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Old 2nd May 2026 | 14:51
  #9 (permalink)  
1201alarm
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 154
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From: above Tranquility Base coming long
Some good advice so far.

What Uplinker means is releasing back pressure on the stick, which means you still hold back the stick, but a bit less than when you initially flared the aircraft. But of course you always have to land nose up, you can never land on your nose wheel first.

Now, back to some basics which are important to make sense of good A320 landings.

In general, on A320fam, you need to cut thrust when starting the flare (that is also what the FCOM says). Otherwise ATHR will increase thrust to compensate for the speed drop when lifting the nose. That is why the "RETARD" callout reminds you to cut thrust if you haven't already.

In my company, we often fly also with ATHR off, and it is the same landing technique in general: cut thrust when starting the flare. Now some situations (e.g. sudden wind drop, hot air over hot asphalt, etc.) will need to keep thrust longer, or even will need an increase in thrust, but that comes down to experience, and good visual reading of the situation.

I will explain what I mean by good visual reading of the situation. But before I come to that another thing needed to understand: Flare Mode (on CEO).

Flare mode adapts (on CEO) the automatic trim down during flare depending on the pitch in 50ft!

The higher the pitch in 50ft, the faster the trim down from 30ft onwards. That means: if you want a repetitive behaviour of the aircraft during flare, you need a repetitive pitch in 50ft!

Now how to get this repetitive pitch in 50ft! Aim point flying!

Some previous contributers already mentioned: below Cat 1 minimum, do not chase the GS, but fly the aircraft visually towards your intended point of touchdown, the so called aim point (usually on the big touchdown markers next to the PAPIs). So under 200ft you basically only scan inside for airspeed and outside for centerline and aim point. It is a quick repetitive switch between the two.

You need to develop the visual skill to see where you aircraft is flying to / aiming to. The easiest way is to imagine a spit mark on your cockpit windshield: on a proper final approach pitch, where your visual glance towards your aim point passes through the windshield, make a spit mark. Keep this mark on your aim point. The spit mark becomes your indicator iwhether you are low on energy or high on energy. If you are low on energy, the spit mark will come short of the aim point, if you are high on energy, the spit mark will go beyond your aim point. Once you have developped this perception, you will intuitively realise what your aircraft is doing.

When I went to flight school, my IP indeed made me do physical spitmarks on the single engine prop windshield. Over time my brain developed the viewing technique so I didn't need the physical spitmark anymore, but I still saw where my aircraft was pointing to. An insect mark on the windshield can also do the job by the way.

This spit mark is your best indicator for pitch in the last 200ft, it has a much better resolution than the PFD, and will help you to use only very slight corrections to keep your aircraft flying towards the aim point. And with that you will find it easy to always keep the same repetitive pitch in 50ft, even once you manage with only an imagined spit mark.

With this you will develop the perception of how you are approaching the runway. Now fly it to the runway, in about 25ft break the rate of descent, and now look at the runway end (!) to visually judge your sink rate, and then modulate back pressure on the stick. Often you might need to relax back pressure a bit to let the aircraft settle. I repeat, you always need to touch down nose up, no exception to this ever, but you might need to have a bit less nose up than what you needed to initially break the rate of descent.

My explanations might be hard to grasp at first, but please try some chair flying to understand what I mean. It is not easy to describe in written words. May be other contributers can complement or add to what I have written.

And of course, a heavy A321 needs more engine energy than a light A319, so may be a slightly later power cut.
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