How does flying with flaps differ from flying with airbrakes? I've got a private pilot license and learned on a Scheibe Falke SF25. For the last year however I've only been flying a C42 Ultralight.

I find flying the UL way easier for one particular reason: it has flaps where the Falke has just airbrakes.

I don't know how many hundred landings on the Falke I have done, still I have never felt comfortable. The reason is the airbrake. For some reason it scares me. With the UL I set the speed, lower the flaps and if I'm too far away I can add a little power. The flaps lower the stall speed and make the plane slower.

The airbrakes also make the plane slower, however they increase the stall speed. I see how (especially flight instructors) pull the air brake to the maximum and then do their approach. If I'm too far away with the Falke, I have to retract the air brakes. This affects the plane very directly, especially compared to adding a little power on the UL.

My questions are:


How to correctly land a plane with airbrakes? Full out or just a bit? Do you leave them in one position or do you vary during approach?
How much do they really affect stall speed?
The SF-25 has such a low wing loading that it easily tolerates the small reduction in maximum lift which the airbrakes cause. I have done very few flights in it (I'm too tall to fit comfortably in it's cramped cockpit), but from what I remember the airbrakes are not very big, having little effect on minimum speed. My experience, however, is with the SF-25 B, and you linked to the SF-25 C, so I have to assume that my experience is not fully relevant.

I have more experience with real gliders and composite motorgliders, and here my experience is: Start your approach, stabilize the right approach speed, set the airbrakes such that your glide path looks right and do not play around with them too much. Set your approach such that you need medium airbrake extension, so you have margin for corrections in both directions. Normally, I come in a little high so I am not caught by windshear, and when I am sure I will reach the intended touchdown point, I extend the airbrakes fully to land with the shortest distance possible. However, when touching down, make sure you do not fully extend the airbrakes: This gives you more time for stopping the descent. Especially in gliders with very effective flaps and airbrakes (ASW-20 C, ASH-25) I never made a good landing with fully extended airbrakes. Reduce them to half extension at the most when touching down!

In the ASW gliders the airbrakes are linked to the very effective wheel brake, and touching down with fully deployed airbrakes means that the wheel is braked at touchdown. This is another reason to reduce airbrake extension when touching down.

In high-performance gliders it is easy to float too long, so it is very important to control your approach speed and to continue the descent all the way down to the touchdown point. Don't pull too early! The SF-25 will not float as much, but with its low wing it shows a pronounced ground effect, and exercising strict discipline when landing helps a lot to make the landing better.

I could not find a number for the stall speed change due to airbrakes in the SF-25 manual, but I would guess it is at most a few km/h.