On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 11:27:26 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

One of the more experienced pilots in our club scared himself climbing out
of a touch and go during which he didn't notice that the flaps had frozen at
20 degrees on our 172.

My only flap indicator, other than the feel of the airplane is looking
out the window. It has no flap indicator and the switch is up, down,
or off with up and down being momentary. There is no trim change at
all when going from no flaps to full flaps in the Deb. OTOH there is
a large trim change with a change in speed.


I've been investigating the flap system on Cessna's and am impressed how
easily a bit of fluff or corrosion in just one switch can let the flaps go
down but then fail to retract.

Many years ago on my first solo cross country I was landing at
Cadillac MI. This was in the winter and Cadillac has snow. The
runway is like being in a canyon. You can not see over the snow or
even who is on the the taxiway.

At any rate, Goose down jacket, fleece lined leather gloves, long
snuggies, knit cap, and insulated boots were mandatory in that old
150. I was turning final and pushed the flap switch all the way down.
As I was making the turn I had to pull back more than usual to hold
altitude and the speed was increasing like crazy. I thought, "this
feels just like the flaps are retracting". I looked over my shoulder
in time to see them move flush with the ailerons. If you pushed the
flap switch all the way down and let your finger slip off that spring
loaded flap switch could snap all the way through off into the up
position. It did.

Never having come down final quite that fast I decided my pride could
wait while I went around and did a final at a normal speed. (and
caught up with the airplane)

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


This leaves me convinced that CFI's and all of us should be drilling in the
glance over the shoulder to verify retraction on all touch and goes and go
arounds. Practicing climb outs from minimum airspeed with all flap settings
is a very neglected part of airwork and probably as important to safety as
doing stalls.