Jim Macklin wrote:
But the flaps move the center of lift aft on the wing and
you need back elevator pressure to force the main gear
(trike) or tailwheel on the ground to prevent weather vaning
and skidding the wheels under braking. The flaps will tend
to lift the lift the tail and you need to follow through on
the flare to lever the balance point on the main gear.

Airplanes like the 150, 172 and 182 will pitch up on flap
application. The downwash off the flaps stikes the stab and pushes the
tail down. A 185 or Glastar will pitch down; I suppose the lower
position of the stab has something to do with it.

I once owned an Auster AOP 6. It had no pitch change with
flap application, and those flaps were serious big Zap flaps. The
elevator had two trim tabs: one was the usual manually-operated tab,
and the other was connected to the flap mechanism to zero out any pitch
changes when the flaps were raised or lowered. That old airplane would
land in 200' (half of book figures) if an approach was made at 1.1 Vso
and the Johnson-bar flaps were suddenly raised just before the wheels
hit the grass. Why did we need to put electric flaps in small
airplanes? Same technique works in the 185.
The Auster's brakes, on the other hand, were less than
enthusiastic, so one could clamp them on before touchdown and really
get ahead of the game.
Not that I'm recommending that Auster owners go try it...

Dan