Memphis Belle

I have a Seagull Models Sea fury with flaps Ive had flaps on planes before but never used them, but Ive decided as more of my models have got them then Id like to make use of them, can anyone give me any advice on using flaps for the first time & at what sort of travel should I use etc.? I will be most grateful of any assistance you can give me.

MajorTomski

Flaps do two things. For the first 15 to 25 degrees of travel they increase lift with little increase in drag.
From 25 to 90 degrees they increase drag.

So theoretically if you dial in 15 degrees on takeoff it might shorten the takeoff roll. Dial in anything more than 45 degrees and the airplane will descend steeper or slower on landing and it will shorten the landing roll.

Go up high and see how it glides with out flaps at idle then repeat with flaps to see the diff.

Note that adding a lot a flap from cruise flight will probably cause a bit of pitch up because you are rapidly increasing the angle of attack of the inner portion of the wing.

They can be a lot of fun.

macdona

My Feedback: (3)

Flaps are great fun. I hardly ever use them on take off, but on scale ships I do use them for landing. Like MajorTomski said, they will create a lot of drag with a lot of flap down, so be prepared to use the throttle when landing.

aerowoof

also do not forget that as you lower the flaps the nose will want to pitch up,so be prepared to add down trim,some mix in down elevater with the computer tx but i prefer just to hold the down that is needed.

Rodney

You will usually get a lot of pitchup when you apply the flaps. This is not always true as a very few will pitch down with application of flaps. When you first try them, have some altitude so that you can play with the elevator trim when you extend the flaps.