Mxsmanic wrote:
Margy Natalie writes:

Who said the handle is small? Some of these "handles" are 2 - 3 feet long.

Where are they in the cockpit? I haven't seen many small cockpits; is
there a picture on the Net of one that has this kind of lever? It
sounds like it would be awkward to use in flight.

I go by what I've seen in the handful of pictures of cockpits that
I've encountered. Most of these are of jet aircraft, and the flap
lever is longer than most but hardly long enough to provide much
leverage.


The lever arm for the flap handle in our RV-6 is something like two feet
long. It works just like a parking brake, though the forces are higher
(20lb maybe, up to 30+ when going to full).

As for the other control surfaces--the stick is directly connected (via
pushrods) to the ailerons and elevator. Even in flight, it takes a
maximum of one finger and your thumb to move the control surface and
make the airplane respond. It's not twitchy--the controls are just
light and easy to manipulate.

In pretty much every jet aircraft I can think of, the flap handle just
manipulates some sort of rotary sensor or microswitch that tells the
flaps where to go.