After reading about flap manual vs electric and talking about flap wear in my class on very different plane recently

Does anyone use less than full flaps or use their flaps in any specific way (other the honoring stated speed limits) for R STOL 185s to prevent wear on the tracks etc?

I use full flaps almost exclusively unless very very windy. I try to be well below VFE to minimize wear and stress.

MW

I was going full flaps all the time, old saying “if you’re going to crash crash slow” and less energy transfer

Kinda wondering now with how slow the plane can get even clean, if landing with less flaps (landing site permitting) would be less overall wear even with the extra energy, plus tires and brakes and all are cheaper and easier than flap tracks

Probably a rounding error I know

I generally use 20 or 30 degrees thinking I can save the rollers and tracks a little. If I go around, at 20 she's ready.

180Marty wrote:I generally use 20 or 30 degrees thinking I can save the rollers and tracks a little. If I go around, at 20 she's ready.

I like this, 20 makes lots of sense if you arnt in a short or confined area

Flow is smoother if you to a GA, less wear on the tracks

Good stuff

Don’t ignore track wear and roller lubrication. My hangar neighbour had a flap stick open at about 20 degrees. The electric motor bent the flap and the track significantly. They landed without drama with the right flap half down and twisted. 172.

I am a full flapper at 40 degrees most of the time. I always slow the airplane to below 90 mph for the first 10 degrees of flaps. I won't deploy 20 degrees until below 80 mph. Then below 70 mph I feel comfortable dropping the flaps to 30 degrees or more. I love the 40 degree flap setting. I like to trim the elevator pressure off completely - wheelie or 3 point so this creates a little danger for a potential go around. In really gusty variable crosswinds - I will use 20 degrees of flaps.


Josh

Full flapper 99.999% of the time. It's not how much flap you pull, that wears anything. It's how much you are pushing against them. Think about it.... how much are your flaps wearing if you cycle them in the barn?
How many Cessna flaps do you see that are concave on the bottom? Hint: those are the ones that didn't slow down.

Slow the flipping thing down. Then apply. They won't even know what position they are in.

Lube? what's around you? Trees, concrete, asphalt? Lube it.... Desert sand? How much do you want to grind down your tracks and rollers? My IA is a gift from God, but when he leaves, I take solvent to all the Luby shit he shot all over my plane and make sure everything is bone dry. Why? because where I live, sand blows, and sand is what they make sand paper out of. YMMV

Take care,
Rob

What Rob says times 2!!

MW

Rob wrote:Full flapper 99.999% of the time. It's not how much flap you pull, that wears anything. It's how much you are pushing against them. Think about it.... how much are your flaps wearing if you cycle them in the barn?
How many Cessna flaps do you see that are concave on the bottom? Hint: those are the ones that didn't slow down.

Slow the flipping thing down. Then apply. They won't even know what position they are in.

Lube? what's around you? Trees, concrete, asphalt? Lube it.... Desert sand? How much do you want to grind down your tracks and rollers? My IA is a gift from God, but when he leaves, I take solvent to all the Luby shit he shot all over my plane and make sure everything is bone dry. Why? because where I live, sand blows, and sand is what they make sand paper out of. YMMV

Take care,
Rob

I agree about the speeds and the plane is plenty draggy enough to not need flaps to burn off some speed

Wonder though the difference of force on the tracks and all flying exactly vref for 20 degrees vs vref 40?

Yeah you’re going slower at 40 but you also have much more deflection, probably some next level math to figure that lol

R STOL 180, I use full flaps almost every time unless it’s nasty X wind, and I try not to pull my first notch until I see 80 knots indicated. I also very seldom use my 3rd notch because that’s where the ailerons are drooped the most and are least effective.

Pretty much every landing on pavement:
10* on base, 80KIAS
20* on final, 70KIAS

I never use full flaps unless practicing or landing off-pavement. I've never used 30*.

I echo the concern about lube everywhere, it seems like a good idea, but can easily become a grinding compound.

As I'm sure every everyone is well aware of, the Cessna flap rollers are bearings. As a mechanic I constantly see guys try and lube up the outer portion of the roller without paying attention to the actual inside of the bearing. In my opinion this will lead to a lot of the flap track wear, as the roller is no longer rolling along the track but is sliding instead. Just like your wheel bearings, you should periodically remove each roller, clean the bearing and bushing with solvent, re-grease the bearing and reinstall the roller. Doing only one roller at a time will make the whole process super quick and easy.

After conducting this preventive maintenance, I would not really worry about flap track wear.

If you were to go to your local flight school and take a look at their flap tracks (if properly maintained) you would not see any abnormal wear, and those airplanes have a lot more in-flight flap movement that your average airplane.

Life is shorter for some then others I got one foot in the grave the other on a banana peel so I use flaps a lot. 10 degrees until 70 MPH then work it down with trim and flaps until short final and trim full nose up and full flaps at 60 mph 1400 RPM hands off until the flair then MAF tail wheel low landing. Running the river below tree top 70 MPH 10 - 20 degrees works fine. 20 degrees for takeoff pick it up with more as needed.
DENNY