I read is a good technique specially if you want the plane to stick to the ground and stop flying right after landing.

I cant seem to get it , the small strips are too narrow and Im busy trying not to hit a ditch, tree branch , stump etc. So Im afraid to look for the flaps to raise them as soon as I land.

What is a good technique for this?

Do it all the time. Sticks (to the ground) like glue. Good way to avoid the bounce when you know people are watching you land too.
Works best with manual flaps though. I don't remember what type plane your flying motoadve.
If you can't see where your going by retracting a Johnson Bar on role out, EZflap has just the thing for you.
In the mean time, practice on strips with more clearance.
Tom

Ya probably need to put a blind fold on and work until you know where all your switches are, not just the flaps!!
EDIT, I mean while your sitting on the ground with the engine off.
I knw some of these guys on here would hit me for telling you to fly around with your blindfold on!!

What have you done This oughta be as lively as wheelies vs three points, or trikes vs tailwheels

I'm game for a little fuel on the fire!
I say it depends, and I have two schools of thought on this.

First is what's your reasoning? If you are trying to kill lift to combat squirelly crosswinds or the likes (or patching up a squirelly landing as TomW suggested) it is a wonderful tool!

OTOH, if you are using it to get in shorter, I'd say it may be ok. For purely fun short stopping, in most planes, like landing on an unobscured straight long approach to painted lines at your freindly fly in, ya it works. But if you're needing to rely soley on those few extra feet to get into your favorite camping spot, then sooner or later your going to be stuck there because the wind or WX changed enough to gobble up the slight difference it made.

Then I have these reservations, in this order;

1) It depends on the pilot; If you can't hit the flaps and make them do what you want blind folded, this is not for you. If you choose to do this anyways, then sooner or later you will be the guy that raises the gear instead of the flaps, or similar...
2) it depends on the aircraft; in my Thrush at almost 5000#s empty and with awesome brakes, it makes no appreciable difference in stopping distance whatsoever. And while shoving it in reverse is extremely hard on props, it would be a far more effective tool. I still clean it up on the roll though, as this facilitates the next take off, or exiting the aircraft to pee. I will on occasion hit the flaps up while still two feet off the ground, but that's a different technique for a different question.
3) it depends on your mission; If you are landing at a 100' wide mile long strip and are trying to impress someone with how quick you can get the flaps up you are expending needless energy... no one cares... If you are on a tighter strip in an RSTOL equipped Cessna arriving full flapped to a 20kt gusty crosswind, losing the flaps on the touchdown is going to be the smartest thing you've done all flight long.

and one last note, in my not so humble opinion, this maneuver, like any other is only as good as you are proficient in it. If you are continually relying on a flap jump, or flap drop to save your bacon because you underestimated the strip, and that's the only time you practice it, sooner or later you will underestimate that too...

Take care, Rob

I don't bother with it, I land slow enough that it's not a factor, the plane is flat done flying flaps down or not. I mostly just leave them in the first notch (takeoff) when landing off airport and just getting out to take a leak or whatever. One less thing to do when taking off!

Really wish I could pull up one of the blindfold scenes from Dodgeball.

Its a Cessna 182, electric flaps.
Mostly interested for short fields and windy days.

I land the short strips ok, but if this helps even more then better to have the skill.

If you are landing on rougher stuff and care about the tailwheel group, it is a lot easier to keep the tail wheel off the ground with flaps on, you pick how much.
Gary

shortfielder wrote:If you are landing on rougher stuff and care about the tailwheel group, it is a lot easier to keep the tail wheel off the ground with flaps on, you pick how much.
Gary

Agreed! I think Motodave is in a trike but for tailwheel aircraft if you retract flaps your little contribution of lift from the wings that's helping keep the tail off the ground disappears. Not an issue if you're braking hard.

I've heard it said (I think by MTV) that the electric flaps are great for a blind retraction. Reach over and slap up til it stops.

Really the reasons for retracting flaps are to get more weight on your wheels for more effective braking, or to kill lift in crosswinds. If neither of those is a concern, why bother?

Like courierguy, I land slow enough with full flaps that staying on the ground is not an issue. Like Rob said, if you have to dump the flaps to keep from ballooning or to get stopped in time, you are going too fast. With nose wheel airplanes, I pull the wheel full back on touchdown for air braking. If we balloon doing this, we are going too fast. The mechanics at Brenco Aerial Patrol thought I was putting brake pads on my 172 out of my own pocket. I never needed brake pads flying 1200 hours a year. Brakes are for taxi turns. If I have to taxi a long way, I put a little power in just before touchdown, with full flaps always, and hover taxi to near my turnoff . I then close the throttle, touch down, and pull the wheel full back. We want to go as fast as possible on takeoff and as slow as possible on landing.

I have used dropping the flaps in the 170 when in bad X winds it does help If you are trying to get in short it helps some maybe but not enough to matter I believe. in some cases you might want the extra drag out there too anyhow. In the 170 I also used them to drop the tailwheel while doing a wheely.

The trick is to do it without thinking. Practice just sitting in plane and going through landing motions so you don't have to even look for the flap handle (Do it 10 times every time you go to fly )). Next is to practice on big open runway where you don't have to worry about anything but the flap drop at landing. Keep at it and it will will soon just happen without thinking. Your hand is usually on the red knob when you land not the flaps. You really don't think of pushing or pulling the knob it just happens. The hand moving to the flaps is what is messing you up. The hand has to move to the flap handle without you thinking about it.
DENNY

When I was flying a 172 with electric flaps and would float past my landing spot, floating like 5' above the ground, or say landing on a down sloping runway I'd take out the flaps and the plane would immediately but gently sink to the ground as the flaps would slowly retract. You can do it much more abruptly with manual flaps tho. I dunno if this is right or wrong but has worked for me in some situations.

I retract my flaps when I'm down and rolling on all three wheels nice and straight... ish. Not to keep myself on the ground, just habit really.

I dumped the flaps all the time in the 182 I used to fly. It was easy because you just have to slap the lever up. Or I would have my passenger do it if my hands were full dodging stuff. With the 205, its been a bit more tricky since you have to hold the flap handle up to retract them. Again, Dee gets the job if she is there. Otherwise, I make do. As mentioned above, sit in the plane until you have the muscle memory to do it without looking and practice it at an easy strip.

Dumping the flaps maximizes the aircrafts braking ability. It may only buy a few feet, but aren't most of us counting every inch?

I do it all the time in the 180 for braking. I would suggest though, that if you want to try it, you go through the motions first while not moving and then a few times while moving slowly. At least enough to be sure that you won't be stomping on the rudder pedal or something when you are at landing speed.

I'm not sure that I buy that it's easier to keep the tailwheel off of the ground with the flaps down unless you're speculating that maybe airflow is diverted by the flaps to the underside of the elevator which I also find hard to believe at our slow landing speeds. I'd be willing to bet that the airflow aft of flaps on most tailwheel aircraft goes over the top of the elevator but that's just a guess. Dumping the flaps puts more weight on the wheels which allows you to mash more brake which = shorter landings

I had this conversation with Tim last year. His theory was it didn't make much difference. I was so sure he was wrong I went out and burned about 10 laps after I'd marked off some numbers with orange paint. We have a dirt ag strip and an asphalt strip. I concluded that on cobbly stuff it was not helpful at all to raise the flaps, just no traction with or without. On the asphalt, if you were hot , it would help but if you held it off until it stalled, it was about the same. Mine has electric notchless flaps and it's hard for me to lean over and hold the flap handle up while feathering the brakes, more often than not, it made my braking sloppy, resulting in longer runout. My conclusion was to not muck with them unless it's windy. If it's windy I use less flap anyway.

interesting....I'll have to check the difference between 20 and 40 degree landings. Usually when I drop the barn doors to 40 on the 206, it's more like "air brakes", don't know if I would stop any faster if I raised them.