Degrees for Approach Flaps

Aircraft with approach flaps go to the 15 degree position when approach is selected.
When full down they are at 30 Degrees.

Bob Ripley
ABS Technical Advisor

That is 15 degrees, Joe.

Mike
ABS Tech Advisor

Tom Turner is the authority here, but many of us do not add any flaps before the gear is confirmed down and locked and the runway is made.

Thanks everyone for your input!

Joe,

I used to try approach flaps on my Bonanza. Then, while I was practicing IFR approaches, I found that using no flaps on the approach made the missed approach much easier.

Then I was frequently traveling to an airport with one runway (17/O1). I found that landing without flaps allowed me better aileron roll control and more effective rudder control.

So, I now do not lower the flaps until I have decided that I am going to land. Then I have to decide if I want to lower the flaps.

For example, landing at Tampa (TPA) I am able to maintain a higher approach speed (which keeps the controllers happier). I then begin my flare for touch down at about 90 - 100 MPH and maintain a nose up attitude until I can no longer keep the nose wheel off the runway. This requires less than 4000 feet of runway.

Another thing that is nice about doing no flap landings is that if your electrical system malfunctions, you can crank down your gear, but will have to keep your flaps up.

On the other hand, one of the wonderful things about my Bonanza is that I can approach and land at airports with a lot of C172 traffic. With my flaps down, I am able to land and easily turn onto a taxi way less than 1000 feet from the end of the
runway.

Tom

As I have written before, I no longer make any landings using flaps (G-35). I first started doing this at any airport away from my home base airport. After reading about several ABS and BT people having the flaps stuck full down and not getting them to retract and stuck on a weekend at an airport with no maintenance available I just quit using flaps for landings. Of course the runways I use are such that flaps are not needed for landing. Although I have been chided by some BT and ABS people for this procedure any negative comments just bounce off since I know I will not be caught with the flaps down and no way to get them up until maintenance is available. All of the "experts" that advise "slamming" down the arm rest as a fix for just about any malfunction of anything do not impress me very much. But I have a lot of practice now making no flap landings and so have gotten fairly proficient at it and have found that the runway required is only several hundred feet more than with full flaps. Other than that I have no opinion on the subject.

Regards, Lew Gage

Approach flaps extend to 15 degrees on all models with the preselect system except 1984 and later A36s and all G36s. On those models approach flaps extend to 12 degrees.