Don't Dump those flaps!!
 

I flew last night and had an incident occur that was for a moment a bit scary. I thought I would share what happened both for my own therapeutic needs and to maybe give some heads up to anyone else out there who might find themselves in a similar situation.

I have about 22 hours now on my airplane so, needless to say, I am still getting used to all of the "look and feel" issues of my plane. Last night I was up flying more hours and testing the GRT/auto pilot functions. I was up for about 1.5 hours cruising across the countryside at around 150 MPH True AS (truly amazing how much land this plane covers in such a short span of time).

At the end of this time, reluctantly, I returned to my home airport and began my approach to landing. I had setup my approach to landing with partial flaps at the end of my downwind leg, then a little bit more flap on base, then as I turned on final the rest of the flaps. Everything was going along smoothly as I began my flight path descent down final to the runway.

While doing so I noticed just a tad bit of trim was needed to relieve pressure on the stick with full flaps. Well, I have electric trim and electric flaps on an Infinity stick grip. Trim on the Cooly (sp?) hat and right next to it the flap switch. As I was watching my approach picture out the window I reached over with my thumb to put just a smidge of trim in to balance the stick.

I am sure you can guess what happened. Unknowingly I had pushed the flap switch up instead of the trim switch up. Since the flap switch has an up throw that locks in place and therefore continues to move the flaps "up" until you manually flip the switch off, I had inadvertently dumped all my flaps. Anyone who has dumped their flaps at a slow speed before can tell you, the plane began pitching up and slowing down. Yep, I was treading closer and closer to a stall at a very low altitude. This was developing quickly into a very bad situation. And at that very moment my mind could not quite grasp why I was loosing control of the airplane.

Well, there I was on final with an airspeed that started off around 75 MPH or so and all of a sudden started getting slower and slower as my nose started pitching up.

"What the. . .???? This does not make sense!"

Ok, Time to get this plane flying again. So I push on the stick and reach my thumb up to push the trim nose down. Slowly, I build more speed and continue descending, only nose down this time instead of nose up. However, by this time I have built up my speed to 110-115 MPH and climbing. I am about 100' AGL and at the threshold of the runway. No way I am going to get this RV9A down to the runway and slowed down enough to stop it before reaching the other end of the runway. So, it is go around time.

Now comes the "AH-HA!!" moment!

What do I do when going around?

1. Mixture Full Rich
2. Throttle Full
3. Establish positive climb out
4. Slowly remove flaps

Wait a minute! What is this? The flap switch is already in the full up position. AH-HA!! So that is why the plane did that!

So I continue my Go-Around without further incident. I come around again and establish one of the most stable approaches I have made in a long time and touch down so smoothly I wasn't quite sure the tires had even touched the grass (Oh yeah, I guess I didn't mention this is on a grass strip.).

I have been contemplating the cause and effect of this incident and trying to analyze how I can make sure I am not destined to repeat this mistake again. Well, I am not sure why my thumb moved over to the flap switch when I was intending to press the trim nose down switch (just a smidge). Although the thumb does operate both switches I have to make a fairly large move up and over to reach the trim switch while reaching the flap switch is just straight up from its natural resting position on the grip.

Since I was in a very busy environment of the final approach, somehow my mind disconnected and did not send the correct signal to move up and over to engage the trim switch. I am not quite sure what definitive solution I can apply that will keep me from this mistake in the future. However, I am very sure that all of that instruction and training in the past that taught me what stalls, and slow flight, and high pitch angles, and sight pictures all look and feel like I was quickly able to determine I was in a quickly deteriorating and dangerous situation. That training helped me make a quick and decisive action. That action removed me from the danger. I believe I was able to do so because:

1. I think of myself as a lifetime student of flight.
2. I will never stop learning.
3. Every experience is destined to teach me something new I had not learned.
4. I will always welcome all opportunities to learn something new.
5. I will always welcome any and all input from my fellow aviators.
6. I will always make every attempt to assimilate (I can't help but think of the BORG every time I hear that word) what I learned.

I am going to apply what I learned on this flight and try to make myself a better pilot. I hope my post may help you out in some way also.

Live long and Prosper!

interesting, thanks for sharing. I also plan to have a similar setup with infinity grips...after this incident, would you change the layout of your buttons if you had it to do over again?

A definative solution:
 

Take the flap switch off of the stick, and put it next to the throttle where you'll need it to bleed off flaps during a go-around. Then you'll never again confuse it with the trim switch on the stick.

This is one reason I mounted the flap switch on the panel, right next to the throttle where I can use my thumb on it, while still having my hand on the throttle.

Good job analyzing your situation, and figuring out the way back to the ground in one piece.

funny how the brain to digit disconnect happerns. My trim coolie hat is next to my ptt and there've been several occasions where I was preoccupied or distracted with another task and tried to use trim to transmit or the ptt to adjust trim. I know which button is where, they just don't always get pushed appropriately. I guess that's a good reason not to put the flap and gear switches next to each other on a retract.

I agree. I don't like the flaps on the stick in the -8... Would much rather have it near the throttle quad.

While I'm not a huge fan of a stick festooned with switchgear, I am adding the starter switch to the stick to meet some needs of the owner. However, its operation will be on a timer so that it can?t be accidentally engaged.

Good educational post.

There are folks that will say to not have the flap switch on your stick for this reason. I have mine on the stick and like it and have never had an issue - but it doesnt sound like my stick switches are layed out like yours (mine is a RAC model), and my flap switch is a momentary switch - it only operates while you are pushing against it, and it takes a significant push to do it - hitting it accidentally with a sectional map doesnt do squat. My advice is to take a hard look at the ergonomic issues here and revise accordingly.

Good job at doing what you have to - flying the airplane

erich

Oh dear - backs up our LAA over here who (somewhat inconsistently) have stated they will only permit trim and PTT on stick/throttle.

Without reopening the debate, there are good ergonomic and safety reasons why certain control functions are positioned wide apart, and/or with clearly differing handle shapes etc.

Having flown HOTAS types, the operations were those that required to be quickly performed at critical moments - usually delivering things that go bang on people :eek: Or altering displays to achieve such. As above, most people will have suffered from "wrong button-itis" using these...

Things that will huty/kill you/the aircraft, and only are operated once or twice per flight (flaps, starters), and not under time pressure, tend to go on the panel.

Worthwhile sharing... but am sure plenty will come along and disagree :D

Andy

Michael Others who have done this have fitted "enable switches" etc., or wired it all up so that the starter only operate with the L Mag (assumes only 1 impulse Mag).

My concern would be does this work when a fuel / ignition / pilot problem causes an engine to run down at a critical moment, and they go for a "restart". I cannot see any authority being keen on a system that relies on a secondary action to "enable" the start switch to operate? e.g. having to remember to turn off the R Mag before it will start :mad:

Andy