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

Lou,

I have flown several gliders with flaperons but no airplanes so equipped.
The glider I have the most time in is the Apis 13, this has a wing span of 13
meters about 42.5 ft.

The roll rate is great because the entire trailing edge acts as a aileron, and
the flaps really work well because they are the full span of the trailing edge,
so independently I get very good results for these controls.

When thermaling with a notch or two of flap I see little if any reduction in
roll rate, Yes the aileron that is going up does not go as far up as if the
flaps were at the zero setting, but it does not seem to matter.

Bill Daniels mentioned his glider, which has a 20 meter wing, that is quite
heavy. It has, (for a glider) a relatively slow roll rate anyway. The Apis is
much lighter and nimble and so roll control with full flaps is just fine, in
fact they make the glider a real blast to fly.

The mechanism is quite simple. Each flaperon is driven from its root end by a
torque rod, the flaperons are center hinged. The flaperons on the Apis are of
carbon fiber so torque loads are easily handled.

If you are near a glider club look at a DG brand glider, they use flaperons a
lot in their gliders.

I do not know if they are more effective than separate flaps and ailerons but
they do cover a larger part of the wing's trailing edge so in some or maybe
even most circumstances I think they maybe more effective.

So far I have had no reason to complain.

Robert Mudd