Airplanes are wonderfully diverse and fascinating machines. Each one behaves a little differently, a fact that adds to the enjoyment and breadth of our unique and exciting activity. Few pursuits bring operator and designer so close together, each infringing on the other’s turf.
Although higher math is by no means required to be a pilot, a layman’s understanding of physics and engineering is. Some pilots take this to the extreme and make piloting an airplane a sort of laboratory to confirm the theoretical aspects of flight, while others kick the tires and light the fires, oblivious to the work that goes into making such complex machines. In the end, all pilots understand the basics: lift, weight, drag, and thrust. The beauty of flight is how those things interact and what the pilot can do to change each.
One of the biggest tools in the pilot’s bag of tricks is the flaps. Flaps literally change the shape and characteristic of the wing, giving us more lift and slowing us with more drag. Among their incredible contributions is the ability to make a four-ton airplane moving almost 100 miles an hour stop in less than half a mile. Or the ability to bring a one-ton airplane off the ground in around 100 feet. Well, flaps and a huge engine.
Flaps aren’t always a good thing. In many ways they make learning to land more difficult. That additional drag means low- or no-power approaches must be made with the nose down to maintain airspeed. That’s great for visibility and terrain clearance, but the transition from a nose-low attitude to a level attitude for the flare is a tricky maneuver indeed. Try a landing without flaps and you’ll see the difference in action. The relatively flat approach angle of an airplane with no flaps makes for virtually no transition for landing. Just pull the power back and keep pitching up.
Of course, every airplane is different. That’s what makes it fun. Some airplanes have three flap settings, some have two, and some have four. Some have an infinite amount, requiring a bit of counting to get a consistent setting. There are four major flap types, and a dozen or so sub types. Once deployed, flaps will immediately change the pitch of every airplane. Which way it changes depends on the airplane. Some pitch up, some pitch down, and some change relatively little.
In many ways flaps are like a hot shower—you don’t know how much you depend on them until they’re gone. This month we take the anonymous flap and bring it into the limelight in our cover story, “Give Yourself A Lift,”. The story covers everything from flaps' basic purpose to how they work on airliners.
Sure, maybe we don’t appreciate flaps, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore their impact. To have a true command of your airplane you should experience almost every phase of flight both with and without them. What’s a power-off stall like with no flaps? What’s a steep turn like with the flaps down? And what about landings with flaps up, down, and at every setting in between? Have a good understanding of all these and you’ll be able to predict your airplane’s performance in almost every situation.
Better yet, you’ll have the confidence to fly without flaps for those times when they fail you, which they may. Or maybe the airplane you will fly won’t have them. By choice or by design, it’s all fun.
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