The original design for the flap handle was a straight handle, with the flap-up position seeing the handle flat against the floor panel. To activate the first two stages of down-flap, the pilot needed to bend over to the point where forward sight was all but lost below the instrument panel.
To overcome this situation, commercially available flap handle extensions were considered. However, the layout of the handle/seat relationship prevented such a solution. Hence, the decision was made to add a grip to the handle which would allow little body movement by the pilot to grip the handle for the first two steps. Trials showed that this could now be done without interfering with any possible seat position (full forward and aft) and without loosing sight of the approaching runway.
