Great Planes AT-6, could I add flaps?

[C. Alan]

Ok, here is the situation, I have a Great Planes AT-6 Texan that has been giving me some issues on approach and landings.

If you are not familar with the plane, it is a 40 sized ARF with about a wing span of about 60 inches, with a wing loading of 23oz per square foot. It is pretty hard to stall, and when it does stall, all it does is lower the nose. In the air, it is a pretty tame flier.

The main issues is that the field I fly off of is relitively short. If I try to do a normal approach, I almost always overshoot the runway. I am finding it is very hard to get the airplane to slow down. I am thinking of adding a flap to the middle section of the wings in order help slow the airplane down on approach.

So here is my question, If I do add a flap or speed break to the mid section of the wing, would I be better off just adding a 1/16" balsa flap directly to the bottom of the existing wing, or should I take the time and effort to cut and mount the flap so it will be flush with the bottom of the wing when it is retracted?

I am repairing the landing gear for the third time from over shooting the end of the runway...So I would like to find a way to prevent it from doing it again.
Thanks,
--C. Alan

[stu78]

...So here is my question, If I do add a flap or speed break to the mid section of the wing, would I be better off just adding a 1/16" balsa flap directly to the bottom of the existing wing, or should I take the time and effort to cut and mount the flap so it will be flush with the bottom of the wing when it is retracted?...

BOTH :D

I would go with the rough and ready 'stick it on the bottom of the wing' method first of all, because you don't know how big you need to make the flaps or whether they wil even work! This way you can experiment with all sorts of setups, size, angles et etc with very little effort.

Once you have a setup that does what you want, build it into the wing properly.

Stuart

[C. Alan]

I had not thought of that. That is a good idea. I could use just use tape as the hinge and experiment with the width and angle of the flap.
Thanks for the input.
--C. Alan