Got it in a nutshell Hatty. Unless you just want to play with them. Experimenting CAN be it's own reward.

Ty, very interesting reading. You pretty much summed up what I found with my flap experiments on the couple of occasons I tried them.

Our models don't have to cruise at a high and efficient speed for most of the time in the air and then slow to a speed that prevents overrunning the available runway like full sized aircraft do. Flaps on the big ones are there for a reason that we just don't have to deal with USUALLY. The only model category that uses speed control flaps to a great advantage is modern sailplanes. But they have set up the competition tasking so tightly that they NEED them to fullfill the tasks with a decent degree of control. It's all about picking the right tool for the job. I'm not considering coupled flaps and elevators in this as those are a special case. We are talking about speed and lift enhancements for slow speed flight here.