Testimonials

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I receive lots of emails from Pilots who have installed VGs on their planes and share with me their before and after flight testing results. I have grouped them by plane type, because I know most pilots want to know the results for their particular aircraft. However, from many hours spent flight testing myself, I have found that our Installation Instructions cover most aircraft as long as the VGs are installed correctly for the wing shape.

These are just a handful of the reviews we have received for Stolspeed VGs and the enhanced aircraft performance. You can scroll through the specific aircraft reviews in the menu tabs.

Zenith 601

I’m absolutely impressed and surprised about the results of installing Stolspeed VG's, I never expected these results. I demonstrated my new airplane to 601 flyers and to the German dealer of Zodiac. My test results with photos go to all experimental builders in Switzerland , later in Germany and England

and I hope to the ZENAIR homepage. Every one is impressed and will install your little things.

I’m impressed how much better the flight-characteristics at high altitude up to 13’500 fts are. A very big change! The cruise at very high altitude is much better. My approach speed is now 55 kt (before 65 kt) and touch down below 50 kt. Limited by tail contact. The flight controls are now much more comfortable, especially the elevator. The safety margin is improved considerably over the entire flight envelope.

To install VGs is the best modification I ever made, even for a low investment. The only mistake I made, not to install VGs 800 flight hours earlier.

HB-YKViktor

Tecnam P-96

"I purchased the StolSpeed VGs from Stolspeed and tested them on the Tecnam P-96 used in our flying school, and later on the Alto (both taildragger and tricycle versions). I’m the Spanish dealer for Direct Fly.

With VGs installed, we observed a drastic reduction in minimum speed with no noticeable decrease in cruise speed. This improvement is clear on both aircraft types. On the school Tecnam, we gained a good safety margin above stall speed, which is perfect for training and much safer for solo flights.
On the Alto, the VGs help reduce approach speed, very useful given the shorter wingspan.

In both cases, the stall speed reduction is about 20 km/h, which looks excellent to me! Of course, I also tested them on short takeoffs, and it feels almost like having slats installed but I prefer not to mention that to my student pilots, just in case they want to try it."

Antonio, Barcelona, Spain

Cub

I am located in Alaska and own a business called Fly Around Alaska. I teach off airport/bush flying. To date, I have given around 3,500 hours of dual to people in their Cubs. These Cubs have every modification on them, and I know them all well.

I also have the Artic's Air Junkies exhibition, experimental Nolen 5. It is basically a wide J3. Originally it did not have flaps, and I had Gurney flaps mounted to it. It was a very slow flier with the Gurneys. I won the third place spot at Valdez that year. The stall speed was around 35 mph. The pitch angle was pretty unruly, and I would always bounce the tailwheel on the surface before the mains. Then I researched Stolspeed VGs.

I liked the fact that they had round tips and I could use my wing covers. I also threw some math at it and figured they would do better than the other VGs on the market. Boy was I right. We added the VGs and made flaps out of Taylorcraft ailerons. The flaps slowed it down to about 32, and your VGs knocked off another 6 mph. I stall around 26 now. What is even more amazing is I put them ahead of the rudder on the stabilizer. I can now slip at angles unheard of and without fear of airflow separation spanwise. It is pretty amazing what they have done. I also don't have 3,000 dollars worth of slats in my way when I am putting gas in.

Thanks for a fine product.

Kolb Firestar

I added the Stolspeed VGs on my Xtra (912 100 HP with Warp Drive 3-blade prop) last September. Placement per Stolspeed’s recommendation except that I used the 60 mm spacing from outboard to inboard of the wing. Also centered the pair of VGs in each valley between the ribs. I also added VGs to the underside of the horizontal stabilizer.

The stall speed went from 40 indicated to 32 indicated and about 30 indicated with 20 degrees of flaps. I have 14 landings with the VGs and they have been the best by far. It seems I have much more time to get the plane down to just a few inches above the runway than before. It also seems the pitch control is much more stable. Before, I was always overcontrolling up and down after the round out. That hasn’t happened with the VGs.

I’m very happy with them and have no regrets. I wish I had put them on sooner.

Rex