Hi All,
In a previous post I asked advice about flying a biplane with my limited experience. The replies leaned towards another type of plane. I did get the Sig SE. What a BLAST to fly!! This was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you to all who replied and shared their thoughts.
I am seeking advice on flaperons. Can they be used to shorten take offs? Is it safe? I fly from a grass field, the wheel pants seem to slow the plane and it takes longer to lift off when the grass gets tall before it is mowed. In this situation, would it be a good idea to use the flaperons?

If you drop the flaperons on take-off if will not hurt the plane. Just make sure to bring them back up to neutral after the take-off b/c flying with them on would not be too much fun. When I do this with my Ultra Stick the take-offs are shorter, so I am guessing the results would be the same with the SE. Just give it a try and see if you like it.

Hi,

Yes, definitely try the flaperons on take-off. I just completed an SE too, and was having some long take-off runs on our grass field. If I had a bit of a head wind it was no problem taking off, but on those very still days it seemed to take forever. I noticed when using the supplied APG (aileron positioning guage) that came with the kit to set the neutral position on the ailerons, it seemed as if the ailerons are up just slightly. I think this makes the plane want to squat and stay put on the ground during take-off. I've since dialed in a few degrees of down flaps for take-off and it will lift right off after a much shorter run. After take-off I simply dial back the ailerons to the neutral position and have a ball.

-wydah

Just be sure to test out the flaperons at altitude a few times before trying a takeoff with them. Depending on the plane and how much throw you have setup, some planes loose aileron effectiveness when flaperons are dropped. You might also get some pitch trim changes. So, your best finding out about such things high up, when you have time to turn them back off and recover if it doesn't work well.

As Montauge said, test it at altitude first. Sometimes when using flaperons you'll also have to mix in a bit of elevator to keep the plane from pitching. On my Futaba 6XAS I put the flaperons on the "airbrake" switch....this enables me to mix in elevator easily if need be, since it's already mixed into the airbrake function.

Oh, I forgot to mention, some guys at my field call flaperons "crash now devices".

essixx,
Loose the pants and get yourself a bigger set of wheels. You'll be surprised how much easier your grass field takeoffs and landings will be.