Full flap ILS

On 15 Oct 2006 09:27:48 -0700, "
wrote:

I flew safety for a friend in his Bonanza A36 w/ IO-550 yesterday. He
hand flew a perfect ILS, but it was with full flap and gears down at
around 22 in power. In my E35 Bonanza with E225 engine and low flap
and gear speeds, I almost always fly ILS with flap up, gears down at
around 17 in power. We both fly ILS at around 105 to 115 knots.

During lunch, we discussed the pros and cons of full flap ILS. My
friend's arguments were that with full flap, when breaking out at
minimum for landing, all you have to do is to pull back on the power
and land ("get dirty early"). And with higher power setting, less
stress is on the engine when going full power for miss and quicker
power application (especially when one gets into turbo, turboprop or
jet).

My landings are all full flap, but I only run about 15 degrees of flap
on the ILS. The reason being that if I had to go full power with full
flaps that Debonair is a hand full to keep the nose down until you
retrim. There is no change in trim with flaps application but there
is with speed and power. 40 degrees of flap in the landing
configuration and full power will put the nose so far up you'll stall
if you don't get it down. Hence my reason for only partial flaps on
the ILS. I do have the gear down.

The reason for the gear is when flying by the numbers at GS intercept
ALL I have to do is put the gear down and I'll be following the GS
very close with no other adjustments.

Yes, coming in at 105 to 110 knots when the normal landing speed is
about 70 knots makes the 30 to 40 knot transition a busy time.


My argument against full flap ILS is that that less initial climb
performance would be available during miss approach. I feel the time
required to retract full flap to approach flap then to no flap would
significantly reduce your climb gradient. Going full power with full

The Deb goes up like a rocket the first 500 feet with full flaps.

flap requires a large change in pitch, but climb rate is not better at
full flap because the added drag. In addition, between landing after
breaking out at minimum and executing a miss approach, I prefer less
workload during the miss.

Full power, hold the nose down while the flaps are coming up and
retrimming at the same time. It takes about 5 seconds but it is busy!
:-))




What are your opinions?
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com