How to use flaps? (B9 Procedural Wings, FAR)

[hypervelocity]

Hi guys!!! I have a very simple question I'm sure you airplane experts will be able to answer easily!

I am trying to incorporate flaps to my airplanes to smooth my landings - I place control surfaces and activate the flap buttons but I do not see/feel any effects on my craft - would anyone be kind enough to teach me how to set flaps please?

Many thanks in advance,

[Drew Kerman]

the purpose of flaps is to give your wing more lift so you can fly slower without crashing. If you're not trying to fly slow, you're not going to notice much. They will add drag to help slow you down, but again if you're not already pulled back on the throttle and in a shallow descent to slow down you're not going to notice much. I find most non-pilots or without any pilot training tend to descend way too fast. Start way out or fly a racetrack pattern around the runway to give yourself more time to descend slowly

[hypervelocity]

thanks mate, but I want to learn how to use them *in KSP* - I know what their purpose is, I just can't replicate it in the game.

[TheKorbinjer]

Flap parts in B9 are enabled by holding the (default) brake key. (B), or clicking the brake button on the screen next to the altimeter, below the lights button.

I've never messed with FAR, I'll have to take a look into it sometime.

 

 

To make a flap. (stock)

1.Use any of the ailerons

2. disable the roll/yaw/pitch

3. Set them to deploy in an action group, or with the *brakes* 

From my continuous testing with my replicas, sometimes flaps can do unwanted  things, such as making your plane pitch weirdly.

 

 

 

Hope I helped!

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by TheKorbinger

[DrLicor]

5 hours ago, TheKorbinger said:

Flap parts in B9 are enabled by holding the (default) brake key. (B), or clicking the brake button on the screen next to the altimeter, below the lights button.

I've never messed with FAR, I'll have to take a look into it sometime.

 

 

To make a flap. (stock)

1.Use any of the ailerons

2. disable the roll/yaw/pitch

3. Set them to deploy in an action group, or with the *brakes* 

From my continuous testing with my replicas, sometimes flaps can do unwanted  things, such as making your plane pitch weirdly.

 

 

 

Hope I helped!

 

Not entirely true.. A spoiler is used when hitting B, a flap is something different, it's an airbrake.

To start of with the basics. Flaps in KSP have 4 options:
1. Just straight out.
2. Climbing.
3. Takeoff.
4. Landing.

Each phase let the flap have a higher angle downwards. 
To use those phases, rightclick on the part you want to function as a flap, and enable the flap option, turn of all the rest (yaw, pitch, roll)
Than either:
Group them in action groups, the way I do it is clicking on the part, set the 'deflect more' option on action group 1, 'deflect less' on action group 2. When pressing those action groups, you can control the flaps and their phases.
Or: just click them in flight and pres the deflect more or less button in the menu. Note that this is only available when you have enabled flap mode on the parts. 

Edited January 8, 2018 by DrLicor

[Drew Kerman]

On 1/8/2018 at 10:26 AM, hypervelocity said:

I want to learn how to use them *in KSP*

Yea that's what I was telling you. It sounded like you knew how to properly activate them, and you didn't ask how to place them, so my interpretation is that you have flaps on your plane, you know the flaps have been activated, but you don't notice them doing anything. In which case yea, you wouldn't notice anything if you weren't flying properly, especially if you are using FAR

On 1/8/2018 at 4:56 PM, DrLicor said:

it's an airbrake

Noooo, this is probably why most people think their flaps aren't working! Yes, they will add drag to the aircraft when they are extended but that is not their primary purpose! The drag they put out will not be noticeable or serve to really help slow you down. You may notice your nose pitching up a bit due to the changes in the trailing edge of your wing (as DrLicor said they will angle down like an elevator pitching the nose up), which by doing that you will start to slow down (from climbing), but that's it. They should never be thought of as airbrakes. Furthermore neither should spoilers as they aren't meant to slow the plane either but meant to disrupt the airflow and reduce lift so you can descend quicker (you won't pick up much horizontal velocity while descending this way so seeing your altitude decrease without really speeding up gives the impression of an airbrake, but don't forget about that increasing vertical velocity...). Even on the ground they are less airbrakes and more of just helping to keep the plane on the ground so the wheel brakes can have good effect.

Again, flaps only have an effect when you are moving slower than you normally would for regular flight! If your aircraft stalls at, say 60m/s without flaps, then having flaps fully extended could let you fly at, say 45m/s - but if you're traveling at 80m/s and extend full flaps you'll likely notice nothing happening, this is completely normal (although in real life going too fast while extending full flaps will damage them of course, which is why they get dropped in succession)

(upon further thought with the tweakability of KSP if you really jack up the FAR part setting that controls flap authority you could produce noticeable effects, but set towards more realistic values you wouldn't)

Edited January 10, 2018 by Drew Kerman

[hypervelocity]

eternally grateful for your comments @Drew Kerman, @TheKorbinger, @DrLicor, everyone provided a little nugget of knowledge that I did not have!!!

cheers!