Disclaimer

Safety
It is common knowledge that seals and tapes on wings can lose adhesion and rise up to cause serious performance and control issues. Obviously then, tapes near the leading edge of a wing, that provide beneficial deturbulation effects, can lead to potentially dangerous circumstances. Therefore, anyone installing such modifications must take care (1) to install tapes only on clean surfaces that free of substances that might impair adhesion and (2) to inspect the tapes regularly for signs of separation. That said, Standard Cirrus #60 has been flying with leading edge tapes since 2003 without the first sign of a problem after years of use.

Regulations
Anyone installing the modifications reported on this website should adhere to the requirements of their aviation regulatory agency.

Insurance
Another concern regards whether the deturbulator tape modification will affect the payout of insurance claims. Check with your insurer if you have a question.

In the UK, Tony Lintott (Standard Libelle H201B, G-DCYG) has reported that this is not a problem with his insurer. He received the following reply to his query:

"...confirm underwriters have no problem with (Deturbulators) and there are no implications to your insurance as a result."

He added that "Whilst I don't have it in writing, the UK Underwriter is likely to have taken a view from within the UK aircraft insurance industry, so the above statement is likely to relate to the UK as a whole, not just our glider. In any case this will assist participating UK pilots, with the caveat that to be sure, they should ask their insurer, citing our agent's finding."



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