P38 Question

[Murdr]

I have to admit that I dont have benchmarks per-se when deploying flaps in a tight turning situation.  Like climbing a steep hill in a truck, I can tell from the sound of the engine, when the bottom speed of a gear is approaching.  Similarly in the 38 I can tell from the engine sound, max-g, and nose weight when Im approaching the bottom speed of a flap setting.  To carry that anology a little further, I do "upshift", and "downshift" my flaps alot when crossing through different speed windows.  The biggest que to me is the difficulty or ease it takes to maintain 'tunnel vision' Gs.  

Getting "stuck in the air" is a result of stalling out of the verticle on your belly with full flaps instead of "going over the top".  In AH2 the 38 is a little more nose down biased in that situation than it was in AH1, and slightly more attention needs to to paid to breaching true verticle to aviod belly flopping.  If you do start to flop push the stick ahead, and retract flap immediately to avoid the flat freefall.  You should look for an enterance speed of at least 120 to safely make it over the top.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by MaddogJoe
AKAK, got a question for you, and Murdr and any other 38 pilot that may want to chime in...

On flap useage. I think I may be running them out at the "wrong" times. On the boards you have said that if you roll out the flaps at the wrong times you can get stuck in the air instead of the nose rolling down nice and clean and quick. Can you guys give some timing markers about when to hit each flap? I know it goes a lot by "feel" but if you can get us rookies in the ballpark, maybe we can find the bases  

I use your stick config AKAK, and at first thought it was way too soft, but now that I'm getting use to it I find I'm better at holding my "E". So I have the maneuvers down, working on getting the flaps down, still got alot of work to do in the "aim" department (glad AH2 has all those farms, now I got barns I can finally hit!), and have gotten over 1000 kills in the 38. I figure in another year or so I might be good !  LOL!!  Thanks for all the help guys, keep it coming!

Hmmm...tough question.  It's kind of hard to tell someone when the right times to deploy the flaps.  It's more of a "feeling" you get through experience but there is a guideline that might help.

All speeds are in Indicated Air Speed
250mph = 1 notch
200mph = 2 notches
150mph = 3 notches
125mph = 4 notches
100mph or slower = 5 notches

Remember, this is just a guideline to give you an idea when you should start thinking about deploying your flaps.  Through time and experience you will get the "feel" as to when you should deploy your flaps.  Hopefully this guideline will make the learning curve a little less steep.

Oh, one last thing.  It is a must that you have Combat Trim disabled as it will counteract any lift the flaps provide.


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