I have a question about sailplane design and hope this is the correct
forum. With all the discussion of politics and personalities, one can
never be sure. ;-)
This discussion is focused on open class, large sailplanes.
If I understand it correctly, dropping flaps results in increased lift and
increased drag. So when the flaps are down, the plane slows down but has
relatively high lift for the speed. Then if the flaps are raised, the drag
goes away, but so does the lift and the plane drops out of the air.
Hopefully this happens a few inches above the ground immediately over a
landing line.
Given the same plane cruising in, if one were to raise spoilers instead of
dropping flaps, the plane slows down and lift is destroyed. The plane
slows down and starts to descend. If at that point the spoilers are
retracted the plane is going slow, but the lift is increased relative to
the spoiler deployed setting.
It seems that you could maintain a higher degree of control using spoilers
instead of flaps for a final and not risk striping gears on flap servos.
Is this true?
Bottom-line question. With modern radios and the availability of lots of
channels and light weight servos, why don't more open class planes use
spoilers as an option for speed control
Just curious.
Thanks for all opinions and discussions.
Bill
--
The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you
know when to cringe.
Bill Johns
Pullman, Washington USA
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