PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Jacobson Flare
Thread: Jacobson Flare
View Single Post
Old 5th Sep 2010, 21:29
  #29 (permalink)  
Sunfish
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: moon
Posts: 3,564
Received 90 Likes on 33 Posts
Once your flare point (about 90 feet before the aim point) has disappeared under the aircraft nose, you select your new aim point which in "The Gentle Touch" method of flaring, is described as the centreline at the farther end of the runway. That is where your eyes should be looking as you smoothly reduce power, keep bringing the yoke back as if to try and make the aircraft stretch the glide to that new aim point.

What, in my opinion, Capt. Jacobsen, has done is systematise the visual cues and thus where the pilots eyes and attention should be concentrated on during the each phase of the landing up to wheels on.

When I learned to land, the whole process was taught by the South Park Elves method.

1. Aim point, airspeed, aim point, airspeed.......

2. ?

3. Smoothly apply brakes and taxi to ramp.


I would arrive over the FAA standard tree at the nominated airspeed with no problems. What happened next was a blur; "Touch main wheels first with full back stick and the stall warning sounding", "Don't flare too high", "don't flare too low". Sure, but how?

After a series of especially traumatic arrivals, I was eventually introduced to haptic learning (ie: by feel and do) by a senior instructor who simply stuck a piece of paper over my instruments at about One hundred feet and thereby gave me nothing to look at but what was outside.

I suspect that all of us use Jacobsens technique without realising it, we just learn "the picture' of when to flare by trial and error.

Hope this helps.
Sunfish is offline