hello all and thank you in advance, i have just received my first computer radio and was wondering about flaperons for my AT-6 . and my question is this, when you use flaperons do you still have control of the ailerons ? or is it rudder only when taking off and landing with flaperons on ? or is it a bad idea to use them at all unless its a really fast landing bird ? i also have been told that with a plane like the AT-6 with a short tail moment it is a good idea to couple the ailerons and rudder for smoother turns with more control is this true ? im reading the manual for this radio front to back and back to front so i know how everything works and if i need it
again thanks to everyone for all the help with my newbie questions over the last 6 months or so

bassmanh
When using flaperons you still have aileron control tho it may be less depending on your radio. The flaperon mix will droop your ailerons to act as flaps but still allow one to raise and the other to drop more.

You probably will not need this feature on a T-6 but I don't know which T-6 kit you are referring to. The best thing to do is learn the characteristics of the plane without the flaperons and then try them out at a safe altitude to see their effect.

As for coupling the rudder and ailerons, personally I would suggest learning how to use the rudder. Again I don't know which T-6 you have so I don't know its flight characteristics. If it has big barn-door ailerons coupling might help.

If you have barn door ailerons (scale in size and placement), then flaperons may not be worth doing, and it may make the plane prone to tip-stalls. If you have strip ailerons (non-scale), then flaperons might or might not be worth it, you'll have to try and see.

I agree with the rest of what causeitflies said. I've heard flaperons called "crash now devices". So, do be sure to try them up high.

When you set them up, you can make sure you still have good throws on the surfaces. If you can't get enough throws, don't use flaperons. You will probably find that they don't help as much as you wanted.

As for ail rudder mixing, you can either use the computer for it, or do it manually. I prefer to do it manually on power and mix it on something like a glider. If you use the computer to mix, make it so you can turn the mix off with one of the switches.

I've tried flaperons on a couple of "stick" type models and found it more a pain than it's worth.
if your going too fast when you deploy them the plane wants to ballon up, this buggers up the aproach no end, it can also make the plane pitch sensative and it wants to hunt up and down.
if your going nice and slow you have to feed in down elevator or have it coupled to the flap control.

any way it's good fun to play with but just a pain in the butt on the average "sport" model

I use slight flaperons coupled to the elevator on my UCD to loop practically in the fuse length. They are enabled by a switch.

bassmanh - If you limit your flaps to about 20 degrees you'll get plenty of lift from them as well as still having aileron authority. That is VERY important. If you max the flaps, then your ailerons will stop working and if you can't fly rudder-only you'll be in trouble before you know it.

Read this page for more information:

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/my_stik_30.htm

The value of setting up flaperons seems to depend a lot on the plane. I set up elevator-flap mixing on my 4* but never use it because it just makes the plane harder to fly. I also set up elevator-flap mixing on my Nobler and this works well. But the Nobler has true (seperate) flaps and they seem to be designed to work in this way. Engaging the Nobler flaps also helps slow down landings however there is a fine line between setting the throw "enough to slow the plane down" and "too much", which makes the plane prone to ballooning and causes general instability.

Start your mix low- maybe 15% and gradually work your way up. Make sure you program the mix to a switch so that you can fly the plane normally to altitude, then flip the switch to see what happens when you are a few mistakes high.

I also wouldn't try landing with the flaperons acting as "flaps" without some test approaches while flying high first. Be prepared to dial in some flap-to-elevator mix. You will probably see a significant tendency for the nose to pitch up without this mix, which will make the plane very hard to fly. Again, this is something you will have to set by testing the flaperons a few mistakes high, then landing in normal mode, adjusting your mix value as needed, then trying it again.