Hi Jack,

I'll attempt to clarify;
My 1985 asw20b has the following five flap settings;

#1 = -12' (high speed cruise)
#2 = -6'
#3 = 0
#4 = +9 (thermalling)
#L = +38'/-8' (landing flaps)

I also have an additional after market thermal setting between flap
settings #3 & 4

When I speak of "floating the flaps" I'm referring to setting #1
through #3 but most often between the negative flap settings #1 & 2.

Dick Johnson (as I recall) noted in his 1978 asw20 report that he
notice the #2 flap setting didn't seem to produce a noticeable
performance improvement verses the #1 setting and suggested perhaps a
different/better flap setting was in order in this specific speed
range. Additionally, some very talented former 20 drivers told me
they "allowed" the flap handle to "float" between the negative
settings with good results. Meaning, to the location of the least
resistance.

In practice I have found the handle will fairly easily slide to the
next detent (flap setting) with increased speed and not as easily
slide back to the previous one when speed is decreased. I generally
keep my hand on the flap handle and feel for the change in pressure
and assist it with slight pressure for or aft to stay in the area of
least resistance. Of course when I leave a thermal and need to "get up
to speed" quickly, I always lead or set the flaps in advance to the
anticipated cruise speed setting. So what I'm generally referring to
is not when your driving for the next 10 kt thermal at 100+ kts or
when your floating along at best LD but when your varying between 70
and 90 kts. Additionaly I attempt to adjust subtile speed adjustments
within this range with the flap handle verses using the elevator as
has been sugested by some talented published pilots.

My 1985 asw20b seems (IMHO) to be ideally suited for this practice and
the feed back is quite pronounced. Conversely the same "former 20
drivers" have stated the ships they fly today, an asw27 and ash26e do
not accept this kind of flap assistance at all. So this may be unique
to the asw20 or similar ships of its era. In any event it seems to
work well with my ship.

I hope that's helpful,

Rick - 21



On Jul 11, 6:21 pm, Jack wrote:
On Jul 11, 11:01 am, Rick Culbertson wrote:

2 cents, I've personally noticed generally good performance in my 20B
when I "float" the flaps while driving. The 20 seems to be fairly well
suited for this proceedure as other ships may not be for a variety of
reasons as noted in one of the posts.

RC-21

Please describe exactly what you mean by "floating" the flaps.

Jack