On Mar 4, 10:27 pm, WingFlaps wrote:
On Mar 5, 4:22 am, " wrote:



I just read an interesting argument by Lew Gauge in his E-185 Bonanza
book.

Some background -- the older Bonanzas (straight 35) have a "Flap"
switch. There's no increments unless you stop the motor as the flaps
are being dropped. Apparently it's hard on that design to start-stop
the motor.

Lew said there's no reason to teach incremental flaps in small
airplanes -- and that multiple flap applications just add to the
workload with no advantage-- apply 10 degrees, trim, apply 10 more,
trim, etc.

His argument is that if the sequence is always the same -- gear down,
trim, flaps down, trim -- the approaches will be consistent and reduce
the likelihood of a gear-up landing (since the descent profile with
15" MP and full flaps gear up is very close to 15"+ full flaps + gear
down).

The more I think about this the more it makes sense, except in the
partial flap case (though an argument can be made that there's no
reason to ever go partial -- but that's another topic).

I'm sure this will be contentious, but isn't that the point?

I think in a 172R Vfe for 10 flaps is 110, and 85 for more. So maybe
stages make sense, in that case?

Cheers

Perhaps, but I think it High Vfe can lead to sloppy piloting (so does
high Vle). Instead of planning the approach and entering the pattern
at the proper airspeed, we depend on the flaps and gear to slow us
down.

This is hard on the gear and can be downright ruinous in an airplane
that is not so forgiving.

Dan