Evaluation of spoilers for light aircraft flight path control

A fixed-base flight simulator was used to evaluate wing spoilers for longitudinal flight path control on a modified Cessna 177B aircraft. More than 100 simulated ILS approaches were flown by evaluation pilots using both conventional methods and spoiler controls. Three different spoiler control methods were evaluated. Spoilers provided precise glide path control with constant airspeed and attitude. Control is most effective when the steady-state trimmed aircraft lift coefficient remains independent of spoiler position.