Mini-Nimbus experience

On Tuesday, August 5, 2014 7:31:28 PM UTC-7, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On 2014-08-05 11:48:05 +0000, said:

On Wednesday, August 26, 1998 7:00:00 AM UTC, Albin O. Schreiter wrote:
On Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:31:07 +0200, (Miriano
Ravazzolo) wrote:


My experience on those spoilers are only on the Libelle. Maybe what
can be said is that this kind of things have to be used a little bit
more "slowly" than a SH air-brake. You can actually close them
everytime, even during flare, if you consider them as a kind of
"active elements" which modify not only your drag but also your
asset. If you close them abbruptly, before starting the new (flatter)
angle the nose will drop a little to let you gain a bit of more
speed, and this is not advisable too close to the ground.

Miriano Ravazzolo

Your experience on a Libelle does not help much with the Mini-Nimbus
flap/trailing edge dive brakes. On the Mini it is just about essential
NOT to close the system slowly. The correct way is to close
flap/divebrake fast and completely, and to then start over again to
whatever setting is appropriate. This avoids the danger of stalling
inadvertently.
Remove NOSPAM from return address before replying

this is a fascinating discussion about the flap/spoiler combination but
I would like to know about the all flying tail and what issues that
might present to the new (low time) pilot. Is it as bad as several
other discussions and articles would lead one to believe or is it
something that can be "lived with" once understood?

Where *do* these 16 year old posts come from?

Re Libelle: the Club Libelle does in fact have similar airbrake/flap
though t's not usable as flaps without airbrakes. Opening the airbrakes
*lowered* the stall speed by 5 knots or so. Some say you can't close
them near the ground but that's of course rubbish as long as you're
safely above the clean stall speed. The thing slows down so fast in
level flight with full brakes that there's no reason *not* to carry
decent speed until the flare.

The brakes are effective enough that 120 kg me could do a near as
dammit vertical descent at 85 knots.

I did about 60 hours in that Club Libelle before my club sold her when
it got two PW5s (let's not talk about that...), but here are some
recent pics of her at her current home near Whangarei:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4014/...d9d14139_b.jpg

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...33059112_n.jpg


https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...5d92aaae6fa4ff


The first shows open brakes from above. In the second the "flap" part
of the brakes is visible below the wing.

I'll tell you where these 16 year old posts come from:
There are no dates on most of these, or if there are, they're hard to find.
One of my biggest internet pet peeves is this one.
EVERY posting should have a date, INCLUDING THE YEAR so we don't look like idiots posting to messages left during the ice age.