Dakota extended wing

[ground loop]

Has anyone had the pleasure of ownining there extended wing. Is it worth it?

[ROOTER]

Ground Loop,

I have not heard of this Mod. But I live way down in the deep swamps of Louisiana. Give me the particulars.

Cub friend Jim.

[Cub Kid]

Jim,

Details can be found at www.dakotacubaircraft.com

Bill

[Dave Calkins]

OK, I figured to leave this question alone for a coouple of days for someone with direct experience to answer, but..

So, there have been a set of these extended wings with extended flaps and ailerons and the big tanks hanging at Reeve Airmotive for awhile now.

I don't know anyone with them intalled on an a/c, but I can tell you a few things about how they look.

First, from afar they look beautiful. They're hanging from the ceiling, though, so I can't look at every screw to see how they did.

They have a reinforcement plate on the web of the spars underneath where the strut fittings attach to the spar web. It's a nicely made plate that looks like an "H" laying on it's side. Apparently there is no gross weight increase with this reinforcement, but when the testing and stuff is done for the feds, this will have taken care of it. The reinforcement is beautifully integrated into the strut fitting area, unlike Wiplines pop-riveted spar cap strap thingy....which works fine and is certed, but ugly. Anyway, Dakota may have a gross-up STC on the way someday.

The wing spars are full length-full web. Meaning that there is no funky extension plate like on the retrofitted extended wing STC's. Instead, you have nice full spars all the way to the tip of the wing. They use a fiberglass tip of a somewhat-Hoerner design.......it tapers from the bottom up to the top suface...no droop.

They're expensive compared to the stock Dakota wings.....but they build ailerons and flaps to go with the long wings, so that's worth something.

If you need wings and want extended wings with long flaps, etc., this would be an easy and first-rate way to go, in my opinion.

[ground loop]

Just think, you can buy a beautiful set of extended wings with slats , with an STC and no one has probably ever flown a set. But, try to get a field approval on something everyone knows that will work!

[Dave Calkins]

Yep.

From now until the day that computers rule the world, federal aeronautical engineers will be ruling it.

[Michael E. Butterfield]

Hello Groundloop! We have installed a set of the slotted wings on Gunnys Cub and have flown it extensively. I would be happy to answer any questions you have on the installation, in fact if you were to come by the shop, you could fly the plane. Gunny has left Daisy with us for the winter and we have given many demo flights. I have to agree with David Calkins the wing is beautiful and it seems a shame to cover it with fabric. Mark and his team have done an excellent job of engineering this product. The rib is an extruded t that is much stiffer than any thing else out there and you will be able to broom the snow and frost off without worry of denting the upper chord. The ribs are also very uniform in length so there is no shimming to make the leading edge skin straight. The neat thing about the slot is the way the A/C performs with them. They do create much more lift at a higher angle of attack, and allow for safer slow flight. There is a nasty rumor floating around that the slots slow you down 15 MPH. That is simply not true and we can demonstrate it to anyone who is interested. Again if I can answer any questions I can be reached at 509-454-2667 daily. Low and slow, power back in the turns.

[Cubus Maximus]

Good grief Mike! That's a weird rumor. I flew in a Dakota slotted wing Cub on EDO 2000's a couple years ago. It was running a 160 hp with a Borer 41 and we saw 95 mph at 2500. Not that Cub AI's are all that accurate but we sure weren't missing 15 mph! It scooted right along I thought (besides jumping off glassy water in an all fired hurry)

Impressive performers in my limited experience with them.

Brad

[Gunny]

The airplane will be in Yakima on 20 and 21 February for Steve's visit as well as the rest of the winter. Drop in for a demonstration ride, that will let the wings speak for themselves.