What is the purpose of the flaps?
Flaps are a high lift device consisting of a hinged panel or panels mounted on the trailing edge of the wing. When extended, they increase the camber and, in most cases, the chord and surface area of the wing resulting in an increase of both lift and drag and a reduction of the stall speed.
When should flaps be used and why?
It helps the airplane to slow down. Pilots usually place the flap setting between twenty five and forty degrees. This allows the pilot to take a steeper angle of attack to the landing field.
Is there a flap 4 on an A320?
There is nothing called a flaps 4 landing on the A320. It goes Flap 1, 2 , 3 and Full. Both Flap 3 and Flap Full landings are approved by the manufacturer and the regulator. In fact the manufacturer sometimes recommends Flap 3 for landing in situations such as gusty winds or in case of certain failures.
Why is landing with flaps 3 more dangerous than flap 4?
This is because a lower flap setting means, the aircraft has to fly at a higher angle of attack on landing, so the aircraft pitch on the approach to landing is higher, giving a shallower flare angle. The choice of flaps on landing (flap 3 or flap full) is usually a pilot preference.
What’s the difference between Flap 3 and flap full?
Even small runway operations is not a problem with flaps at 3, because the difference in landing distance between flap full and flap 3 is just 100 meters (330 feet). That is, the landing roll increases by 100 meters in a flap 3 landing, which as you can imagine is not much of a difference.
What should the brake settings be on flap 3?
The brake settings used for landing are normally Low and Medium and then there is of course, manual braking. Flap 3 landings with Autobrakes set to low, work on any runway which is at least 2200 m or more . Any shorter than this and secondary landing performance calculation should be carried out.