Quote:
Originally Posted by BobDDuck  not in any procedure I've seen for the CRJ. |
Bingo. That should be enough to cast suspicion on the concept. If flaps improved your climb rate, the airlines would likely be all over it.
The only way going slower would increase your ROC is if you were flying much faster than best ROC speed. And maybe you are, if you do some sort of cruise climb. So going slower may well improve your climb rate, but it has nothing to do with the flaps.
The question is, do you HAVE to add flaps to fly 20 knots slower, or is it that this is the only configuration in your performance charts? At jet climb speeds, you are likely far above your stall speed and so the flaps would do nothing for you, other than adding drag.
(BTW, where I'm going with this is that one idea that I sneaking into the thinking of almost every pilot is this: 1) Airplanes climb because of excess lift, and 2) Flaps increase lift, hence increase climb rate. Both statements are false and potentially dangerous. In your scenario, flaps would have to decrease drag in order to increase climb rate.)