Dave Anderson wrote: >Hi! Has there been debate on the KR Net about belly boards vs. flaps?
I built some fairly huge split flaps for my plane, and their performance is nothing short of awesome. I was going to gradually test them in the first few flights, but on my second flight I was checking flaps-down stall speed, forgot to retract them, and found myself doing something like 140 mph with them deployed, and wondering why the plane wouldn't go any faster. Flap max deployment speed ascertained..."CHECK!". They are strong, and after 2824 landings, still work great. Despite the fact that they only deploy about 40 degrees, they drop the stall speed by about 7-8 mph, while really putting the brakes on the landing glide. That's probably a lot of the reason why landing my plane is so easy...I don't spend a lot of time gliding a few inches above the runway waiting for it to land, which is a vulnerable place to be. And given that I fly out of a fairly short field, I also slip the crap out of it on final, and it drops like an elevator compared to flaps up. At least that's what I used to think until I got the Swift. That thing drops like a ROCK with the gear down. Landing the Swift is completely different from the KR, as you basically get over the end of the runway, drop the flaps, and come straight down! That's an aspect of Ken Rand's retractable gear that never occurred to me...we whine about how KRs float along in ground effect, but with retracts I'll bet it doesn't do that nearly as bad. Too bad they were prone to folding, and worst of all, you have to remember to put the gear down when landing! Belly boards seem to work well, but they don't drop the stall speed, which is a nice feature to have on short runways and dead stick landings. More on my "barn door flaps" at http://www.n56ml.com/owings.html ... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com --------------------------------------------------------
