"Lou Parker" wrote in message
om...
I just don't get it. Can anyone successfully explain how flaperons
work? Are they better or worse than seperate flaps? What are the pro's
and con's? It seems to me if one fails you have no recovery.
Lou

At least in sailplanes, they work very well. My Nimbus 2C droops the
ailerons with the flaps but at a lesser rate which introduces a large
effective wing twist at low speeds.

The upside of flaperons is that the whole span is flapped which improves low
speed performance and the total aileron area is larger which improves roll
authority.

The down side is when you need a lot of aileron at a time when full flaps
are deployed they the roll response heavy and sluggish. The solution is to
hold off on full flaps until you are on short final.

Bill Daniels