Originally Posted by chris923

They do a have an affect, if you deploy at too high of a speed the plane will "balloon up". If you deploy them too late at a slow speed, you can stall. If you see no effect, them you are deploying them correctly. If you fly into a 15-20 mph wind you do not need the flaps to land. If you are in a 10 mph or less wind you will need flaps to slow to a landing speed with enough power to land with out stalling unless you have 1000ft to land on.

I would say you are using them correctly.