Fun with trailling edge dive brakes

Klaus Holighaus once told me, 'With the Ventus, you
should thermal in landing flap and land in thermal
flap'. He was saying to wheel land with a tad of spoiler
and not normally use full landing flap. The bit about
thermaling in landing flap was a way to get the stick
to be free from the friction that most Venti's have
in thermal position. Dick Johnson wrote a good paper
on how to get rid of most of the stick friction. If
all else fails, buy a C model.
JJ

At 03:30 27 September 2004, Stewart Kissel wrote:
Hey, I know the feeling...
and I hardly claim to be an expert...but after 50 landings
in a Ventus B...my two cents are-

1.) I am not clear about your statement in regards
to speed...with everything hanging out, u just about
have to be vertical to get going to fast. At what
point do you pull full spoiler/flap? I tend to pull
everything out once I am absolutely positive I will
not be short...which means I can still be rather high...because
those things sure can get u down in a hurry!

2.) As you no doubt have discovered....with full extension
one does not spend much time floating in ground effect,
if you don't time your flare to be near the ground...it
is quite easy to drop it in.

3.) Since one should not modulate the controls once
on short final...I try to be a little long and just
point the nose down more to shorten up things....the
extra speed bleeds off quickly in the flare. In fact
a little extra speed helps with adjusting the flare
before the ship stops flying.

4.) If all else fails...try landing with half-spoiler
and +2 flap...you will touch at a faster speed, but
it is easier to float a greaser in this way. But stay
current on full flap landings for when you might need
it going into a short field.

5.) I don't try full flap landings in crosswinds...which
is what I have to deal with typically.


At 01:06 27 September 2004, Scott Elhardt wrote:
I've been happily flying my H303 Mosquito for a year
now and my
landings seem to be getting worse as time goes on.
I have tried a lot
of approaches to the process, but inevitably I'm faster
that I want to
be and don't touch as lightly as I'd like especially
with a lot of
brake out.

Any trailing edge dive brake experts care to describe
your accumulated
perspectives?

Scott