10 deg. of flaps, take off and short field. How (for us dummies) do you determine 10 deg. ?

[firemanken]

10 deg. Of flaps in a 6 /6A for take off and for short field take off. How ( for us dummies) do you determine 10 deg. ?

 

[RVbySDI]

One thousand one - one thousand two - one thousand three

That is what I use when in the air. When on the ground I move the aileron to full deflection on the left wing. Then I match the flap trailing edge to the aileron trailing edge.

 

[Mel]

As Steve says, matching the "down aileron" gives you approximately 15°. This is considered optimal L/D for take off.

 

[Kyle Boatright]

You can also measure the flap angle and apply tape, paint pen, or permanant marker to the flap to show when the leading edge of the flap extends past the trailing edge of the wing. That'll give you a visual reference.

 

[andoman]

Or make a mark on the inside of the lower flange of the inboard aileron rib. I used a black sharpie to color the tail of a rivet that was close enough to the desired location.

 

[D-Dubya]

Just for another data point, I had Fast Signs make up a black vinyl hyphen that I affixed to the left side flap near the aileron. I think it's about 1/2" wide by 1" long. In my case, it reveals itself at half flaps (20 degrees) so I can visually confirm at a quick glance the flap is where I think it is. You could do the same for 10 or 15 degrees. The one thousand one, one thousand two count--or one Mississippi, two Mississippi--should get you pretty close.

 

[tom_AZ]

You can also measure the flap angle and apply tape, paint pen, or permanant marker to the flap to show when the leading edge of the flap extends past the trailing edge of the wing. That'll give you a visual reference.

My flaps have stripes (as they become exposed from the trailing edge of the wing), 3" or so long, painted at 0, 10, 20 and 30 degrees. That works great during the day.

For night ops, I made a table in Excel showing how many seconds it took to go from 0 to 10, 10 to 20, 30 to 10, 20 to 10, 20 to 0 and 10 to 0. No need for x to 30 or y to reflex, as those are hard stops. If memory serves, I did the timing measurements three times for each interval--very consistent.

 

[justa6ereh]

You can also realize that there’s almost no advantage to using flaps for takeoff on an RV…and you easily may get distracted and overspeed the flaps by failing to retract them in time, given how fast we accelerate. Only if it’s really muddy and soft, do I use flaps…and consider than a special circumstance…