The East River turn

I have a question for this group, but first must state (as will soon
become obvious) that I'm not a pilot and know just enough about flying
to be dangerous, i.e., not much. The question: I've read on this
newsgroup that the turn that Lidle's plane was making was tight (I'm
very familiar with this territory -- my parents lived on 64th and 1st
for 30 years) and that the radius of a turn varies directly with the
square of the airspeed. So, too fast, and you might swing too wide. Too
slow, and you risk stalling (a very bad thing at such low altitudes, I
would think). Couldn't you lower the flaps prior to entering the turn,
to lower your stall speed and thus permit a lower airspeed and a
tighter turn? If this is not a stupid question and is feasible, how
would lowering the flaps interact with a crosswind from the east, as
apparently was the case on Wednesday? Would the lowered flaps make the
plane more sensitive to what would be a tailwind as it was turning,
blowing it more toward Manhattan, negating (somewhat or completely) the
point of the lower airspeed?

/Don Allen