ORIGINAL: danamania
Thanks Matt. On another note, I do find it ironic that in a sport obsessed with whittling weight, especially discarding unneeded parts, that wheel pants are de rigeur, or rarely questioned in the quest to shed weight. Do they really reduce drag enough to warrant any increased weight at all? And why do we sport them? A vestige from scale models or do they truly serve a vital function on Pattern planes? I mean, I got schooled for extra Deans, but nobody suggests shedding pants to save weight, right?
They are worth 10 to 14 mph on my Pitts Special when I raced it at Reno, depending on how closely I closed the tire/wheelpant gap and it had a fairly perfect 90 degree strut/wheelpant intersection.
On models, how light they are and their frontal area and shape probably will make differences on effects of vertical CG and drag reduction. I'll bet when one removes them, there are trim changes to be made.
Aesthetically speaking all of these models are ugly enough, without wheel pants they are hideous.
Chris...