Sunfish the flaps on the Auster are manually actuated via a long lever above the left seaters left shoulder. As Pulse1 points out, the operation can be a bit difficult which is why I have not tried this "technique" yet. I feel that is better to be using the right hand to attempt to push the throttle through the firewall rather than faffing around with the flap lever. If the throttle friction let the throttle retard it would overcome any gains made by lowering flap apart from any potential control difficulties caused by reaching aross to the flap lever.