REFLECTOR: Aerodynamic trim

[Dave Philipsen]

Just a question for anyone that is currently flying with the "sparrow 
strainer".  I have one of these on my canard and, since I'm a new owner, 
I'm just getting used to some of the quirks.  I was flying home 
cross-country this evening and noticed that as I started my descent from 
5500 feet to my home airport, I could only get about a 300-400 fpm 
descent with the trim max'd out all the way down.  As the airspeed 
started to build up in the descent, the "sparrow" evidently became more 
effective and I actually lost all of the available pitch down trim that 
I had started with.  So, I had to hold the stick forward with a fair 
amount of pressure to maintain a 500-600 fpm descent.   As I slowed down 
entering the pattern, the pitch down became effective once again. 

Should I experiment with trying to effectively disable maybe 50% of that 
"sparrow" airfoil and see what happens?  Has anyone else had the same 
experience?

-- 
Dave Philipsen
STDFG
N171SP

soon-to-be N83DP