737 Classic

[Golden Rivet]

Anyone fly a -300 with retrofitted winglets ?

Interested to hear about comparisons in roll control between wingleted and non-wingleted airplanes.

:)

[OscarYankee]

I fly both -500 and -300W, and handling-wise, there is imo not much difference. Only thing noticeable is in the flare, where you get a sence of the extra lift.

//

[Golden Rivet]

We have lots of crews complaining of sluggish roll control.

The Mod has added a set of vortex generators ahead of each aileron. There must have been a reason for adding these ?

How big do winglets have to get before they start acting as vertical stabilisers ?

[CaptainSandL]

I asked APB about this a couple of years ago, pointing to the reduced crosswind limits for 737s with winglets. Their answer was
“The FAA will only let us document the max winds experienced during flight test... so if we had been able to find more crosswind, then the 33kts might have been more. There appears to be no weather cocking effect due to winglets.”

Personally I am not convinced. The winglets must give a weather-cocking effect ie increased directional stability / reduced directional controllability hence the reduced crosswind capability.

Re “sluggish roll control” this has been noticed by NG crews who operate mixed winglet & non-winglet aircraft. I don’t know if the NG has the extra VG’s. The initial force to induce a roll will have to be increased because of the extra weight at the wingtips. This could be interpreted as a reduced roll rate by someone not used to such analyses, although the steady state roll rate (roll rate once started) would be the same. Whether the 235kg has this much effect with hydraulic controls I am not sure, I have not flown one in manual reversion yet but I would be really interested to hear from anybody who has.

[Capt. Inop]

Re “sluggish roll control” this has been noticed by NG crews who operate mixed winglet & non-winglet aircraft.
As well as a very strong pitch up tendency in the takeoff roll (7 and 800)

[Golden Rivet]

I'm not sure you can compare the NG to a wingleted Classic. They have substantaily different wings

[Just another student]

I too fly the 737-500 and 300W and echo the statement of our fellow user, they have a tendency to float a little on flare, but other than that, there seem to be no real differences.