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Takeoff flaps at high altitude airports

rvdave

Well Known Member
For high altitude airport fliers what is your procedure for high altitude takeoffs? What I?ve been reading says less flaps for takeoff because of increased drag but with a caveat that it depends on performance charts for the aircraft. Being from Michigan I recently took a trip to Arizona and performed my normal takeoffs with 0 flap setting and noticed the longer run and less climb performance but afterthoughts are wondering if I would have been better off with more flaps?
 
Never bothered with flaps at high altitude, still gets off in 1/4 of whatever runway I have used at high DA. I can not tell any difference between -3 or 0 deg. If it was a short runway I may try 15 deg.

I was at DA of over 10,000ft at KSJN at gross and had a climb rate of over 700 fpm which is more than I get from a 172 here at 52F in the summer.

The balance is more lift vice more drag and for runways over 4000ft at high altitude the -3 deg setting seems to work well.

FWIW

TJ
 
The question isn't if flaps are necessary; it is does the addition of some degree of flaps add lift and reduce the takeoff roll.

Certainly the RV's are good short field performers. As to making a good short field performer some degree better, the addition of 5-10 degrees of positive flaps most likely would.
 
I use flaps 0? at high DA, even in cruise.

I'd consider running the flaps to an intermediate setting (between 0? and "half" around 15?, so around 5?-7?) for a high DA take-off if I need to get climbing in short order.
 
I use flaps 0? at high DA, even in cruise.

Do you ever use -3

I?ve experimented with -3 vs in trail, in cruise, at mid-weight, 16,500? DA. I couldn?t see any difference. I presume that at even higher density altitudes, in trail might be a bit faster.
As to the OP?s question: Adding flaps will decrease the ground run, but also decrease the rate of climb. With enough density altitude or flaps, that climb rate may be zero.
So far, I have not yet encountered a short/hot/high enough runway where ?in trail? flaps did not provide a comfortably short enough ground roll.
 
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