bigR

My Feedback: (2)

Hi there,

Is it worth it to put flaps on a seaplane? I have an Eagle 63 on floats. It gets off the water right smartly with a Magnum 61 two stroke in the nose. Can't fly it at full throttle for long but sure is nice to have that extra power when the plane hits a wave during takeoff and is thrown in the air before flying speed is reached. Just give it full left stick and pull back on the elevator.

Landings are a problem. It needs a long approach because of the good glide ratio with the flat bottom wing and I often overshoot and have to go around for another pass. I have a computer radio and already mix in rudder with the ailerons for turns. Would it be a good idea to add another aileron servo and make flaperons? That way I could make steeper approaches. I've never used flaps so don't know what to expect. I can also program in differential and mix in some elevator up or down to compensate for the flaps. What say you guys?

Thanks,

John in Kalifornia, getting ready for the float fly tomorrow

rrweather

My Feedback: (7)

You have to be careful. If you use the entire aileron as a flap, you run the risk of tip stalling as your speed drops. On final approach, this is obviously a bad thing as recovering is unlikely, especially in a sea plane. Flaps are usually on the inboard half of the wing to prevent the flaps from contributing to the tip stall. If your ailerons extend almost to your wing tips, I wouldn't try using the ailerons as flaps, but that is just my opinion. I'm sure someone else will jump in and give you theirs.

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

Yep. WHat he said. Flaperons bad. Real flaps good. Make 'em so they'll drop 70 degrees. You only need them to be a couple or 3 bays wide. They'll act as much like airbrakes as lift enhancement thingies, and you will be able to steepen and shorten your approaches. Deployed flaperons particularly on a flat -bottom wing are just begging for massive amounts of adverse yaw, tip stall, boat ride to retieve the big pieces.

Ed_Moorman

My Feedback: (1)

I'm with Jim. Flaperons on an RC model give a lot of extra lift for tighter loops, etc. I had flaperons on a Fazer on floats and used them on take off. It jumped off the water, then I released the up and the plane dropped back down. Anyway, I got into a porpoise that nearly got me. I will admit that the plane is an acro profile and I have 45 degrees of travel, but I'm not using flaperons any more.

On a plane with a flat bottom airfoil, they can actually get you too slow and into a stall. What you might try is to cut 6 inch long flaps out of your ailerons. That's all you need. As Jim said, make them go down 70-90 degrees. This lets them act like an air brake to slow you down and not for generating extra lift. Since you probably have a central servo, it will take relocating 2 aileron servos out in the wings and adding a couple of flap servos.