First of all, they are neither flaps nor are they brakes. They are filled with holes and tend to slow down approaches. Brakes would insinuate that they would stop the thing, which they do not. By the way, they do work, but are totally unnecessary if proper tuning and the proper prop is used.

I used them when I was training with the Nexstar and then took them off after I solo'ed. The only real difference was that I needed to change the elevator trim a bit and learn to come in slower, neither of which took me very long (maybe two orbits of the first flight after taking them off???) Maybe that's becaue I learned to tune the engine correctly. I left the original prop on (well, not the original one cuz that was long since shattered from my crappy landings, but one with the same diameter and pitch).

What I learned to do was adjust my approach so it was a bit longer and allowed the plane to slow down to an appropriate landing speed.

As I said, they worked, but were they necessary? I don't know. They didn't hurt my learning process, but I will never know.

CGr.