On Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:35:37 +0000, Scott
wrote:

On 8-2-2011 02:15, BobW wrote:


IMHO, large deflection landing flaps on gliders are the best kept
sailplane secret in the last half century.

Enjoy!
Bob W.

As a noob to gliders (coming from powered airplanes), I always thought
that spoilers were "the bomb" One thing I like about spoilers over
flaps is that you can go from full spoilers to no spoilers instantly
without bad effects. Can't do that with flaps...if you misjudge and put
on too much, too early, there isn't much you can do except
undershoot...but maybe you can dump some flaps since gliders tend to
have more wing to work with than their powered brothers. But it does
make sense that you can probably land shorter with these type of flaps
over just spoilers. Now I'll have to go watch the video


This is a common misperception among power pilots concerning flaps on
sailplanes.

So long as you keep your approach speeds with a sufficient margin over
your flaps-up stalling speed, you can modulate the flaps as much as
you wish.

....Based in 18 years and 2000+ hrs in a PIK-20B with 90deg flaps.

Currently flying a Ventus C with standard spoilers but still miss the
impressive nose-down approach attitude of a full-flap landing.

Bob