splais

My Feedback: (25)

So I had a dead stick in my 30cc p-47 the other day. The engine quit on takeoff just after gear up in the middle of the down wind leg. Everything came out ok, got gear down and landed without incident, a bit fast, but ok. I did not put the flaps down at all. I got to thinking afterwards, maybe I should have, at least half anyway. I didn't because I thought it might cause too much drag with no engine. Would anyone care to comment on this flaps-no flaps issue in a warbird?

ccostant

My Feedback: (38)

In my opinion, no real yes or no answer because of too many variables. For example, were you heading into back into a head wind and how strong a head wind? How far were you from the runway? How high were you, could you trade altitude for speed?

I know some pilots in that situation actually pull the gear up and go for the belly landing.

Luft-Gangster

Think about it this way. You have no power. all you have is air speed and its not increasing. Applying flaps will only decrease air speed and you really don't have enough altitude to dive and gain air speed back so my response is you did exactly the right thing by not applying flaps. The other thing is keep it flying straight into the wind and don't turn back and run into a situation of you have ground speed but no air speed and stall. I will agree with not dropping gear for the same reason - air speed. I applied flaps once on a dead stick and was stunned when the plane virtually stopped in the air, dropped a wing and instantly rekitted itself. The wing on that plane had ample washout, so applying flaps was Pilot Error. Remember, you were flying a warbird not a 3D plane.

CafeenMan

Luft is right. When dead stick it's a bad idea to change the configuration of the plane unless you have altitude. Normally when I put down flaps I put the plane into a shallow dive because a stall with flaps down can be nasty.

If you have the altitude then partial flaps and dive. See how you like it.

hellcat56

My Feedback: (21)

I agree with ccosant
kind of depends on a lot of things
altitude makes many choices available
i keep the gear up until about 4 feet from touchdown sometimes i leave them up just to make the landing area
some flap will generate lift letting you make the runway
lot of flap will generate drag
i have bellied in
and used wheel
and used wheels and flaps
kind of depends

LUFF is right about turning be sure you have altitude
the turn back to the runway with a dead motor, no airspeed and no altitude is called a "dead mans turn" for a reason
i know not much of an answer sorry

aghost

My Feedback: (13)

too many variables for a single answer. But if you got down OK, good choices.

I did put the flaps down for a belly landing. Tore the flap right off the wing that dropped to the ground during the landing.

splais

My Feedback: (25)

the only thing about the gear in my situation is that the gear are electric and it takes about 5-8 seconds for them to come down. I had altitude in a no-wind situation so everything worked out. The Hanger9 30cc P-47 really has no pitch change even with full flaps. In retrospect I'm thinking I could have deployed flaps on touchdown to help bleed off excess speed.

raptureboy

I prefer gear up and no flaps if I'm low and upwind of the runway and I try to use only the rudder to steer with to keep her level. If I have altitude then gear down and flaps if I have too much speed. Got to go with your gut on these things most of the time.

larry@coyotenet

My Feedback: (21)

In your situation, only once!

alanc

Ruddy big prop sending back lots of thrust suddenly stops, not only would i not drop the flaps, i would not drop the gear either, seen toooooo many warbirds die when the legs alone have been dropped in a dead stick situation, never mind flaps, drop those 2, or one of them, and you will have the homing instincts of an anvil on your hands

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

I would say if it dead-sticks beyond the runway then no as you need all of the airspeed you can get to bring it around.
If it happens over the runway then perhaps full flaps, nosedive .flair and land , in hopes it will slow down before the end of the runway.

Warbird Man

My Feedback: (95)

I'd say definitely no. Your just asking for a stall. ( learned that one the hard way) You got too much going on in a crisis situation, it's better to keep up the airspeed and get it down on the runway. If it's a bit fast, the worst you'll have is a little walkin. That's better than picking up pieces or repositioning your gear to the top side of your wings.

If your having dead stick issues, put some wing tanks on it. I had a P-47 dead stick on me ( back when I flew slimmers) and landed it gear up on the tanks. Actually look kinda cool. All it did was scuff the paint abit on the tank bottoms.

skillet92

I would say no flaps from my experience. I have the H9 150 P51 and have had a couple of dead sticks getting the 35 dle broke in. No flaps applied in any of them. I did put gear down on all of them but I also had lots of altitude. My first Corsair, an ESM, I had a a dead stick and thought it was to fast to make the field so I deployed the flaps to slow it down. I was shocked at how fast it slowed and stalled.

prop wash

All the above Splais,you did the right thing for that time.Tom

Nordicz

My Feedback: (7)

As stated earlier. So many factors into whether or not to put flaps down. Usually I would say no. But I was faced with a situation where I believe it was the correct choice. I was flying a low altitude high speed pass when the engine went dead at full throttle, middle of the strip, wind at my back. I chose to drop gear and flaps. The plane floated forever and I did run out of runway. I purposely stalled it near a road approach and culvert. Luckily I was able to get that last few feet in tall grass and the plane belly flopped just prior to the approach. I tore out one gear and broke a flap in half due to the hard landing but it saved the airframe. Two day's later I was flying it again. Not a very normal situation but in that case I feel it was the best case scenario.

Z

alanc

Tchhhh all wrong, you should have used the intertia, pulled straight up into a wingover, pushed inverted to the vertical, into a stall turn, then flicked the gear down, then flap, and greased it to your feet,

ONLY JOKING, this just shows that it all depends what situation you are in, and where the engine quits,

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

To many variables,
but basically if any turns have to be made to make the runway, the gear stay up until the runway is made and airspeed allows. Flaps stay up perios unless speed is very high and a runway overshoot is likely.

Once in the ground or within about 10-15 feet of it, Nothing changes as you need to be more worries about landing the model than trying to change configurations and getting distracted