With the R/STOL kit you have flaperons as well don't you?
Yup. But they start to retract around flaps 25 and are almost fully retracted by flaps 40. Maybe 3-5 degrees. Thus the "teeny tiny" flaperon comment above. (It's not in the book. I should measure the angle sometime.). I assume it's because at really low speeds the ailerons would lose effectiveness, and since they're outboard of the stall fences they're attempting to keep the outboard wing flying (no helpful prop wash from the engine out there), plus probably some wicked tail blanketing if the whole wing were drooped and finally and more important than the rest... it's probably WAY too much drag for most pilots to handle in a go-around situation.
The first time you do a go-around with flaps 40, you can't really pitch up, and if you're at full up trim for a landing, going around you're shoving forward with left hand on the yoke as right hand pours the throttle back in, then reaches for the trim and rolls a gob of it out, and then goes for the flap handle while watching airspeed and gets at least back up to 30... Which upsets the whole power/pitch thing again, and the right hand gets busy on the trim wheel again, back and forth. Too "busy" and too much wasted time.
After your first time doing that, you learn. And you roll the trim the counted number of turns from full up, straight to takeoff trim, and just hold the appropriate noseup angle for Vx with the left hand othe yoke... Even if it's heavy. And now you have the right hand free to get those flaps out almost continuously. You save a lot of time and a few hundred lateral feet hanging there at flaps 30 with the engine roaring, not climbing.
Loved your commentary about continuous corrections. Make the airplane go and do what you want. If you want smooth, be smooth. The airplane is only doing exactly what your control inputs asked it to do. Don't think of the pattern as a set of linear rules... "pull power to x, pitch to x, push nose over, select flaps x". If you do that, you're flying like a computer. It'll get you down safely and within all limits, but those items are meant to be "signposts" to measure the performance against, not ridgid "do it exactly like this" items. Fly smooth. Aviate. It's air. You can hear it through the aluminum. You can feel it in your butt and inner ear.
I actually got dinged by a CFI for "too much control movement" on final. The landing was dead on centerline and at the speed and descent rate desired and I wasn't over controlling. When I made him explain in the debrief later, I learned that he was a "put it somewhere, wait to see what the correction is, put it somewhere else, wait for correction" trained person with a need (in his head) for deliberate stopping points in control movement. Little built in pauses. His brain needed them. Continuous fluid motion of controls wasn't in his repertoire.
It turns out, it wasn't that it was "too much" movement in the sense of how much I was moving the controls. It was that it was continuous that day. Gusty conditions, newish aircraft to me. I was just putting it where I wanted it to be, continuously. Power included.
At the end of the day I ultimately disagreed with his analysis and silently wondered how many students of his were out there herky-jerking down final. Air is fluid. It's not "notches" or "put in a correction and stop". Those are good ways to learn the basics. Later you learn to put in exactly how much pressure you need to hit the rate of change you want, or the speed you want, and you adjust fluidly and quickly to "paint the needles on". Or stick the aircraft where you want it to be. On speed, right where you want it. Especially a type or specific aircraft you know well.
To this day I don't get what his point was that day.
Glad to see you exposing what I have known for years... Henning. Keep adjusting, airplanes are operated until they're tied down, and air is a fluid. If it takes continuous smooth corrections to put the aircraft where you want it, do it. If you want a smooth transition to the pattern descent, make it smooth. WILL it to be smooth. You'll feel your attention level go up, and after a few times around the pattern you may actually feel more fatigued than a "paint by numbers" approach. Of course, the numbers still have to be hit. It's just how you're hitting them that changes. Smoothly transition.
You'll get it. You just had a passenger make you "aware" of your jerky technique. Good time to stay aware and practice making that passenger fall and stay asleep. All the way through touchdown.