RV-3 flap use
My favorite RV-3 pilot and I were just talking about this last night. His flaps are 3 notches (? 15,20,40) and he uses no flaps for departure and no more than two on arrival as he doesn't notice that much change in the nose-down pitch or stall with the last notch.
We decided the tandem airplanes may respond differently. I use one notch on departure, slowly pulling them up soon after breaking ground. Arrival: I use one notch once in the pattern and click the next (and last) notch on final. I notice a difference in nose-down pitch with the last notch and we decided it may be different in the (longer) tandem aircraft that also has more wing area.
Everyone is different in their approach to departure and landing. You will develop what works for you and your particular aircraft and field conditions. Flying into your gravel strip, you will want the majority of your weight on the wings (using flaps: increased lift) rather than the gear. It is against some teaching but pull your flaps up soon after touchdown to avoid gravel being thrown up into your flaps by your landing gear. (That is considered taboo: don't do anything until you clear the runway. You may accidently retract the gear instead. Um.......not an issue with your -3
) Suggestion: once you have finished,
fly a lot and determine what works for you. You will find your airplane to be slippery and slowing down
before you are on downwind is much better than blowing into the pattern at 150 kts, as I saw an airplane (Cirrus) do yesterday. Plan ahead. Stay at least two steps ahead of your airplane! IMHO; YMMV