Sorry, but Chuck Ellsworth starts off his contribution on the other thread with a piece of complete misinformation. It certainly
is possible to judge height by looking at the distance. It is what solved my PPL landing issue, and is still what I teach. In fact I would go so far as to say that looking too close makes rate of descent impossible to judge, and therefore makes the flare much more difficult as this is the other part of the equation.
Ballooning is not caused by over speed. I have flown an approach in a C-150 at 100 kts, well above its cruising speed!* Ballooning is caused by flaring too quickly, over flaring
for the given speed. It is perfectly possible to land from a high speed (given the 10,000 feet I had in the case mentioned!). The point is to teach the student to flare progressively, keeping the aircraft descending but at a reducing rate, proportional to the height above the runway i.e. flares for the conditions not for a standard "flare" for that aircraft (although that is an over simplification, and FFF gives a good description of the stereotype flare from which we build each landing in a light aircraft). The aircraft only balloons due to excess speed if the pilot flares in the same way as at lower speeds, rather than responding to the aircraft for each landing.
funfly has it right - what happens when we disengage brain is hopefully that the pilots responds to stimulus, doesn't just make a pre-programmed "flare" he might if he thinks too much.
Sounds like not a crap flyer, fun, just have to trust the good pilot within you!
*There was an A340 behind me
