I know that you can use flapperons to allow a plane to come in slower and allow it to "float" if you move them down, but I was wondering if you could move them up to come down faster and land on a shorter runway.

Yeah well with flaps down you can land in a shorter distance,

If you have a computer radio and seperate channels for each aileron, mix flaperons with the elevator so when you pull up elavator your flaps go down and when you push down elevator your flaps go up. I fly on a very short field with telephone lines right on one end of the runway and a large dirt mound on the other end. So all of my approaches are very short. This mix will make your plane land much slower and easier.

WOW i think thats the BEST thing ive heard tonight ....but i can i have this set on a switch ? I wouldnt want to leave it like that all the time .....hmmm wonder if i can do this with my JR XP8103

Yeah you can do it with an xp8103 on the "GEAR/INVERT" switch or the flight mode switch. You have to program a mix to the separate aileron channels and the elevator. When you hit the switch the ailerons and elevator will move a predetermined (mix) amount. It's been so long the best I could tell you is to learn how to make a mix from the user manual. Then you'll see it's easy with that radio. Start out small and test it up high enough to recover, I had it setup on a Kyosho Flip 3D and it stopped it dead in it's tracks. Also if you just use the flaperons you get an easier "float" effect, both might be overkill if you haven't tried landing with flaperons first. Good luck!

you could move the ailerons in sync with your elevators and there people that do program it in that way if they have to land where the approach is close to hitting some trees. it will help you descend at a much faster pace while maintaining a more neutral attitude. however, i don't think it is the way you should do it. the key to a short landing isn't to increase the absolute rate of descent but rather to slow down so that the absolute rate of descent, though unchanged, translates to a steeper glide path.

if you have a short runway and a long approach THERE IS NO REASON TO DO THIS. actually it is detrimental to do it because having flaperons above the wing (spoilerons) they will actually increase your airspeed and case the landing to be much faster. what you want is to use flaperons so that you can touch down moving as slowly as possible so that you don't overshoot the runway. coming in steep doesn't mean you come in slow. 'nuff said.

I recently watched my flying buddy dead stick his Dazzler and during the forced landing he was under the impression that if he used the flaps it would magically give him lift when he didn't have enough air speed! Needless to say.......he buried it! I did try to dissuade him from using flaperons on the plane, but age won out over experience on that one.

Yeah well flaperons weren't the best choice during a dead stick. There's nothing wrong with flaperons, in fact when set up right and used properly they're a lot of fun and quite useful at times.

CitatioN10, my advice is to program the flaperon mix without the elevator to start and only use a tiny bit of throw to start with, you can manually counteract the added lift with the elevator until you get used to it, and then add more throw until you get the results you want.

To explain them, They slow the whole plain down, Which reduced airspeed, Which reduces Altitude. So in theory, You can land very short, and also you can stop the plane on the ground. I honestly think they are a must have for tail draggers

I use my flaps/spoilerons alot on my ucando, they are almost a primary flight control! i have them set on a side slider and my finger is always on that. spoilerons are nice because you can come down nearly vertical, bleed of LOTS of speed, then hit flaps and land with flaps down. As soon as you touch down you can again hit full spoilerons up to stop quicker and keep it planted. (I can go from vertical to stopped on the ground in about 10 horizontal feet.

on thing to remember is that spoilerons will give most planes a fairly nose up attitude, and you will be landing on the tail gear if it is a dragger...

I asked this question, because I put the mixing in for flapperons/spoilerons on my UCD .46, and I have a bigger engine in it so it tends to float a good amount, so I wanted to see if I could get it down faster.

Have you tried changing props? Get one that's one inch longer and one inch less pitch. It will be like shifting down a little. At idle the plane will go a bit slower.

Will the UCD and a OS .61 FX take a 14 inch prop?

I always went with whatever doesn't hit the ground, if you have a paved runway you won't need as much clearance but if you use grass and dirt be careful. Since it's a tail dragger make sure you position it on the ground accordingly. Also changing your prop is going to effect the entire power range not just idle, but it's good to try a few different props and decide what you like.