fiddy_zen

Control authority and flapperon effectiveness depends on the plane you want to use flapperons with. I’ve used them with flat bottom airfoil trainers and they work great. I’ve never had a tip stall issue or lack of aileron control authority with full down flapperons on a trainer, or even a plane with a slight semi-symmetrical airfoil. Now when you start moving to planes that have shorter ailerons and a more semi-symmetrical or symmetrical airfoil then you are talking a different story. It depends on the plane and set-up, but that is when you can get into tip stall issues if you are not careful and this is when separate flaps and ailerons are required. My personal preference is to generally go to standard flaps for planes with other than flat bottom airfoils.

For an example of how well flapperons can work, I equipped my son’s NextStar with full span flapperons. When I drop them just ¼” at the trailing edge the plane takes on a different nature and is actually a much better flying plane – shorter take-off’s and landings, more benign stalls (like a NextStar has much of a stall to begin with) and it will putt along maintaining altitude at 1/8 – 1/4 throttle. When I drop them as far as I can get them it will come in similar to how the plane does with the speed brakes and droop tips installed and looses its floating ability.

Hogflyer