Some decades ago the local club had a TwinCom which was mainly used for Multi/IR training – a nice handling aircraft, except when using flaps to re configure on the G/S; it occasionally then decided to deploy flaps asymmetrically, helpfully sometimes also on check rides.
No harm done but it did develop religious fervour in you for staying above Vsse.
Having had the privilege of a flight with Timothy I would do it again any time 
How many GA planes are out there which have enough aileron authority – at any speed – to deal with assymetric flaps?
And how many GA planes are out there on which there isn’t a connecting linkage underneath the hull, to make sure it can’t happen (short of that linkage breaking)?
I know that assymetric flaps are possible on most jets but they also have flap position sensors and the system will inhibit power to the flap motor(s) if it detects any significant assymetry.
And how many GA planes are out there on which there isn’t a connecting linkage underneath the hull, to make sure it can’t happen (short of that linkage breaking)?
Well, that linkage can and does occasionally break. You can also get one stuck in a bent flap rail (you do check these during preflight, don’t you?).
Well, that linkage can and does occasionally break.
Sure, but then you are talking about such an appalling lack of maintenance that the most likely cause of assymetric flight might be an engine falling off
You can also get one stuck in a bent flap rail (you do check these during preflight, don’t you?).
I don’t think I have flap rails – mine are just hinged on a pivot.
I don’t think I have flap rails – mine are just hinged on a pivot.
Cessnas have them. And I’m not so sure about the maintenance. Things can and do fail, even well maintained ones. Hence the idea of trying to avoid flap deployment in a turn.
How many GA planes are out there which have enough aileron authority – at any speed – to deal with assymetric flaps?
That RobertL18C and I are still alive suggests there is at least one in the Twin Comanche, though the issues I’ve had are with asymmetric retraction, not extension. In the climb, it’s pretty obvious (“Hmm, why is the control column at 45 degrees left?”), but I have wondered what would happen in a go-around with asymmetric flap — note that I’m not hypothesising anything about what happened at Hawarden.
One more pic here, showing an extreme roll but seemingly without yaw
Am I the only one to find these just-before-accident images (not only these ones), a bit creepy? What I mean is not the airplane, rather the normality of what’s going on around it. The guy in the tower looks away from the runway, the two construction workers just stand there, loafing. Yet we know what’s about to happen….
That’s what it looks like to you when you have time to watch the scene… in reality it was a matter of seconds. The image freezes the tragedy … and I find it hard to look at these images, and even more so many of the youtube crash videos… which should really all be deleted.
