPERS ON A DUK AN NOW YU WANT TU TEECH EM TU FLI? YUH BIN SMOKIN WAKY WEED (AGIN). I HADA GO BACK TU SUM EARLIER POSTS AN RE-REED URE STORY BOUT SUMMA URE UNLUKY FLYIN AN I DONT THINK ENY DUKS WUD WANT TO HAVE U TEECHIN EM TO FLY!

Joe is just trying to create a cover story for owning that duck.
After his world-record speed attempt in a supersonic spiral, he decided that venturis suffer from a critical-mach shock-wave failure mode. So he decided that if he couldn't trust gyros,... he would start carrying a cat. He figured he could tell if he was upside down by occasionally dropping the cat to see which way it landed, but that proved unreliable when the cat extended his claws and began to continuously and very determinely hold onto the carpet. The experiment was a "cat"-astrophic failure.
So, with the cover story of buying a pet for his little girl, he began his experiments with a duck. Original test flights looked promising. Whenever he got caught in clouds, he'd just release the duck through the open window and follow the mallard out of the clouds. But this ultimately proved disappointing on a typically Texas foggy February when the airport was closed to approaches due to zero-zero conditions. Ever-prepared Joe released the duck and tucked into very tight formation. Things looked pretty good until Joe noticed the duck began to back-flap and extend his little webbed feet forward. Glancing up showed him a windshield filled with a blind full of wide-eyed duck-hunters and their retrievers sitting expectantly in the middle of a north-Texas pond! It was a very near miss that would have made a mess of the seats except for Joe's pre-fright planning which included the wearing of super-size diapers. However, after that episode Joe decided not to do any more "blind" flying.
Many months have now passed, and Joe is still trying to find some way to use up all those extra diapers. (And now, you know the rest of the story.)

OK, you realize that now you are talking Soup Quaker, not just Hover Quakers

Actually, the duck is a chick magnet

We do have a cat, it is a Maine Coon. The only breed of small cat that was here when the Pilgrims landed.

I have Microaerodynamics vg's on my 55 170b. Spent about $25 and 8 cold hours of labor on them. I won the kit in the raffle in Anchorage.

My son and I did some before and after testing. I don't see much difference with aileron control at low speeds and I can't feel any great difference with the elevator at low speeds. There are two places though where I think they make a real difference.

A soft field take-off (on our 150'wide paved runway at 180' MSL) with the stick in my lap sure feels a lot different than it did before vg's. Once the plane leaps off the ground just relax the back pressure a bit and you are flying with none of the mushy feeling I used to get beforehand. I like that.

We tested stall speeds before and after. It does make some difference particularly in takeoff configuration - maybe 5 mph. I don't have the numbers in front of me. The other thing they did is change Vx. Best angle speed, at sea level, is about 55 mph. That's a bit slower than I'd would actually fly it if I needed it unless I really needed it.

All in all I'd say they are definitely worth the $25. I like to fly in the Idaho backcountry so I might even invest the $1,450 retail if I had to but unless you are flying on the edge it's probably not worth it.

Except they look cool.

Great info!!! Anybody know where there is another raffle for these things? I have been easedropping on some Super Cub web pages and they seem to like the BLRs for landing, saying the Micros work best on takeoff....sounds like the results were the same on the 170B. Super Cubbers really like the BLRs, but then they were also talking about landing in water with tundra tires....I used to fly the Super Cub Heavy (DHC-3 Otter) off beaches but never got the wheels wet....think that's why they make floats!!! I'm going to try for some logic here...be gentle...if the Micros work best on T/O and the 170 can land in spaces it can't takeoff from, then the Mircos seem to be the best choice given the limited data we have for the 170.....any comments here? Also the Cubbers say the Micros help with control when slow and heavy too. Maybe I'm pole vaulting over duck droppings here....does it really matter on 3,000 feet of asphalt?

If you diligently practice slow flying your C-170, you will develope ability and confidence to the point that vortex generators will be superfluous and a waste of money.
As George Horn stated, The airplane will easily get into places it can never get out of.____even with VGs and a big engine like mine.

BL

And they are butt ugly. When we shopped in Anacortes a couple of summers ago the Micro VG guy who is on the field asked if he could use my plane for three days to flight test. He would give me the approved VGs' for free. I said no thanks. I agree with BL, practice your slow flight until you are comfortable with the plane. I stopped in 300-400 feet last Summer once without even working at it. Plus I WANT the airplane to quit flying especially in windy conditions so I can taxi in.

A few years ago I did a BFR with an instructor who was not familiar with tailwheel airplanes or 170s in general. During the flight she asked me to set up for slow flight. Having owned my 170 for several years and having flown it in all modes and configurations, I asked her, "How slow you want to go"? "How slow can you fly?" she asked. I becan to reduce airspeed, add flaps, add power, increase the angle of attack, more flap, then more power until the a/s indicator was showing 0 and the stall beeper was a steady sound. I was maintaining altitude and heading. She said "I don't believe your airspeed indicator is working! Make a 360* turn to the right". It took about 4 minutes! I rolled out on heading at the same altitude. She then asked for one to the left and when I accomplished that with less that 100' altitude loss she then directed me to go back to the airport for some soft and short field landings. After a landing roll of around 200' from touchdown to full stop on the first landing, she asked for a short field takeoff. After I did the "jerk 20* flap" and got airborne in around 500', she decided I knew the airplane much better than she did.

Her post flight comments, "I didn't know Cessna made a STOL aircraft in 1952!" and "What an instructor really wants to find out is whether you know the "book numbers" for your plane. I guess you have gone beyond those, but be careful you don't stall out when trying to make that thing into a helicopter!"

George is exactly correct in saying you can get your 170 into places you can't possibly take off from. I would add that in an emergency you can "safely land" in a 400' field without damaging much. Just know what your 170 will do and use that safety margin for your benefit.

Those configurations I used are extreme but using stick-on VGs to accomplish what the plane is already capable of is a waste of gas money. I will wager anyone wanting to accomplish flying at any less that '0' indicated and using less than two hundred feet for a landing, can't do it any better with the added devices!

You guys are correct, of course...all of you!!

I thought this was going to be a simple "buy em for $500, get 337, try em and if I don't like em, they will unglue...no harm done process". NOW..... I find they are either butt ugly or they look cool, worth $25 or retail, work or they don't work, wouldn't take em for free and are a waste of gas money (that hurt!!)!! The ducks and hover quackers were a lot easier to follow!!

I believe in the OLD saying "You can teach a monkey to fly fast, but only a pilot to fly slow" I just made that up, but then I'm kinda old. Certainly, slow flight practice, confidence in your airplane, your ability and good judgement is a necessary and an integral part of safe flying and I do a bunch before I ever solo a student. By the way, anybody get spin or unusual attitude recovery (VFR) in a BFR lately??

The '48 metal wings I have are really mushy and squirrelly feeling below 45 indicated. Yes, it will fly fine at less than 40 indicated, but you're never really sure when it will break and stall...especially in gusty wind. Maybe it's my technique, maybe the wing...either way I don't like it.

If I could get the FAA to bite off on a sign off, I'd buy them and try them. I might get my RV-4 done before that will happen, then I won't need their permission to try them on that wing. Any home built 170s with VGs out there??