What type of flap indication are you using ?

[jarvis]

Please check PM.

Originally Posted by lcnmrv8r

I push the button and lift the handle. The first notch is 10, second notch is 20, third, 30 and I even added the fourth notch at 40.

Yep- manual.

[bhester]

Here's mine 1/2 flap and full flap, I also have an indicator on my Advance Flight System Engine Monitor. Before I had it painted electrical tape did the trick.

[N941WR]

Although an old thread, my solution is simpler, no markings of any kind.

I use three settings: Up, Down, and matched to a lowered aileron for soft field departures.

I have found it easier to put in all the flaps a beam the touchdown point, trim for my finale approach speed and fly the pattern at that stabilized speed.

These planes are so over powered that a go around at gross on a hot day is a non-event. (Even when I had the 135 hp engine.) Your biggest issue will be getting the flaps up before over speeding them. These are not Skyhawks or Cherokees where you have to nurse the flaps up to avoid the trees at the end of a 5000' runway.

[rvbruce]

Hey,
I have both. I like the Vans system. Works nicely for me. No bumping to get what you want. Your attention can be focused on more important things at that point of the approach process. I put a 1/4" X 2" piece of red tape at the outside edge of the left flap where it protrudes from under the trailing edge of the wing at the 10, 20, and 40 deg positions. One glance out the canopy and I get an instant confirmation of the selected flap sitting. Good luck.
I can email a pic if you like.
bcniles@mac.com

[OLDSAM]

While building my 7A, I fly a Grumman Tiger. Like a lot of you, I hold the switch down on downwind for about a 4 or 5 count, then glance out the window to see if "tlar". Maybe others are more sensitive to the nuances of the airplane than I am, but I can't tell any difference in the feel or descent rate of the airplane whether the initial flaps are at 20, 17, or 23 degrees. They are just about a third to half of the way down. I don't drop them the rest of the way down until I am sure I have the threshold made. If it's a short/soft field, I put them down full a little sooner, and use the throttle more to control descent rate and altitude. The exact number of degrees the initial flap setting may be down from the full up position is not critical to me. The Tiger may have a flap position indicator, but I have never used it.

[longranger]

I've been flying manual flaps in my 170 for 30+ years,and if there'd been a manual flap option for the RV-7, I would have taken it; I just didn't want to re-engineer the system. You use the position of the handle as the indicator. From what I read here, you'd only need three notches in the sector: up, half, and full.

With the electric system, I think the most I'll do is put the marks on the flap skin.

[bruceh]

Using the Vertical Power VP-X makes flap operation easy. You can configure multiple stops as long as you have a Ray Allen POS-12 sender on the flap arm.
I have it set up for 3 positions - up, 1/3, 2/3 and full down. Hit the down button on the stick grip once, it goes down 1/3 and stops. Press it again and it goes to 2/3 down. Third press it goes down to full flaps. Press the down button three times quickly and it goes to full down position in one step. One press of the up button will stop it where ever it is when moving down. If the flaps are down and stopped in any position, a single press of the up button brings them to full up.

[keithschult]

My builder put the word "Experimental" on each flap along the trailing edge. He sized the font so that half-flaps is when the middle horizontal bar of the capital letter "E" is showing just at the end of the wing skin and full flaps is when the entire "E" is showing. When I don't want to look I just count five seconds (with electric trim) for half flaps and 5 more seconds for full flaps.

This also solves for having the word "Experimental" in full view of any passengers when stepping up into the plane with the flaps deployed.

When flaps are up I don't have any word "Experimental" showing, just the cockpit warning placard.

[keithschult]

I meant that the word "Experimental" is placed along the front edge of the flap, NOT the trailing edge (like the painted lines are in the photo).

[Neal@F14]

I count potatoes to know how much flaps I'm putting down.
I start counting as soon as I press the switch down.

One potato Two potato (let up on switch) gives me a little over 10 degrees, not quite as far as matching the same position as full down aileron, which would be just about 15 degrees.

One potato two potato three potato four -- gives me about 25 degrees of flaps.

Six and a half potatoes gives me full flaps, and you can hear the flap servo reach the end of its travel.

The old C172 I took most of my lessons in had the same sort of momentary contact spring loaded flap switch like our RVs (except it was flap shaped) and the flap indicator was a mechanical pointer that moved up and down in a vertical slot in the "A" pillar, but the small cable that connected the pointer to the left flap would stick too often so my CFI taught me to count potatoes instead. I took my check ride in this same 172 and the DPE got a good laugh out of me telling him flap position in "potatoes".

After a decade of flying a Cherokee with Johnson bar flaps, I'd all but forgotten about how this until I started flying RVs with electric flaps and instantly began counting potatoes again.