Flap levers need detents of some kind so you can set different positions
and take your hand off the lever. In my LAK-17a, the flap and gear
levers must be rotated to move the lock out of the slot to move the
lever. The dive brake lever does not need to be rotated, however you
might scrape your knuckles by simply pulling it back. Rotating the dive
brake lever gets my knuckles away from the canopy side wall. MY flap
lever is at the top because I use it most often and that's where I like
it. Others may prefer other configurations.

Cheers!

On 9/25/2015 7:24 AM, wrote:
I am sorry to say I happened to confuse diverse levers in diverse types of gliders in the past.
* I once pulled back on the release lever (it's not a knob, it really looks like an airbrake lever) instead of opening the spoilers in a Rhönlerche;
* I did the same with the flaps instead of the airbrakes in a L-13 Blanik;
* I put the flaps from positive to negative instead of closing the airbrakes on a Janus during finals when the airspeed became too low (that one allmost crashed the glider, I corrected my mistake at the very last moment; the situation arose while my pupil in front was making an approach with braking parachute, full positive flaps and full airbrakes, and was slow in closing the airbrakes when I asked him to do so to maintain airspeed - of course, I should have had the left hand on one of the levers, but I wasn't ready, being too confident in the abilities of my pupil).

The levers I wrongly used had a common characteristic: they were the upper, what you could call the "most obvious", lever. When under stress, that's where your hand is going automatically.

I really think, from a safety point of view, that the "most critical" lever should also be the "most obvious" lever. In my book, that's the airbrake lever. I don't like the ergonomics of the levers you have to rotate to be able to use.

--
Dan, 5J