On 04/13/2012 11:43 AM, Carl Meek wrote:
> I've been typically flying short final at 70, over the fence at 65.
> However, I've found the float can be quite excessive
A little bit of extra speed has a very markable influence on the flare.
Try a bit lower speed. If the stall characteristics of your ship are
benign, there is nothing to worry about to get over the fence with 60,
provided there is no strong wind or thermal situation.
> Frans, am I understanding you correctly that for a short field you
> actually come 'over the fence' and then retract the flaps before touching
> down?
You can do that just before touching down, but the timing is critical.
If you to it too early you will get the opposite effect as you are
taking the drag of the flaps away. I usually start retracting the flaps
just when the airplane is about to settle down. This will take away the
lift and also causes the wheels to have more grip on the ground, which
is a good thing if you want to start braking immediately.
This could be more interesting if the flaps could be operated much
faster, i.e. by hand rather than by a servo. Anyone an idea why the
flaps where made electric on the tri-gear?
I have to confess that I modified the flap gear slightly: I drilled a
hole in the arm of the torque tube just below the original hole, so the
leverage to the servo is a bit less. This causes the flaps to extend 3
degrees further and also speeds up the movement of the flaps.
(If I understand the history of the Europa correctly, the flaps where
originally designed for 30 degrees, but the extension was limited to 27
degrees after one found out that 30 degrees allows the mono to take off
earlier than control is achieved. In a tri-gear we don't have to worry
too much about this.)
Frans
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