Full Flap Use

[Esser]

Perhaps it's the glider pilot in me but I always coming in high and slip down not necessarily aggressive but I do slip. When I got my private license the most annoying thing for me was the fact that a C172 does not slip at all compared to a glider.

The way I look at it, Altitude is my friend. You can always trade it for something. I don't like dragging in on the prop. I always think of what were to happen if the engine quit. Just my thing I guess.

with the way these airplanes fly. you should not need to slip with a passenger. really. you can control yourself and the airplane to do a standard airport approach. control your speeds, control your decent, and have plenty of runway left to stop. the only time I need to slip is for MY fun. so you have it. just land a normal landing, take off with a normal take off and you can leave the flaps stationary in the normal flight mode. OFF.

[Slyfox]

you still don't need to slip with a very short approach. I do that all the time, I to hate long drawn out patterns, you know the Cessna airline approaches. I can do a short approach, power off, no slip and land. I call that my normal approach.

[n85ae]

I absolutely guarantee you will not do this with N85AE. If you fly a tight
pattern say 800-1000 AGL, chop power, and don't use any slip you will
watch the entire runway disappear under the plane. It floats forever. I
suppose you could hold the nose up until the sink rate gets high enough
at around 40-45 mph however this is not something I like to do, since it's
easy to encounter a 10-15 mph wind shift which will yank the rug right out
from under you since then you're getting into stall land around 35.
(45-10=stall)

Slips are the way to go, with my airplane to get down from a tight pattern.

I think the point is that the planes are not all the same, and a light model 4,
is an entirely different airplane than a heavy series 5.

you still don't need to slip with a very short approach. I do that all the time, I to hate long drawn out patterns, you know the Cessna airline approaches. I can do a short approach, power off, no slip and land. I call that my normal approach.

[Slyfox]

I guess it all depends on what you call a short approach. I have done a 800ft, slow to 50, drop out and land doing a base to final over the numbers, but you have to slip, major. Now if you call a short approach about 1000 ft out. I can do that without a slip.

I think a lot of things depend on where you turn your final. what speeds you are using. my 3 point speed over the numbers is no more than 50. wheel landing about 55. and yes a full stall landing is about 35. your idle on your plane is going to be an upmost importance. I have mine about 500. if you have an idle at 1800, you are going to float down the runway.

I have an inflight adjustable prop, I have that flattened to take off setting when landing. that helps a bunch also. and finally you don't have to slip, at least I don't, if I find I'm a little to fast, push in the rudder and keep the wings level, this is on short final. that' opposite aileron, weird to do but works great. now I don't know if my vg's allow me to do that or not, so try that up high before doing it low.

[Scot]

Lots of good discussion on this thread about flaperon use. What I am wondering is what would be Vfe for a Kitfox 4 1200 ? Obviously no lower end other than stall speed, but is there a published number for max flap extended speed ? I have not found anything. My aircraft is undergoing the Airworthiness Inspection, and the DAR is pretty adamant about having all the gauges marked with operating ranges, including the white ring for flap speeds such as seen in a 172.