Comment

Comment by Ari Hulkkonen on April 11, 2013 at 4:38pm

Interesting, I was just thinking about negative flap setting to improve cruise performance.. Now I could in principle test that. I believe what ever we do we cannot turn the 701 into a fast cruiser but every drop of gas you can save is valuable at current gas prices!  99E5 high octane automotive gas is about $8.5 per gallon here.

Anyway, I believe it's not going to be that long when we're gonna think that gas used to be cheap as it was only $10 per gallon.

Comment by Chumphol Sirinavin on April 11, 2013 at 4:30pm

At minus 10 degrees, the flap somehow improves the air flow around the wing. One can go faster at the same power setting, or reduce power to stay within flight envelope and conserve fuel.

Comment by Deane Philip on April 11, 2013 at 3:22pm

30 degrees is purely last minute soften the landing for very step over a tall hedge line or obstruction landing in the river beds for tight areas not used in normal operation 20-25 is very handy but as you say you do loose elevator authority very quickly but the addition of VG's double the reccomended amount has made considerable difference to that

Comment by Ari Hulkkonen on April 11, 2013 at 12:36am

...a clever solution!   However, what is the intention to have the 30 degree flap position if you have to hold it there?

I've sometimes wondered if controlling the flaps were easier it might be possible to use it actively e.g. for "braking" or pull the max flaps just before touchdown for example in an emergency landing without engine power. 

30 degrees of flaps reduces the aileron authority and makes the plane harder to handle. A 20..25 degrees setting might be a great compromise between 15 and 30. 

Comment by Deane Philip on April 10, 2013 at 5:40pm

I went to the car wreckers and got a handbrake assembly and altered it to suit with 8 15 24 and 30 degrees of flap however the 30 is not fixed you have to hold it there

Comment by Bob McDonald on April 10, 2013 at 5:16pm

Very nice :>)

Comment by Ari Hulkkonen on April 10, 2013 at 3:49pm

Well, guess where I got the inspiration... As far as I recall, someone with a green flying beast sent me the link to take a look ;)

Actually, the flaperon control should move the same amount when pulling the lever from neutral to 1st and 1st to 2nd notch, although the 2nd step is somewhat shorter. This is due to the lever geometry.

The only thing I still need is a tube that connects the new flaperon lever to the flaperon control mount. I measured the required length today and will fabricate it tomorrow and install the new system on Friday or Saturday.

Comment by John Marzulli on April 10, 2013 at 10:14am

Looks pretty close to my Kube Kontrol, except it only has 2 notches and the final notch does not look as steep.