OK, my radio allows me to mix for flaperons, but I was wondering how it works- say I am landing so I want to use flaps to slow down, does this mean I no longer have ailerons? I guess I understand the concept but I am having a hard time visualizing it in my head.

You have less aileron authority. Meaning that you will have less roll control when you need it the most. I steer clear of that sort of setup. Some may argue that it is fine, but just think about it... you push both ailerons down, lets say 10 degrees. Now you have 10 degrees less movement available for your ailerons. Personally, I prefer all of my ailerons available on landing.

CGr.

Flaperons is simply a way to cheat a bit if your plane doesn't have dedicated flaps.

When you flip the flaps switch, your ailerons will drop a little bit to give additional lift. You still have full control of your ailerons.

You shouldn't be using a lot of aileron on landing anyway. Thats what the RUDDER is for. Rudder will yaw the nose left and right without dipping the wings like ailerons do. Learn to use your rudder now, and you'll be 20 times better pilot than most of the guys at the field who have been flying for years.

G'day Mate,
Think of it as an automatic mix, it allows much better trimming of the ailerons, by using 2 servos, & being able to fine tune each aileron servo individually, subtrim, endpoints & so on.
But be aware, you can disable the flap switch, & just use the convenience of 2 servos without a "Y" lead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaperon
http://www.airfieldmodels.com/inform...l_aircraft.htm
A couple of items to read.

They work really well to induce a tip stall if your not careful..............

I use just a touch sometimes when landing my Little Toni, or i will just "dirty it up" while on final to loose some airspeed by rocking the wings up an down a few times.

Inboard flaps are alot better at slowing you down an not dropping a wing as fast as flapperons will.

When you do try it be sure just to dial in very little to start with, Cause a little goes a long way.

I have a 9C an i just left the flapperon page pulled up when i was flying. I would shoot a crash-n-go then make my adjustments when in the air right before the next atempt to land. Depending on the model, but if its anything like my model you will forsure want to land with the power on.................Just my 2 cents

thanks for the info - that wikipedia link was helpful. I hadn't considered about the increased possibility of tip stalls. Think I will probably stay away from flaperons except maybe on electric gliders. What I want to do is fly a small electric sailplane from a small schoolyard- was thinking flaperons would enable a much steeper descent on landing.

Spoilerons are even better for steep descents because they don't generate any lift, actually kill lift AND induce drag. May not be a good condition to actually land in though. Try in small/gradual amounts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilerons

Alan0899 gave you an excellent answer. That's the exact reason I use a Flaperon Wing Type on nearly all of my planes, so I can set the center point and end points of each side individually.

Stunt flaps, like the control line guys use where both ailerons move down with up elevator and up with down elevator, will allow your plane to turn and loop tighter. This works well if you are nervous about downward outside loops.

I would not recommend coupled flaperons for landing, not because of tip stalling, but because every time you move the elevator, the flaps move. This tends to cause a lot of ballooning of the plane.

If you like to float, you can set them to work on the flap switch and put them down slightly. On a heavy plane, like a scale plane, I would always use inboard flaps separate from the ailerons.

My preference for landings, especially on light planes, Sticks, 3D planes and the sort, is spoilers, or spoilerons, as some people call them. I mix them with throttle where they start to deploy at half throttle and are fully deployed at idle. On an Ultra Stick, for example, I set them to go up about 20 degrees. You should adjust the amount to how you like it. Mixing with throttle works very well. If you are coming in short, as you add power, the spoilers drop down some, letting you float forward more. Also in a touch and go, the spoilers drop down to the normal aileron position when you add power to go.

Ed.....I'm not trying to be a sour apple, But the flapperons on my Little toni do not move when I use the elev.. I belive i ready in a post not to long ago you had a cosmic minnow..... What do you think of it compared to the shoestring an the little toni?

I have flaperons on My Stik 30 set up working only as spoilers because the plane tends to float on landings. They go up less than 10 degrees but they really make the plane come down in a solid, controllable fashion. I just put them on a switch and up they go.

I was shooting a video of the difference between a spoiler and non-spoiler approach last year but my video camera died in the process and I haven't replaced it. There's a noticeable difference though.

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

That's interesting reading here. I haven't noticed a difference with flaps (flaperons) on or off on any of my models. Maybe I need to try it again. Tuning each servo individually is pretty nice though.