what did i do wrong

[shovelheadfreak]

i hooked up the flaps on my p-47 just to see what they would be like to use. i have been told they let you fly slower when making your landings and think that is why they are used on full size aircraft. i put them down a few times with the plane in the air some height in case something happened i didn`t like or want. it did seem to allow me to fly slower in control and not fall out of the sky than without them deployed. anyway i get ready to land and i put them down and after going around 3 times and not making it down i put them up and landed the next attempt. it was sorta windy that morning but nothing bad. i may have been nervous at trying something new combined with the wind but just didn`t have good luck. what did i do wrong?
i have seen pictures with flaps down on planes so that is how mine were installed to work. deployed = down. i had them all the way down. was that to much? what happenes with them all the way up? :confused: will try it again next time i have it with me at the field but thought i would ask advice to make it smoother when i do.
thanks jim

[Barry2]

What do you mean that you didn't make it down with the flaps? The plane just wouldn't descend? You would have to fly a little slower or at a lower pitch attitude to descend as compared to flying without flaps.

Yes, down is the typical configuration for flaps. In a real airplane they are adjustable typically in about 5 steps from about 10 degrees to about 45 degrees or so and are fully deployed only when maximum drag is needed.

[lowdive]

reads like the extra lift from your flaps and the wind were keeping your plane in the air. when there's wind you'll need little to no flaps, just stay pointed into the wind and you should have no problem floating it down. with flaps, you'll be able to float at slower speeds which is good when there's little to no wind. seems like you understand how they work so you just need more practice.

if you were to reverse them, so your flaps go up instead of down, they would be called spoilers. spoilers kill a lot of airspeed while letting you dive down for a landing. this is good if your landing zone has a short approach with obstacles (trees, hill, whatever) in the way. spoilers are also used to pin the plane to terra firma once it's landed (reason why airliners deploy them at touchdown).

i have a multiplex twinstar 2 and have mixed in flap control. with my slider in the middle position, the wing is clean. if i slide it toward me i get flaps and if i slide it the other way i get spoilers. at some point i figure i'll split the controls so i can deploy both at the same time.

i think you just need to practice approaches with your flaps down. you'll get it down quickly and your landings will be smoother. GL!

[ZIRKEL]

I don't know if this will help you, but in a real airplance, the flaps do go down in incroments. 5, 15, 20 etc. When one puts the flaps down one has to trim the nose of the aircraft down, the more flaps, the more one has to trim the nose down. The decent with flaps I know from exprience is more of a nose down configeration that a decent without flaps. Without flaps we tend to just fly the airplance down onto the runway. I am new to RC Flying and don't have any experience with flaps on a model, but I would think that it would be similar to the real thing.